Building Diverse COMMUNITIES
Bahá’ís consider it a duty to help humanity to come together as one family. The spiritual teachings of the Bahá’í Faith inspire us to reach out across ethnic and class barriers to form deep and diverse relationships and to build communities that nurture the well-being of all people. The tools Bahá’ís and their friends and neighbors use to build this distinctive community life seem deceptively simple. They are, in reality, profound and revolutionary. There are at present four core activities, all of which have spiritual underpinnings. They create space and opportunity for people to have important, meaningful—and sometimes challenging—conversations that can lead to reconciliation and growth.
A Spiritual Path to Unity & Social Justice: The Bahá’í Faith in America
This new publication highlights how Bahá’ís and their friends are systematically applying efforts in neighborhoods all around the county as part of a unified process of community building. Walk with us!
RACE UNITY ACTION
A resource site to inspire action on the most vital and challenging issue.
We face challenges unlike any other in history, but we need not succumb
to confusion and fear. We have, in the form of the divine teachings of
Baha’u’llah, guidance that will help us rise to present-day challenges and forge a path toward creating the glorious future that awaits humanity.
Forging a Path of COMMUNITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA:
Message to the American People on the Elimination of Racial Prejudice by the National Spiritual Assembly
The Bahá’ís of the United States join our fellow-citizens in heartfelt grief at the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others whose lives were suddenly taken by appalling acts of violence. These heartbreaking violations against fellow human beings, due only to the color of their skin, have deepened the dismay caused by a pandemic whose consequences to the health and livelihoods of people of color have been disproportionately severe. This has come to pass against a backdrop of longstanding racial injustice in virtually every aspect of American life. It is clear that racial prejudice is the most vital and challenging issue we face as a country.
YET, AMIDST THESE TRAGEDIES, THERE ARE ALSO SIGNS OF HOPE...
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS IN THE BAHÁ'Í FAITH.
In this wonderful new age, art is worship. The more thou
strivest to perfect it, the closer wilt thou come to God.
What bestowal could be greater than this, that one's art
should be even as the act of worshiping the Lord?
— ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ
Robert Turner “The Door”
Thou art like unto the pupil of the eye which is dark in colour, yet it is the fount of light and the revealer of the contingent world.
– `Abdu’l-Bahá
The First Inter-racial Bahá’í Marriage
`Abdu’l-Baha lauded the Gregorys’ marriage as “an introduction to the accomplishment” of harmony between the races.