I’m in the process of reading an eye-opening book entitled The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Healthcare.

In it, journalist T.R. Reid does what I have been hoping for some time that our national leaders would do: he undertook to study (through first-hand experience), contrast and compare the healthcare systems of other “first world” nations. (He included a couple of developing countries in his study as well.)

In the book, he details...

Reverend Bahá’í and other imaginary people: the Bahá’í Administrative Order

The Bahá’í Faith has no clergy. This is sometimes lost even on those who mean to write non-fiction about it. I represent our local community in interfaith efforts and have been called a “Bahá’í pastor” repeatedly. Sorry, no such animal.

Bahá’u’lláh provided for the administration of His community through elected institutions of nine members at the local, national and global levels. Local Spiritual...

Bahá’í history 101B

The Bahá'í Faith was introduced to the West at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair by a Methodist minister. In 1911-12, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, Abdu’l-Bahá, traveled to Europe and America to establish the first western Bahá’í institutions and lay the cornerstone for the Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette, IL.

“The White Dog,” my British SF Award-nominated novelette (Interzone), gets its title from the story it contains about Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to New York....

Or Bahá’í history 101A.

The Bahá’í Faith is not a sect of Islam, though you occasionally still see it called that. There are, after all, those who still consider Christianity a sect of Judaism.

The Faith was born in Persia (Iran) at the peak of the millennial fervor in 1844 during which religious groups worldwide expected a Return—whether of Christ, Buddha or another divine Figure. One of a group of Muslim students scouring Persia for the promised Prophet, met a young...

Bahá’í views of God, Manifestation and man.

In a little book called The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh writes (speaking from God’s point-of-view): “Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.”

As in previous revelations, Bahá’u’lláh reveals God as a Spirit exalted above human comprehension. We are noble beings, made in God’s spiritual...