# Baha'i: A Second Look

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Marcus Bach, Baha'i: A Second Look, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Bahá'í:
> 
> A Second Look
> 
> Marcus Bach
> 
> published in The Christian Century74:15, pp. 449-451
> 
> 1957-04-10
> 
> 1. PDF (see text below)
> 
> Download: bach_bahai_second_look.pdf.
> 
> 2. HTML
> 
> "Fourth Article in a Series on Sects and Cults"
> [Note: this essay was followed in a later issue by two letters, included below.]
> 
> [page 449]
> 
> "IF THESE BAHA'IS ever get going, they may take the country
> by storm." So said a discerning Protestant minister as we talked one
> evening about America's most "ecumenical" faith. He felt the
> Bahá'ís were held captive on two counts: their insistence that a new prophet
> had appeared in the person of Bahá'u'lláh, and their lack of emphasis on
> a personalized faith.
> 
> This comment prompted me to take a second look at the Bahá'í group,
> which has a $3 million temple in Wilmette, Illinois, an American membership
> of perhaps 18,000, and sizable assemblies in most of our major cities.
> All of which may be regarded as substantial for a religion which came to
> the United States some sixty years ago.
> 
> Whenever a Bahá'í representative addressed a group of my students
> there was a deep-seated response to the social and ethical teachings he
> set forth. College students generally are as tired of sectarian squabbles
> as they are tantalized by efforts toward spiritual unity. They liked the
> Bahá'í emphasis and were interested not only by what Bahá'ísm is but by
> what it may become. Also, they were not unwilling to accept the Bahá'í
> claim that Woodrow Wilson in his plans for the League of Nations was influenced
> by Bahá'u'lláh, that the steps toward world understanding might be the
> result of Bahá'u'lláh's mystical presence, and that the development of
> the United Nations might be the substance of the imposing shadow cast by
> the Persian seer. So far so good. But when they learned that in order to
> accept the precepts they must also accept the preceptor, that to become
> true Bahá'ís they must recognise Bahá'u'lláh as the Promised One - this
> simply spelled out another and new kind of sectarianism.
> 
> Cornerstone and Stumbling Block
> 
> It seemed that any second look would
> only confirm the minister's contention of captivity: the Bahá'í cause is
> held down by the unwillingness of Americans to accept seriously the claim
> that another messiah has appeared or that Christ has returned. Though Bahá'u'lláh
> might represent the cornerstone of Bahá'í faith, he was still the stumbling
> block to Bahá'í growth throughout the Christian world.
> 
> I went to Israel recently, to the harbor city of Akka, for it was
> there that Bahá'u'lláh, banished from Baghdad, spent his years of exile.
> To this windswept land, where Francis of Assisi once walked, Bahá'u'lláh
> came in chains in 1865. I went to the old prison where he was held captive
> for 25 years and where his son, Abdul-Baha, was a prisoner for 40 years.
> As I poked around behind the old walls and peered into the dungeons, the
> Bahá'í story came to life. Bahá'u'lláh, like Jesus, had a forerunner who
> called himself the Bab, which means "the Gate." In the midst
> of the religious and political wrangling of Moslem, Christian and Jew,
> the Bab said in effect: "A plague on all your houses. You have all
> lost sight of your common origin." He preached that God is the Father
> of all men and the Founder of all faiths, and that the time had come when
> heaven would personify this truth. Like John the Baptist, the Bab announced
> the coming of a messiah: Bahá'u'lláh, who proclaimed himself in 1863.
> 
> I went to Bahji, some six kilometers inland. Here is the sheik's
> mansion where Bahá'u'lláh lived like a prince after his release from prison
> and where he died in 1892. Here is the holy spot where Christians, Jews,
> Moslems, Zoroastrians and Buddhists came to "lament the loss and magnify
> the greatness of the herald of God." Bahá'ís even today do not speak
> of the death of Bahá'u'lláh but, rather, of his ascension. In reverence,
> I knelt beside the bier.
