Bahai Festival to Stress Unity of All Religions

It was a warm, festive spiritual gathering at the home of an Anaheim Hills couple--one that Ghodisi Najafabadi could have only dreamed of in her native Iran, where hundreds of members of her faith have been tortured and killed because of their religious beliefs.

“People here are really open,” Najafabadi, 47, marveled during a recent Bahai unity feast. “In Iran, you had to be very quiet.”

Najafabadi, an Anaheim Hills resident who fled Iran after the fall of the Shah, is a member of an obscure, low-key Eastern religion known as the Bahai faith, which claims 5,000 Southland followers.

Later this month, Bahais around the world will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the death of their founder, a 19th-Century Persian known as Baha’ Allah who preached the “oneness” of the human race and urged followers to work toward uniting the world under one universal religion.

A highlight of the anniversary year for Southland Bahais will be a daylong celebration May 30 at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.

The Bahai faith is one of the youngest and most socially progressive of world religions. Followers actively promote equality among the races, as evidenced by the high rate of marriage among members from different ethnic groups.

Women are equal to men in all aspects of social and religious life. In fact, Baha’ Allah taught that if parents are forced to choose between whether to educate their daughter or son, the daughter should be the one sent to school, because she is a future teacher of the faith.

Bahais also believe that all religions are divinely inspired; Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Moses and Krishna are all revered as prophets sent to Earth to provide the human race with guidance. However, Bahais believe that Baha’ Allah’s teachings are more timely than those of earlier prophets because he was God’s most recent messenger.

“I was receptive to the Bahai faith because I believe that God gives updates,” said Ed Diliberto, 56, a retired schoolteacher from Long Beach. “We accept that there is a creator, but we have no concept of his essence. The prophets are intermediaries who appear from age to age, bearing his guidance to us.”

Diliberto, a former Roman Catholic who is now an adviser to elected Bahai spiritual assemblies throughout Southern California, said he accepted the faith because it fills a void left by Christianity.

“I believed in Christ, but I didn’t feel that the modern form of Christianity met human needs,” he said. “It seemed the needs of mankind had gone beyond what current religion could solve.”

The Bahai faith is an unusual religion by conventional standards: There is no church, no temple, no clergy. And Bahai teachings strictly prohibit the use of pressure tactics to win new followers. The faith spreads mostly through word of mouth and informal meetings known as “firesides,” to which prospective members are invited.

There are about 110,000 Bahais living in the United States from all walks of life--a virtual mosaic of ethnicity and cultures. They range from jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie to Dorothy W. Nelson, a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge.

“People find out about the faith through personal connections--not some guy out there with a loudspeaker shouting, ‘Repent! Repent!’ ” said Dan Hicks, a San Juan Capistrano Bahai. “My obligation is to share the teachings and ideas of the Bahai faith with people. What they do next is up to them.”

Hicks, 29, who coordinates the drug and alcohol abuse program for the Orange County Health Care Agency, and his wife discovered the faith at Princeton University through a campus religious club.

“All of a sudden we were part of this incredible community,” he said. “It totally changed our lives.”

Bahai membership is open to anyone who professes faith in Baha’ Allah and accepts his teachings. Among other things, Bahais are required to pray daily, fast 19 days a year and abstain from drugs, alcohol and other mind-altering substances.

Before marrying, a couple must obtain the consent of both sets of parents. Under Bahai law, couples wishing to divorce must first undergo a mandatory, yearlong period of trial separation to determine whether their marital problems can be resolved.

All local Bahai communities are governed by a nine-member spiritual assembly elected among the members in that city. A nine-member body elected from the various Bahai communities around the country oversees national affairs.

The world headquarters--known as the International House of Justice, which is also a nine-member elected body--is in Haifa, Israel. Bahai followers are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to Haifa and Acre, where the faith’s founders are entombed.

Until his death in 1892, Baha’ Allah taught that all world religions--regardless of their origins--were part of a progressive divine plan for the education of the human race. He urged followers to work toward unifying the competing faiths under a universal religion. And he preached the brotherhood of men, urging followers to devote themselves to the abolition of racial, class and religious prejudice.

It is this embracing of all religions that appealed most to Judy Afsahi Shad. “When I was growing up, my parents sent us to Baptist churches, Methodist and Assembly of God. But I just couldn’t believe . . . if you weren’t Christian, you were going to hell,” said Shad, a high school teacher who lives in Anaheim Hills. “So when I found the Bahai faith, I thought, ‘This is the way.’ ”

These teachings are also what attracted Don Boykin, 53, a development consultant from Brea. “With me coming from an African-American background, with all of the stigma about race,” he said, “for Baha’ Allah to say race is a figment of men’s imaginations--in 1863, no one else was speaking on that level.”

Sohie Sabet, secretary of the local spiritual assembly in Anaheim, credited Bahai beliefs with helping to shelter her children from peer pressure.

“It’s just amazing what Bahai religious teachings do for the children,” said Sabet, 46, whose three children are 13 to 26 years old.

“By not drinking and not doing drugs all the time,” she said, “my oldest daughter was able to become a leader of the other children.”

However, for many Bahais it is Baha’ Allah’s emphasis on global peace that holds the most sway.

“Religion has gotten into such a conflict,” Diliberto said. “What we need to have is one unifying concept. Then maybe we can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, even better than before.”