Many years ago, before I was married, I shared a flight to Atlanta with a woman who was a victim of the airline industry’s penchant for pinching pennies. She was flying to Atlanta with me, on her way to Kansas City, Missouri (seriously).
That level of inefficiency would make me mental, but Madeline was perfectly pleasant.
During the 90 minute flight, we became fast friends. I learned that she was an adherent to a little known middle-eastern religion called the Bahai Faith. There are roughly six million Bahais in the world today and less than 200,000 in the United States. Historically, the center of the Bahai population was Iran, but it has since spread throughout the world due to religious persecution in its historical home.
Madeline worked at a Bahai Youth Camp which, ironically, is directly behind my current home in Davison — there are probably 100 or more of Gideon’s golf balls on their property.
She is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met (she is now a teacher in Kansas City) and I was eager to learn everything I could about her faith.
After that flight, we exchanged numbers and met up on several occasions to talk about my faith and hers. It was during this time that I learned about one of the fundamental principles of the Bahai Faith: The Oneness of Religion.
In short, followers of the faith believe that there is a fundamental unity in many of the world’s religions — Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the eastern religions. In essence, they believe that the teachings of the major religions are part of a single plan directed from the same God. They believe that religions all over the world have a role in revealing the true nature of God across cultures and languages.
This really intrigued me. Having spent time with people who are adherents to other religious beliefs, and every bit as devout as I am, the question posed here was in the forefront of my mind.
Do people from other religious backgrounds, very different than mine, have a connection to the God of the Universe just like my fellow Christians? Is God’s revelation limited in any way? Is Jesus the only way to God?
Let’s talk about it Sunday night!
The Pipe 