On Faith: How do we measure sacrifice? A question to ponder

Dr. Chris Gilbert

On Faith

Having just celebrated the 233rd birthday of the United States this past Fourth of July, I was asked a question by some of my students about how many colonists lost their lives during the American Revolution.

I didn’t know. I really had never thought about it, so I looked it up.

Turns out, more than 25,000 colonists died during the Revolutionary War. One percent of the population at the time — a pretty big number — but how many is that?

Well, the population of Gig Harbor is about 14,000, so that loss is almost double the number of people who live here today. Imagine everyone here, and double it to reach the number who sacrificed for this worthy cause.

That’s a horrendous loss, especially when it’s personal.

The Baha’i community in Gig Harbor had a two-hour concert at Skansie Park on July 26 in honor of the Baha’i believers in Iran who are sacrificing their lives today for the cause of world unity.

More than 25,000 Baha’is in Iran have been killed in brutal, inhumane ways for their religious beliefs — for simply being Baha’i. No revolutionary intentions, no declarations of independence, no overthrows, no coups, no treason.

Twenty-five thousand people, young and old, men and women, rich and poor, educated or illiterate — all illegally and immorally executed by the Iranian officials for simply practicing their religion.

Why did these Iranian Baha’is die? For a belief in a world united under one common cause. For the understanding there is one God from whom all the great religions of the world have flowed to all of mankind over the centuries.

These courageous individuals have died for the truth that the Islamic faith is as vital as the Christian and the Buddhist and the Jewish and the Hindu and others to the spiritual growth of mankind.

They died for their work, creating a spiritual community devoted to uniting a divided world that’s struggling mightily to fulfill God’s promise to all the great faiths. That we will build a heaven on Earth where all peoples, all ethnicities, all races, all genders, all ages are united under one common purpose — the progress and unity of a global civilization never before witnessed here on earth.

While change is easily highlighted by conflict, real change must be manifested by the heart. Baha’is are prohibited to participate in conflict.

Unity is the single arrow that creates that true and lasting change of heart. Anything else is a struggle that manipulates the system but often leaves the heart unaffected.

That’s why racism still exists in the United States more than 144 years after the Civil War ended.

If you want a more personal example, bear with me a moment.

Let’s say you found a home in a neighborhood openly opposed to you moving in. You know your family could use non-violent confrontation to move into the neighborhood anyway.

You can buy a house despite protests of neighbors, move your belongings in, shut the doors and windows, and you’re technically an owner. You could picket others’ homes in the neighborhood as a non-violent confrontation to allow you better access or privileges.

A judge would definitely rule you into a prejudicial neighborhood.

But it’s not until the neighbors’ hearts accept you that you have truly “moved in.” Their acceptance offers you the real equity and justice for which you yearn — the policeman that escorts you back and forth for your safety brings you legal access, not acceptance.

What gains true acceptance — your actions within the law, your neighborliness in showing love in the face of hatred, your kindness in the face of stupidity, your work in the face of prejudice to create a better space for everyone — those actions of constructive unity create true transformation and long-term love and acceptance.

The Baha’i model of world peace comes out of that model of social change which operates on actions of unity. Baha’is are summoned to focus their energy on constructing a new social order.

Rather than tearing down frameworks which are already crumbling by themselves, Baha’is struggle to create communities which attract because they offer what so many are so thirsty for: integrity, trustworthiness, true acceptance, unity through diversity.

It could be called the concept of constructive resilience — that is, building a better world in the face of oppression, because the community becomes stronger by its example.

To provide one of hundreds of examples of the new social order, the Iranian government proclaimed to its people in the past year that they should avoid patronizing Baha’i-owned businesses — small or large. Yet, in the past year, Baha’i businesses have seen a 50 percent increase in customers.

Why? Because they are well-known by their Iranian costumers as one of the few remaining places where business contracts can be trusted and products and services are honestly represented. In other words, Baha’i businesses in Iran are places where words and actions match, every time.

Iranians understand the prejudice occurring within their own country and have risen in this and other ways to ensure that the Baha’i community flourishes.

Iranians patronize Baha’i businesses to ensure they do not disappear, despite governmental sanctions.

That’s not non-violent confrontation. It’s an example of the radical social change that’s both unifying and resilient to the violent oppression operating against it.

It is an example of the creation of a community that invites members, Baha’i and otherwise, because it is loving and trusted.

On Faith columnist Dr. Chris Gilbert of Baha’i Faith can be reached by e-mail at ckgilbert9@netscape.net. For more information, visit www.bahai.org.