A Baha'i Perspective

Paul grew up in Denmark during WWII. He had a very adventurous spirit that took him first to Canada, then to the US, and then after becoming a Baha'i to the Bahamas and Panama.

This week is fund raiser week at Valley Free Radio so there is no interview to post this week. Instead I am posting a piece by Margaret Tash about the Baha'i perspective on nutrition. Enjoy! I'll have an interview for next week.

Jack was an ordained Methodist minister when he ran into the Baha'i Faith.

Rob loved both sports and acting, but acting became his predominant interest growing up. Then the last few years in high school he also discovered his enjoyment in painting. Rob went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston studying painting. During his last year there, he became very interested in poetry. After college, he discovered the inner-comedian inside him. Rob describes how it was the Bahá'í art of consultation that attracted him to the Bahá'í Faith

Tahereh is of Persian heritage. She was born in Brazil and grew up there. Tahereh tells a very interesting story about, as a teenager, narrowly escaping a life-long affliction. After graduating from university, Tahereh went to Tanzania to work for a non-governmental organization or NGO. The NGO is called Chipua and it works with children who are expelled from school because they fail their entrance exams.

Raymond grew up in the Watts area of LA. He was in the movie business in the early 70's first as an actor and then as a casting director. The last movie he was in was the Nutty Professor I with Eddy Murphy. After his acting career Raymond got involved with street youth counseling.

Scott is a Native American who grew up on the Makah Indian reservation in Washington state. His mother became a Baha'I when Scott was very young, so Scott grew up as a Baha'i. Scott went to college and got his degree in museology. He helped establish a museum at the Makah reservation. After finishing the project, he realized he wanted to be a doctor, so he went back to school and got his medical degree. He is now a family practice physician.

Ruth is a published poet whose works include "We Are The Young Magicians" [which was the result of her winning the prestigious Barnard New Women Poets Prize], "Renaissance", "Young Cornrows Callin' Out The Moon", and "Prayers Like Shoes". You can also find her work on the Dawnbreaker Collective Anthology "Arise". Ruth was interviewed on NPR where she had the opportunity to read her work "Cornrows Callin' Out The Moon". I play the interview later in the program.

Luke Slott is a musician from Dublin, who has just released his first CD "Don't Go Back To Sleep". He is now in the US working on a second CD project with the producer Kelly Snook. Before playing the interview, I play a clip from CSpan on the subject of the US Congress House Resolution 1008 that condemns the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran. The first speaker is Democratic representative Mark Burman of California. He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The second speaker is Republican representative Steve Chabut of Ohio. The resolution was passed in the House of Representatives in August 2008.

I play two items in this episode. The first is a telephone interview with Barbara West, a 91 year old Baha'i from California. The other is 2 parts of a 7 part series of Oprah Winfrey interviewing Rainn Wilson, star in the hit sitcom series The Office. Barbara West is 91 years old and lives in California. Barbara's mother, Ramona Allen Brown [1889-1975], became a Baha'i when Barbara was an infant, by going to teas hosted by Helen Goodall and her daughter Ella Goodall Cooper. The tea group was called the peaches and Barbara was referred to as the baby peach. Ramona Brown authored the book about her experiences with 'Abdu'l-Baha when he was in the country in 1912 called Memories of 'Abdu'l-Baha. After Barbara's children were grown up, she traveled with Tony Lee's Tours which arranged travel tours to Baha'i holy sites around the world.

Tom grew up in southern California. Tom's initial life goal was to become a lawyer, but circumstances prevented him from pursuing that career. Instead he found himself in Australia, where he studied music and became quite successful as a music producer there. Tom moved back to the US in the late 80's. His CDs include Songs of the Ancient Beauty. For a selection of other CDs Tom has produced you can go to the website Baha'i Distribution Service.

At a very early age, Mary-Anne was drawn to the church community even though her parents were not. In high school she became a Southern Baptist. She ran into the Baha'i Faith in her 20's. She tells the story of how she was able to transcend her fundamentalist Christian beliefs to become a Baha'i.

Mahnaz came to the US from Iran as an exchange high school student. After the Islamic revolution in Iran, Mahnaz ended up staying in the US. She is a co-founder of the educational service organization called the Mona Foundation, named after a Baha'i high school student by the name of Mona Mahmudnizhad, who was executed in Iran for her beliefs.

Elden is an accomplished musician who graduated from the New England Conservatory. He produced a CD called 1000 Doors which are original musical compositions using the Baha'i writings. You can find his CD on his website EldenKelly.com.

Joyce was born in a World War 2 Japanese internment camp. When she was 2 her family moved to Seabrook, NJ. When she was 12 her family returned to Gardena, CA where they had lived before the war. Joyce's life experiences dramatically expanded after she became a Baha'i.