{"id":69624,"date":"2021-03-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/?p=69624"},"modified":"2021-03-24T08:08:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T15:08:33","slug":"finding-loving-home-bahai-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/finding-loving-home-bahai-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a Loving Home in the Baha\u2019i Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Embracing a new religion when faith is a big part of your family and cultural traditions can be challenging. That\u2019s why Barbara Talley<\/a>, a Baha\u2019i living in the Washington D.C. area, believes that \u201cin order to be confirmed to stay in [a new faith], you need love\u201d from your religious community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara, who grew up as a Christian, says, \u201cThe church was a family.\u201d It \u201cwas the only place where Blacks were free to be themselves \u2013 to dress up, put on their hats, listen to some wonderful music and clap, and \u2018make a joyful noise unto the Lord\u2019. That was something that fueled you to deal with all the racism that you dealt with in work. And, of course, I dealt with lots and lots of racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when she became a Baha\u2019i after she moved to the D.C. area in the mid-1970s, she was relieved and touched to be treated with so much love and kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: Finding Your Spiritual Identity: A Story of Becoming a Baha\u2019i<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara soon learned that, \u201ckindness to all nations\u201d<\/strong> is one of the Baha\u2019i teachings. In 1911, Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/a>, one of the central figures of the Baha\u2019i Faith<\/a>, said<\/a>, \u201cDo not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI met these Baha\u2019is that really didn\u2019t treat me like a color,\u201d Barbara says. \u201cWe would drive an hour to be together. We would sit on the floor in crowded rooms to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch as Barbara shares more about the \u201clevel of hospitality, love, and kindness\u201d she received from the Baha\u2019i community in this clip for the Race Unity Project<\/a> \u2014 a video series produced by Journalism for Change, Inc, a nonprofit media organization founded by filmmaker and human rights activist Maziar Bahari. Through interviews with Baha\u2019is from around the country, the project tells \u201cthe century-long story of the American Baha\u2019i community and its efforts \u2014 as well as its tests and challenges \u2014 in promoting race unity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Videos from \u201cThe Race Unity Project\u201d include a variety of candid interviews about race \u2014 including how we can raise champions for race unity<\/a> and how people from privileged demographics can take responsibility for educating themselves about race<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack then, we just wanted to be friends,\u201d Barbara says of her early days of being part of the Baha\u2019i community. \u201cWe wanted to care for each other. We wanted to love each other. We loved being around each other.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embracing a new religion when faith is a big part of your family and cultural traditions can be challenging. That\u2019s why Barbara Talley, a Baha\u2019i living in the Washington D.C….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64356,"featured_media":69837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2950,1060],"tags":[3006,2992,2986],"series":[2934],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69624"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=69624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}