> 
> An Orientalist's Impressions
> 
> As I walked through the majestic rooms
> I was reminded that it was here, years ago, that the noted Cambridge University
> Orientalist, Edward G. Browne, visited Bahá'u'lláh. His impressions, widely
> quoted, are precious to every ardent Bahá'í: "The face of him on whom
> I gazed I can never forget. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very
> soul.... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before
> One who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and
> emperors sigh for in vain!"
> 
> This was Bahá'u'lláh whose power and grace Bahá'ís saw reflected
> in his successor, Abdul-Baha, and which they see mirrored today in the
> present leader, Shoghi Effendi, the eldest son of the eldest daughter of
> Abdul-Baha, and a distant relative of the Bab. This was Bahá'u'lláh who,
> as my minister friend insisted, "can never be sold to Americans; even
> his name is against him."
> 
> But quietly in the heart of every Bahá'í there lives a feeling that
> he and his fellows are children of destiny as well as children of light.
> Bahá'u'lláh assured them in his writings: "Be not dismayed! Arise
> to further my cause and to exalt my word among men..... We are truly almighty.
> Whoso hath recognized me will arise and truly serve me with such determination
> that the powers of earth and heaven shall be unable to defeat his purpose."
> 
> Cut to the Same Pattern
> 
> I have met Bahá'ís in many parts of the world.
> They are all cut to the same pattern: heartfelt dedication to the cause
> and person of Bahá'u'lláh, zeal in the advancement of their ideals. They
> ask no salaries, want no honor, and are literally more interested in giving
> than in receiving. Typical were two Bahá'í women I met in Chichicastenango.
> They had been in this Guatemalan village for two years and had won two
> converts among the Maya-Quichés. "Isn't this slow progress?"
> I asked. "That all depends on how you figure it," I was told.
> "Who knows the power or the value of one soul?"
> 
> For them it is unthinkable that anyone will ever rob Bahá'u'lláh
> of his deification: he is the true reincarnation
> 
> [page 450]
> 
> of Christ. They plan to "get loose" from Christian
> resistance to this claim through demonstration, through dedicated effort
> in the cause which he proclaimed: the oneness of all mankind. How can he
> be a stumbling block? How can he hold them captive? Many there were in
> the days of Jesus who rejected him, and some there are who even today have
> not accepted him. Bahá'ís believe that as Jesus brought the message of
> the sanctity of the individual, so Bahá'u'lláh came to reveal the sanctity
> of all races and faiths. God sends his prophets at stated periods with
> a universal message for their time.
> 
> But for the Christian world this belief also presents a question
> and a problem. Most Christians feel that the world has not caught up with
> the teachings of Jesus, has not yet lived his life or met his challenge.
> Bahá'u'lláh came too soon. Given time, we might somehow find the courage
> and the will to live out the principles of Christ. And if we did that we
> would automatically establish the kind of better world which Bahá'u'lláh
> foresaw.
> 
> Bahá'ís do not agree that this can be accomplished through Christianity.
> They contend that the truest and deepest teachings of Jesus are obscured
> by the sectarian exclusiveness of the Christian faith. Christianity is
> as divisive as Judaism, Buddhism or Islam. Bahá'u'lláh came to show us
> a better way: we can find the treasure of true faith only by looking beneath
> the "welter of intolerance and bigotry, formalism and hypocrisy, corruption
> and misrepresentation, schism and contention." In other words, we
> must accept a new prophet before we can rediscover the old. As of now it
> is mockery to say, "In the spirit of Jesus we unite for the worship
> of God and the service of man," since Christianity insists upon excluding
> certain races and people and colors and creeds from its fellowship. So
> say the Bahá'ís; and they add that this could never happen in the name
> of Christ reborn, Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> Nine Doors in the Temple
> 
> You will see a demonstration of this idea
> at a Bahá'í service. It is an ecumenical service, without the benefit of
> priest or cleric, a simple and solemn service with readings and music from
> the living faiths of all the world. It is worship in which Protestant and
> Catholic and every other Christian, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu and person
> of every other faith and race may participate. The temple in Wilmette has
> nine doors, as if to declare that each of the world's great living religions
> may enter through its own portal and unite with every other belief under
> the single dome of God. Passages from Bahá'u'lláh's inspired writings adorn
> each alabaster entrance and the words are always significant: "The
> earth is one country and mankind its citizens"; "Make mention
> of me on my earth that in my heaven I may remember thee"; "My
> love is my stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure."
