Vahid Manie-Oskoii, a business administration major at the University, believes in Jesus. And Muhammed. And Krishna and Buddha, too. Manie-Oskoii is a member of the Bahá’í faith, a religion centered around the idea that we’re all united, spiritually.
“We actually believe in all of the religions,” Manie-Oskoii said. “There’s only one God and he sends prophets or messengers, if you will, for different times throughout the world.”
Each of the major world religions – including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism – were founded by divine educators who were said to have been sent from above; Bahá’ís believe that God sends these prophets periodically as humanity evolves.
“As a first grader, you don’t go to school and get thrown into multiplication. You have to learn addition before you learn multiplication,” Manie-Oskoii said, adding that while Moses emphasized loving your family, Muhammed said to love your country.
“As laws need to be updated or new policies need to be made to keep up with the technology, we believe it needs to be the same spiritually. As people get smarter, you need more guidance to follow it,” Manie-Oskoii said. “We believe humanity is just a learning process.”
This week, members of the local Bahá’í community will be stationed outside the EMU, promoting their faith.
“It has a strong message that can benefit the world and we need all the help we can get,” said Jay Snell, who grew up Christian in Iowa, moved to Eugene 25 years ago and graduated from the University in 2005.
At a glance
| Despite being widespread around the world, the Bahá’í faith is relatively unknown. To learn more about this religion, centered around the idea that there’s only one God who sends prophets to different parts of the world as mankind learns more, stop by the table at the EMU any day this week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If those times don’t work for you, stop by the Eugene Bahá’í Center at 1458 Alder St. |
He discovered Bahá’í as a teenager and was attracted to the idea that “all the religions come from the same source.”
Anne Sexton, who currently lives in Grants Pass, also became attracted to Bahá’í while in high school in Salem.
“When I was confirmed, I said, ‘What do you mean by this one universal religion?’” said Sexton, whose family is Presbyterian. “And our minister couldn’t answer that.”
This week, local Bahá’ís are letting people know about their faith and inviting them to devotionals, or informal spiritual gatherings, at the Eugene Bahá’í Center, a pink Victorian house located a block from the University at 1458 Alder St. They’re also raising awareness about religious persecution in Iran.
Bahá’í was founded in 1844 by Bahá’u’llá’h, a Persian man who Bahá’ís believe to be God’s most recent divine educator. Since the religion’s inception, its followers have been oppressed and discredited. Snell said lies about the Bahá’í faith are prevalent in elementary school textbooks and that any children who challenge them are expelled.
Some key principles of Bahá’í, which has readings but not one particular holy book like the Bible or the Koran, include equality and the eradication of prejudice, and harmony between science and religion.
Manie-Oskoii said things like the idea that God created everything in six days – noting that since the earth was still in the process of being created, a day wasn’t yet a 24-hour rotation – should be taken metaphorically.
“Discoveries of science are a representation of how great God actually is,” he said.
Bahá’í is not one of the world’s larger religions, but it is one of the most globally widespread, second only to Christianity. While Bahá’í was founded in Iran, it’s not dominantly Middle Eastern. Its central houses of worship are scattered throughout the world – Sydney, Australia; Apia, Western Samoa; New Delhi, India; Kampala, Uganda; Panama City, Panama; and Wilmette, Ill., with a seventh under construction in Santiago, Chile.
Brett Wartchow, a University alum and a self-proclaimed “lifer” who grew up in a Bahá’í family in Minnesota, said another of the religion’s important principles is the independent search for truth – the reason there are no preachers or clergies.
“There’s only one qualified to teach us about our souls: The Creator,” Wartchow said. “We don’t lord ourselves over anybody. We don’t feel like we’re better than anybody. That’s kind of the antithesis of everything that is the Bahá’í faith because we believe in equality. We’re trying to show what it offers the world, what it offers each individual person.”
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