“0n May 28, 1992, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies met in special session to commemorate the centenary of the passing of Bahá’u’lláh…His message of unity had clearly struck a deep chord with the Brazilian legislators.”
That quote is from a document entitled, Who Is Writing the Future? Reflections on the Twentieth Century.
The twentieth century? It’s over and done with, right?
Well, if the hideous pressure on the global financial system, and the despicable lack of respect for human rights, and the impending, nay, imminent climate crisis, and various other dark and ominous conditions in our world are over and done with, then, I suppose the twentieth century will have absolutely no effect on our lives…
What’s that old quote—was it the Bible—something about the sins of the father…?
So, Who is Bahá’u’lláh and why did Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies single Him out for honor?
The document says, “During the course of the proceedings, speakers representing all parties in the Chamber paid tribute to a body of writings which one deputy described as ‘the most colossal religious work written by the pen of a single Man’, and to a conception of our planet’s future which, ‘transcending material frontiers’, in the words of another, ‘reached out to humanity as a whole, without petty differences of nationality, race, limits, or beliefs’.”
Strange that government officials in Brazil should so honor Bahá’u’lláh while the government in Iran ( Bahá’u’lláh’s land of birth ) was doing everything they could to stifle His ideas; in fact, had been working to rid their country of any trace of His ideas for nearly 130 years…
What are these ideas that two governments’ officials could have such divergent opinions on?
Here are some of Bahá’u’lláh’s ideas from one of many web sites that dive deeply into His conceptions:
* Individual search for truth
* There is but one God
* Equality of men and women
* Universal, quality education for all
* Elimination of prejudice of all kinds
* Religion as the foundation of Love and Unity
* Harmony between science and religion
* There is a common foundation of all religions
* Equality and brotherhood among mankind
* The need for a universal, worldwide auxillary language
* Elimination of poverty
* Universal peace upheld by a world arbitrating body
* Protection of Cultural diversity
* Mankind must accept God’s Bounty
Over 500 elected officials of Brazil’s government set aside time to publicly honor the Prophet-Founder of a world religion, the Bahá’í Faith, when 89% of the population is either Roman Catholic or Protestant. What’s going on? And, why are Iran’s leaders so averse to Bahá’u’lláh’s religious ideas?
I hope to, with the help of the document, Who Is Writing the Future? Reflections on the Twentieth Century , answer those questions.
There will be five more posts in this series, covering the five sections of the document. If you’d like to download it and let it speak to you during my attempts to covey its message, I’ve provided a Word .doc and Adobe .pdf file for download.
Spiritual Quote :
“The cause of God is like unto a college. The believers are like unto the students. The college is founded for the sake of the acquirements of science, arts and literature. If the sciences are not therein and the scholars are not educated the object of the college is not achieved. The students must show the results of their study in their deportment and deeds; otherwise they have wasted their lives….the cause of God must be a dynamic force transforming the lives of men and not a question of meetings, committees, futile discussions, unnecessary debates and political wire-pulling.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Star of the West, Vol. 7, No. 18, p. 178
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