How Memphis Baha’is deal with racial unity
The group logs into Zoom in trickles, some greeting each other with long familiarity.
After a few moments they get started, and Ned Mcnaughton begins to read part of a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the Baha’is of the United States, written in 2020.
“Racism is a profound deviation from the standard of true morality,” he reads.
He continues on, reading two paragraphs.
Then, he asks the group to discuss. They speak about humility, about the issues of white Americans entering a minority community with a savior complex.
One woman says the text shows the importance of listening to one another and coming together in harmony even if two parties disagree.
After all, you have to harmonize different instruments to make a good piece of music, Mcnaughton says.
There are about 11 members of the group, multi-ethnic, mostly members of the Baha’i community, although anyone is welcome and they’ve been joined by both Jews and Christians. They meet weekly on Sunday afternoons to discuss
“A Vision of Race Unity from a Spiritual Perspective,” sponsored by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Memphis, Tennessee.
They've met since around May of last year, when the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer brought the urgency of racial issues to the forefront of the collective conversation, including among the Baha'i community in the United States.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States issued a letter urging its members to think about the issue of race and to discuss it, so the group in Memphis did — and they haven't stopped.
“This is so complex. It requires an interpretation of history and our feelings and our life experiences,” said Paul Herron, one of the members of the group. “I think it's for the first time in a discussion like this that I've had where we have diverse perspectives shared without a confrontation or conflict in place, so it's easy to discuss and people make themselves vulnerable, that's a real important thing, they discuss experiences they probably wouldn't discuss or haven't discussed in other places.”
Founded in Iran in 1863, the Baha'i faith today has 6 million adherents around the world. It teaches the oneness of God and religion, the oneness of humanity and freedom from prejudice.
According to a statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, racism is the most challenging issue confronting America.
“Racism is an affront to human dignity, a cause of hatred and division, a disease that devastates society,” the statement, posted to their website, reads. “…The oneness of humanity is the pivot round which revolve all the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith.”
For Mcnaughton, their Sunday meetings were a place where he could talk about his past, talk about the biases he grew up with and the ones he still struggles with and not get into a debate or a fight.
“It loosens my burden to be able to talk about things and to be able to hear other people's what their perspectives are and what their biases were,” Mcnaughton said. “One thing I've found is we all grew up messed up, we all grew up with false understandings of the other, so it's a great forum to talk about that.”
It's an environment where he can speak with people who are different from him, he said.
Herron said the group gives him a sense of what's required for living in a society.
“Having more unity, how do we bring that into our daily life, particularly the way that we are currently living politically and spiritually?” he asked. “It's really important to really open the hearts to moral persuasion, because the more you understand the better you are able to change your position.”
The group strongly emphasizes personal action, incorporating what is learned each week into their daily lives.
And it's by working together as people, by building intimate relationships, that change can be made, Mcnaughton said.
That type of change happens very quickly, Herron said, as personal impressions are made on people's lives.
“The diversity of cultures, the diversity of skin cultures, size, all that, it's like a garden, you go into a garden and see all these different beautiful colors and flowers and shapes,” Mcnaughton said. “It's the garden of mankind. Diversity is an asset.”