On Being Asked "Are You Baha'i?": No, I'm a non-practicing nothing, which pretty much leaves my options wide open

"The Battle of Pons Milvius" in the Room of Constantine (One of the Raphael Rooms) - Musei Vaticani," uploaded on November 14, 2006 by IceNineJon on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

Oh, this is good, this is very good. -gw

I'm interested in doing my paper on the Baha'i Faith. My stylist is Baha'i, and so is my former Honors Mentor/Academic Advisor at my undergrad institution. Neither was raised in the Baha'i faith; not many are. They come to it in their adulthood. My stylist is Persian, my professor is Dutch. Calvinist. (Talk about beating the God right out of you.) My stylist's husband is also a college professor. And not knowing who else is a part of their devotional group, I am a bit concerned that most of them are also educated professionals and academics, which would put me smack-dab in the middle of that demographic. So, I raised this concern with professor. "Are you Baha'i?" he asked. "No," I said. "I'm a non-practicing nothing, which pretty much leaves my options wide open." The walls of the classroom seemed to expand and then contract sharply as everyone took this in, registered shock, and then gasped.

Dangerously Overeducated, "Let's Play 'Spot the Atheist,'" Welcome to Seminary: The random musings and pointed rants of a graduate student caught in an uncertainty of faith, disenchanted with organized religion...and enrolled in a divinity school.