When I was a Baha’i, another Baha’i mentioned that she was teaching (i.e. talking about the Faith to a non-Baha’i) a Christian and told her that the Baha’i Fast is sort of like Lent. In this year, 2022, the Baha’i Fast and Lent happen to begin on the same day, March 2, so I think this is a good opportunity to talk about these two traditions and see how similar they actually are. What is Lent? Lent is a season of the Christian year in which Christians abstain from certain foods or do other things as a way of strengthening their spiritual life. It is observed for 40 days before Easter. In modern ..read more

I just want to say, I really like the new Badi calendar the Universal House of Justice implemented seven years ago. Seat of the Universal House of Justice. Photo by Adib Roy on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 This calendar change is old news to Baha’is. But as I said in my last post, I haven’t been paying attention to events in the Baha’i world. So it wasn’t until the past few days that I became aware of it. In 2014 the Universal House of Justice announced that beginning in early 2015, the Baha’i calendar would be keyed to the timing of the vernal equinox at Tehran. When I was a Baha’i (late ’90s, ear ..read more

So it’s been a while since I posted on this blog. I don’t know if anyone still sees it. I suspect it only gets visited by spambots nowadays. Just in case a real human (even the rare one who might have read the blog in its heyday) drops by, I’ll answer a few questions he/she might be wondering: Why did you stop blogging? Lack of time, mostly. I also got discouraged at the kinds of comments many of the Baha’i visitors would leave. A lot of Baha’is were thoughtful and intelligent, but quite a few commenters either (a) made comments that clearly ignored what I said in my post, or (b) were ex-Catho ..read more

Happy new year! My congratulations to all my Baha’i readers for surviving another Fast. Naw-ruz was probably my favorite Baha’i holiday. I was always relieved the fasting was over. It wasn’t just the going hungry and thirsty. It was the waking up before sunrise, and the having to give up snacking (something I’m very fond of). One thing about Naw-ruz though… It seems like non-Baha’is who celebrate it have a lot more going on than the Baha’is do. It’s not just the “Seven S’s” table, which I never saw in my 9 Naw-ruzes as a Baha’i, even at Persian homes. Apparently Iranians also have this jolly f ..read more

A while back I had a post on the Baha’i concept of social laws vs. spiritual laws, and how that doesn’t translate well – or at least it translates differently – to the Catholic worldview. I used the example of divorce, which generated a lot of comments. I did my best to explain how Catholics conceptualize marriage and divorce, but I’m not sure if I was clear. Here is an old clip from South Park from 1998 that says what I was trying to say. Quality time ..read more

Baha’u’llah condemned the Catholic practice of confessing one’s sins to a priest: When the sinner findeth himself wholly detached and freed from all save God, he should beg forgiveness and pardon from Him. Confession of sins and transgressions before human beings is not permissible, as it hath never been nor will ever be conducive to divine forgiveness. Moreover such confession before people results in one’s humiliation and abasement, and God—exalted be His glory—wisheth not the humiliation of His servants. Verily He is the Compassionate, the Merciful. (Tablets of Baha’u’llah, page 24) Of co ..read more