“I felt the need to investigate the Bahá’í religion”

A new believer from Florida shares his journey to the Faith:

"To begin with, I was a practicing alcoholic during my younger days.  My date of sobriety is July 21st of 1980, and I owe this to my shadowy concept of a God, and the most blessed program that has allowed me to recover from that disease.  Even in the days of my addictions and despair, I often felt a need for, and belief in, God -- although the world or the bottle blocked it out.

"I was a non-practicing Christian when I met and fell in love with a wonderful, culturally Jewish woman named ____, and it became evident that we might like to share our lives together -- but we were not willing to get married in either a church or a synagogue.  We were living in Chicago, visited the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, and were intrigued with the absence of malice to all people, the equality of the sexes, that all the religions are directed to the One God of All, that all men are brothers and sisters, and the lack of clergy.  We discussed the requirements for marriage, got the consent of our parents, fulfilled the Bahá’í requirements, and we were married at the House of Worship on August 8, 1988.  As my bride to be and myself rested alone but together before the ceremony in the auditorium, I felt a peace and hope for my life ahead, and an attraction to the religion of Bahá’u’lláh.

"At various times throughout my years in Chicago, I was reminded of the Bahá’í Faith.  While not interested in organized religion, I was so attracted to the ideas I had read in the visitor’s area of the House of Worship.

"We have moved several times since our marriage ceremony in Wilmette, and are now living in Central Florida.  We returned to Chicago in July for a week or so.  During our stay, we visited the House of Worship, and there, while reading more about the Faith, I felt a stirring and a calling that I was to become a Bahá’í.  As I read about the concepts of equality and justice, I got very emotional, and tears flowed as I felt the need to investigate the Bahá’í religion.  I felt that I was being called to the Faith.  I believed then that my journey to find a God of my understanding is the God of Baha’u’llah."