Question:
Is your religion really just an “accident of birth?
Answer: A Bahá’í may feel
honoured by her spiritual ancestry because the Bahá’í Faith has
survived relentless persecution in its homeland of Iran
(1844-) to implant itself globally, at great sacrifice, to become the
youngest of the world’s independent religions. A Bahá’í may feel
honoured by the believers who have gone before and desire to emulate
them. But a Bahá’í cannot inherit faith. One joins the community by
engaging in the independent investigation of its teachings and by
conviction that they are true. No birth ritual exists that
automatically inducts the newborn into the Bahá’í community. No ritual
exists by which the adolescent or adult becomes a Bahá’í. Belief is a
voluntary matter of conscience and does not occur by inheritance.
Beginning at age 15, which Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), the Prophet-Founder
of the Bahá’í Faith, has defined as the age of spiritual
responsibility, the individual may voluntarily decide whether or not he
or she wants to become a member of the community. The world head of the
Bahá’í Faith, the Universal House of Justice, first elected in 1963,
has explained:
“Fifteen is the age at which a child attains spiritual maturity, and
thus it is at the age of fifteen that a Bahá’í child assumes the
responsibility for obeying such laws as those of fasting and prayer,
and for affirming of his own volition his faith in Bahá’u’lláh.”
This declaration of faith and spiritual obligation is different from
service on the local or national elected assemblies of nine persons
that govern the Bahá’í community. Eligibility to serve on these bodies
requires the age of majority (21). Although in one sense, the religion
of one’s parents may be considered “accidental”, i.e. not of one’s
choosing, the conscious choice of making a declaration of faith in this
religion is no accident. -
Jack
McLean