> 
> But what about the second point of "captivity" which holds
> back the progress of Bahá'í religion in America? What about the accusation
> that it lacks emphasis in the area of the "personal gospel"?
> Are Bahá'ís laboring under the illusion that people are more interested
> in saving the world than in saving themselves? Do they realize that we
> are in the whirr of the gospel of self-advancement? Haven't they caught
> on to the fact that never before have so many in religious circles offered
> so much to those who want more? Can't they see that the great masses of
> people, weary of talk about the insecurity of the big world, are eager
> to make their own little worlds safe and secure?
> 
> The Bahá'í answer to such impertinences has always been a patient
> smile and a quiet word: "It is not what people want but what people
> need that will save them. Life is intricately bound up with life. Individuals
> are interwoven with individuals. The need of one is the need of all. The
> concern of each is the concern of everyone. Your true self is every other
> self, his love is your love and his peace your peace."
> 
> A 'Tenth Door' Opening?
> 
> But now a second look shows something quite
> revealing: the opening - so it seems to me - of a "tenth door"
> to the Bahá'í cause, a door for those who insist that religion must meet
> their daily needs, help them over life's rough spots, and supply what so
> many of our major faiths today promise their followers. This "tenth
> door" is just now beginning to open slowly and silently, and the Bahá'ís
> have a motto to engrave over its symbolic entrance: "The Power of
> the Holy Spirit heals both material and spiritual ills!" And I hear
> the voices of Bahá'ís saying: "Didn't you know that personal techniques
> have always been basic in our teachings? Has it escaped you that we have
> always believed in health and healing and help through the power of faith
> and prayer?"
> 
> Abdul-Baha had much to say on this matter, and just now his words
> invite the modern searcher to investigate the Bahá'í claims. Let all who
> are interested in the gospel of the abundant life take heed! It may be
> that the Bahá'ís are coming.
> 
> "The healing that is by the power of the Holy Spirit needs no
> special concentration or contact. Healing is through the wish or desire
> and the prayer of the holy person.... as soon as that holy person turns
> his heart to God and begins to pray, the sick one is healed." Thus
> Abdul-Baha.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh is being rediscovered in the area of mental therapy:
> "Verily the most necessary thing is contentment under all circumstances....
> Yield not to grief and sorrow, they cause the greatest misery. Jealousy
> consumes the body and anger burns the liver."
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh is being found in the field of mental health: "Joy
> gives us wings. In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect
> keener."
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh appears in the arena of diet and health: "The food
> of the future will be fruit and grain. Renouncing of tobacco, wine and
> opium gives health, strength, intellectual enjoyment, penetration of judgement
> and physical vigor."
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh speaks in the province of mystical prayer: "All
> of us, when we attain to a truly spiritual condition, can hear the voice
> of God."
> 
> These and many other injunctions covering the ethics of wealth, the
> oneness of religion and science, the spiritual content of work and play,
> the role of religion in education are part of the "tenth door."
> From here on when someone cries out, "Poor me! All is lost! And you
> want me to save the world?" the Bahá'í answer is clear: "Look
> again and you will find in the teachings of our Prophet not only a way
> to save the world, but a method to save
> 
> [page 451]
> 
> yourself as well." And, as in other instances of this kind,
> the consciousness of need will be a definite factor in the consciousness
> of discovery.
> 
> The Bahá'í faith may have been slow in getting started in America
> because of its ambitious and altruistic world-uniting program. It may have
> put the cart before the horse. It may have oversold Bahá'u'lláh on the
> basis of the oneness of all faiths. But a second look shows that by way
> of its devotion and the opening door, it may loose itself from captivity.
