A Baha'i Perspective

Ed asked God to leave him alone---and God did!! [hint-don't do that]

An 83 year old Baha'i now living in West Virginia. When he first became a Baha'i just after World War II, he went to Brazil for a year. After returning from Brazil, he and his wife, Joanne, were the first Baha'is in Cape Verde, Africa. They stayed in Cape Verde until there was a Baha'i community established there.

A Baha'i from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Jackie grew up in Michigan and moved to Florida when she was 29. It was in Florida that Jackie discovered the Baha'i Faith, but it took her nine years before she got the courage to officially identify herself as a Baha'i.

A Baha'i from Amherst, MA who grew up with the Baha'i Faith. Her father was Curtis Kelsey, who learned about the faith when he was a young man. Carol's husband, Nathan Rutstein, wrote the book, He Loved And Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey. Carol talks about Nathan's writing career and talks about how his career got started when her daughter inspired him to write Go Watch TV. Carol was a professional singer performing in musical theater and spending about a year traveling with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. When I finished the interview, Carol handed me a CD recording of a talk her father gave in 1970. I took snippets from the talk and created a 20 minute excerpt which I play following Carol's interview.

Brett is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Harvard University, where he studies Shakespeare and directs plays. In this interview he speaks about growing up in a Catholic family in California, the disintegration of that family through divorce, and his first encounters with the Baha'i Faith.

A Baha'i who grew up in Bufort, SC. Before she became a Baha'i she owned her own business and did a stint as a private investigator. She is currently the administrator for the non-profit organization One Human Family, as well as working for a non-profit called the Community Re-investment Association.

A Baha'i who, from an infant, grew up in Central Africa. He returned to his country of birthright [the U.S.] to live to complete high school and university. He went to England to get married and get his PhD. Before returning to the U.S., where he currently lives, his family lived in Australia and Rumania. In Rumania he worked for the U.N. organization UNESCO, and now he and a partner are consultants for Social and Economic Development projects.

"A Baha'i musician and musical producer who moved around a lot growing up, going to about 12 different schools. He became a Baha'i after marrying Maya who was a Baha'i. It was the Baha'i book Thief In The Night by William Sears that lead him to becoming a Baha'i. Jeff, talks about filk music, as did Maya in her interview. Visit their website MysticFig.com."

"A Baha'i musician and author of science fiction and fantasy works as well as short essays on issues related to the Baha'i Faith. Her music is a joint venture with her husband, Jeff, and their musical styles include filk. The music in this podcast is all from Jeff and Maya's work. Their website is MysticFig.com "

"A Baha'i from Iran whose paternal grandfather was a Zoroastrian in the 19th century. When her grandfather heard about the Baha'i Faith he wrote to Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith and asked Him seven questions. In the Zoroastrian Faith, seven is a very holy number. Baha'u'llah responded to her grandfather in a tablet called "Seven Questions Answered". It has been recently translated into English and can be found in the Baha'i compilation Tabernacle of Unity."

An American Baha'i now living in Bulgaria. Greg went to Harvard to study physics but ended up getting his PhD in Economics. After college Greg worked for the International Monetary Fund of the World Bank for 27 years. His work took him to such countries as Haiti, Sierra Leone and Madagascar. In the interview we discuss globalization and his new book One World, One People: How Globalization is Shaping Our Future. I apologize for the poor quality of the recording. I was having difficulty with VFR's studio telos [the thingy that transfers the output of the soundboard to the telephone line]. Greg couldn't hear me, so I had to have the microphone way up, which created a terrible hum and allowed background noise to filter into the interview. However, the interview is still well worth listening to. Greg has two short interviews posted on line at the First Business Morning News website: Interview 1 and Interview 2. I started our interview by asking Greg where he grew up and what was it like growing up there.

A Baha'i who grew up in rural Australia; went to the big city for boarding high school and university where he studied physiotherapy. He returned to the rural life after university by settling in a rural part of Queensland, where he ran into the Baha'i Faith. His mother's first reaction to Owen becoming a Baha'i was "why did you join a religion whose members get killed!" referring to the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran. This is my first attempt at using Skype for the interview. I'm not thrilled about the quality, but it may be a tad clearer than through the telephone.

A Baha'i from Iran who came to the United States to finish his medical schooling. After completing his schooling, he returned to Iran and worked at a Baha'i hospital called Red Lion Society. When the Khomeini regime took over, they confiscated the hospital, assassinated the chief of staff, Dr. Hakim, and arrested or killed other Baha'i physicians working there. Bahman and his family happened to be in the US when this happened, so he stayed in the US and practiced medicine here. He's now retired and is volunteering for two Baha'i-inspired institutions, Health for Humanity and the Tahirih Justice Center.

Morgan is a man of many talents. Musician, Physics, Computer Geek and World Traveler. Being an African American Baha'i has provided opportunities to work on race unity both in the USA and Africa.

A Baha'i from Iran. In Iran, Nosrat had to suppress her desire to express her belief freely. So after university, she decided to leave Iran for the United States. She was included in Dan Rather's book, The The American Dream.