On Mormon Baptism and the Universality of the Baha'i Faith: A Seeker's Story

"Korean grapes"

Uploaded on 2 September 2006 on flickr

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"Nauvoo Baptisms," Uploaded on November 15, 2006 by crowderb on flickr

A few hours after our return from a five-day camping vacation, Myong came over to visit. With a gift, a box of grapes she bought at the Korean grocery story. Sweet, she said, and were they!

Myong continues in her study of the Baha'i Faith, and a month or two ago was baptised at the LDS Church. The congregation has been praying to find someone who can play piano for them. As she explained, it is for social reasons that she participates in LDS church events.

She recognizes the universality of the Baha'i Faith. Our response has been loving and supportive of her, she said, unlike the response of the Christian lady on her paper route who was critical and negative when told she had been baptised by the Mormons.

She will continue in our study circle and take in the monthly fireside at Chris and Shadi's and other Baha'i gatherings. She encourages me to continue to put something out for her to pick up each morning when she delivers our newspaper, material about the Faith for her perusual, as has been my habit for many months now.

This morning I put out a copy "To the World's Religious Leaders," the 2002 letter from the Universal House of Justice. The last sentence of this paragraph caught my eye. -gw

There are certainly wide differences among the world’s major religious traditions with respect to social ordinances and forms of worship. Given the thousands of years during which successive revelations of the Divine have addressed the changing needs of a constantly evolving civilization, it could hardly be otherwise. Indeed, an inherent feature of the scriptures of most of the major faiths would appear to be the expression, in some form or other, of the principle of religion’s evolutionary nature. What cannot be morally justified is the manipulation of cultural legacies that were intended to enrich spiritual experience, as a means to arouse prejudice and alienation. The primary task of the soul will always be to investigate reality, to live in accordance with the truths of which it becomes persuaded and to accord full respect to the efforts of others to do the same.

"April 2002, TO THE WORLD’S RELIGIOUS LEADERS," The Universal House of Justice

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