Love of Christ

Baha’is in Alabama nurtured a soul whose heart is wed to Christ in order to help him understand that he is not giving up Christ by professing his belief in Baha’u’llah.

Joseph grew up in the Bible Belt of the South and has seen much racial prejudice and religious segregation. The Christian churches are gradually becoming more open but have very far to go. He wanted to better himself by overcoming the racial prejudice and religious intolerance that he’d observed in his life. He became inspired to investigate the Faith after searching into the background of a celebrity.

I decided to look up his Wikipedia site and found his organization Soul Pancake. I then saw him in an interview discussing the fact his parents raised him in that faith (Bahai). Everything about the faith seems great, and I would love to be able to separate myself from prejudices by becoming Baha'i.

Joseph started reading the Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude). He was very happy to hear how Baha'u'llah fit in the sequence of Manifestations, especially with regard to Christ. He believed in Baha'u'llah but had questions about how to work through any feelings of abandoning Christ, and his lifelong being taught that Christ was the only way. He wrote:

It's like all your life being told you will go to hell if you don't believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and then trying to conceal all of that in one day. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I'm going to continue to study and if you have any suggestions about where to start that will be much appreciated.

When Baha’is talked with Joseph they discussed a few passages in the Bible, putting the concept of coming to the Father through the Son in the context of Christ’s prophecies of future revelation and Baha’u’llah’s proclamation to Pope Pious IX referring to the Father, and His coming “unto the nations in His most great majesty.” They also shared about Baha’u’llah’s teachings on the death and resurrection of Christ.

Joseph was very excited about this decision. His Baha’i contact sent him more references to explore, including links to the international site and its reference library, so he can continue reading and become more familiar with the Writings of the Faith.