On djshoghi: What's in a Baha'i name?

The Founder of the Baha'i Faith encourages his followers to "spread the glad-tidings." There is no clergy. All Baha'is are encouraged to teach their Faith. Baha'is who do are generally not referred to as missionaries (see the Wikipedia article). Say the word "missionary" and the image conjured up has usually been a Westerner going to an indigenous culture to seek converts. In the following article, the "missionaries" referred to were Easterners teaching their Faith to a family of Italian and Spanish descent living in Ecuador. -gw

"Cuenca, Ecuador," uploaded on February 6, 2007
by Dan Brooke on flickr
My mother ... was born in Cuenca, Ecuador of Italian and Spanish lineage. She and her 14 brothers and sisters grew up in a religious Roman Catholic household and they were all raised for the most part to be your typical pious South American Catholics. However that was not to be, some Persian missionaries made sure of that.

My mother and most of her sisters and brothers “converted” to the Baha’i Faith almost forty years ago by those abovementioned missionaries. One of the major figures of this religion was Shoghi Effendi, hence my first name. My mom lobbied my dad long and hard to name me in honor of this Baha’i historical figure. My father finally gave in saying that at least I was being named after a religious man. The Baha’i Faith has influenced my outlook on morality for most of my life. Its main tenets are very liberal which is how many would describe me. These include: the equality between men and woman, the elimination of racism and the “harmony” of religion and science. I still don’t quite understand the latter but I would be the first to admit that the Bahai belief system smacks more of modernity than the Inquisition. At this point of my life I am an atheist and naturally don’t subscribe to any religion, but even so I do admire the aforementioned principles of the Bahai faith.

djshoghi, "Assignment #6 'What's in a name' rewrite," 31 Year Old Freshman