BY CAROLYN CANNON
Appeared in print: Saturday, June 18, 2011, page D4
I was a child of the 1950s and ’60s, a time of air raid sirens and bomb drills in school, cowering under our desks until the all-clear sounded; the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War; and Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations shouting, “We will bury you!”
Long-standing social mores were abandoned rapidly with youth demanding “freedoms” they wouldn’t have considered in earlier times. Suddenly, we were swimming in a sea of choices with no precedent to guide us. Young men returned from Vietnam; others laid down their lives there. We mourned them all.
It was an exhilarating time to be young, but not a happy one. Institutions and traditions that had given meaning and order to society for hundreds, even thousands of years, were shifting and reinventing themselves. Families fell apart as parents divorced. Headlines proclaimed: “God is dead!”
At 16, I began to search for a way to make sense out of a crazily shifting world. I couldn’t find God anywhere, but I found a lot of different notions of him. It felt repeatedly as if I were handed beautifully wrapped gift boxes, invited to open them and admire their contents, but each box contained only fragments, never the whole gift.
At 18, angry and confused, I declared if I ever found a religion that taught that all religions come from God, and that could offer a rational definition of God, I would join it. I knew I was safe.
At 21, I heard my uncle explain the Baha’i faith’s concept of Progressive Revelation: Baha’u’llah, founder of the Baha’i faith, tells us we are never left without guidance. Every thousand years or so, God sends a divine messenger to renew previous spiritual teachings and bring new social teachings appropriate for mankind’s current state of development. Each is a chapter in the book of God. I asked, “What is the definition of God?” He said, “Baha’u’llah tells us God is an unknowable essence.”
Bingo! A world religion exists that teaches all religion comes from God. Additionally, in my mind, Baha’u’llah’s definition of God is a mystical perfection. For those who need a definition of God, it is a complete definition — no pieces missing. For those who need God not to be placed in boxes, it is a definition without definition.
My life is now full of profound spiritual truth, but with very practical applications. As I approach my 60th birthday, I look at my children and grandchild and thank God for this all-embracing spiritual foundation upon which to raise them.
As a spiritually based family, we embrace the Baha’i belief that we are all members of one family, one human race. From this realization flows the understanding that our actions must contribute to creating a new world based on spirituality.
Daily, each of us sincerely attempts to live Baha’u’llah’s exhortation: “Verily I say unto thee: Of all men the most negligent is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother. Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.”
Carolyn Cannon is a member of the Eugene Baha’i community. This column is coordinated by Lane Interfaith Alliance to offer inspiration, share personal spiritual experiences and bring a deeper understanding of individual faith perspectives with the intention of blessing our community and the world. For more information, visit www.laneinterfaithalliance.org or call 541-344-0430.