On Choosing to Be a Baha'i: Fred Speaks

Fred was posed five questions on Live Journal, the first of which was about how he came to be a Baha'i. Fred's response is below.

Fred Speaks capplor 2006-07-24 02:42 pm UTC (link)

What made you choose the Baha'i faith? I've always been inclined to ask questions of people, and as you may be aware, sometimes those questions can be hard to answer. I've also been inclined to want answers which actually have depth to them. As such, while growing up in a variety of Christian churches (my mother used to go church shopping a lot, which I think helped start me on my own search) I would ask questions which the Sunday School teachers & often the Ministers were unprepared to handle. Many of them were questions which highlighted my confusion at the very illogic of expecting things like the Return of Christ to happen, word for word, as it is spelled out in the Bible. Some of them were about the differences & similarities between the Old & New Testament prophecies and, when I got older & started reading what other religions taught about themselves, questions of the "Why can't all just get along" variety. I cannot ever remember getting satisfactory answers to any of these questions from anybody. In fact, several times I was effectively told to shut up God will reveal it to you in time. One day, during the first week after my graduation from High School, my girlfriend of the time had, for various reasons beyond the scope of this discussion, gone to room with two of her friends. They were Baha'is. I had heard of the Baha'i faith but had not yet the chance to read anything about it. She sat me on the couch next to a shelf full of books with interesting names and went into the kitchen to prepare something. I pulled a book out of the shelf, looked at it, tried to pronounce Kitab-i-Iqan, and then opened it and started reading. By chance Baha'u'llah was answering many of my long-standing questions in that book. I have to say that God did reveal to me His answers to my questions, profoundly, unequivocally and with great clarity. When I learned that He had written that book in a space of 48 hours I was astonished. It took me longer than that to read it. The rest, as they say, is history. If I now have questions about anything spiritual I can always find an answer in Baha'u'llah's writings. I would advise you to check them out yourself, but I already have. :D

Fred, "Five Questions Meme (Fred)," capplor, LiveJournal