> It may also be that the minister was quite right when he said, "If
> these Bahá'ís ever get going, they may take the country by storm!"
> 
> - Marcus Bach
> 
> The Christian Century, Volume 74, Number 20 (May 15,
> 1957), p. 625
> 
> CORRESPONDENCE
> 
> Bahá'ía [sic]
> 
> [letter #1]
> 
> SIR: Many thanks for the splendid article by Marcus Bach on the Bahais
> in The Christian Century of April 10. The article, brief as it is, is well
> written and shows a good impression of our faith. I do hope that it may
> show to others a clear explanation of what we stand for.
> 
> - CHESTER WAFFORD.
> 
> Santa Ana, Calif.
> 
> [letter #2]
> 
> SIR: As a former Presbyterian, U.S.A., missionary who lived in Iran, the
> home of Bahaism, for more than 40 years, had first-hand contact with Bahais
> there, and has made some study of this religion, I was amazed at Dr. Bach's
> "Bahá'í: a Second Look" (April 10). I gather that his knowledge of the
> subject comes largely from writings by or conversations with Bahais, which
> are often distortions of the facts, especially when it comes to early Bahai
> history.
> 
> Dr. Bach states that Bahaullah went to Akka in 1865; the correct date, I
> believe, is 1868. He speaks of visiting "the old prison where he was held
> captive for 25 years and where his son, Abdul-Baha, was a prisoner for 40
> years." This is pure Bahai propaganda. Baha and his followers were
> imprisoned in the military barracks of Akka for two years and suffered much
> discomfort there. After that Baha lived in a house in the town for nine
> years, and from then on till his death in a palace outside the city
> purchased with funds that poured in from his followers in Iran. Bahaullah
> was sent to Akka by the Turkish government because of his bitter quarreling
> with his brother, Yahya, who was at the same time deported to Cyprus.
> 
> Abdul-Baha - no prisoner for 40 years - lived with his father till the
> latter's death. After that he moved about freely till 1901, when he was
> again confined to Akka for seven years because he in turn quarreled so
> bitterly with his half-brother, Mohammed Ali. Thereafter he was again at
> liberty.
> 
> The Bab never announced "the coming of a messiah: Bahá'u'lláh." He announced
> the coming of "Him whom God shall manifest," who was not to be expected for
> at least 1,500 years. He appointed as his successor not Bahaullah but
> Bahaullah's brother Yahya, as is indicated in a letter which the latter
> showed to Dr. Browne (mentioned in Dr. Bach's article). Yahya, or
> Subh-i-Azal, as known by his title, was head of the movement for 10 or 15
> years, after which Bahaullah usurped the leadership and had the history of
> the movement rewritten to make out that the Bab was merely a forerunner of
> himself and not the divine manifestation he had claimed to be.
> 
> The Bahai Scriptures, from which Dr. Bach quotes, contain selections
> from Bahaullah and Abdul-Baha, many of them praiseworthy and chosen to
> appeal to the mind of the Christian Westerner. The twelve special tenets
> of the Bahai faith, as set forth in their promotional literature, contain
> nothing new or original. Examples of these tenets are: "independent
> investigation of the truth" (where Bahaullah claimed to be infallible and
> no one had the right to dispute him); "religion must be the cause of
> unity" (where in the case of Bahaullah and his brother it was the cause
> of disunity); "equality between men and women" (where Bahaullah himself had
> three wives - or, some say, two wives and a concubine). The teachings are
> good but they do not seem to square with the life of the founder.
> 
> The real Bahai Bible, as Bahais will admit, is the Kitab-ul-Aqdas
> (Most Holy Book), a small book, written in Arabic, which contains laws
> promulgated by Bahaullah.... It shows Bahaism to be a legalistic faith: it
> legislates on such subjects as prayers, fasting, inheritance, pilgrimages,
> punishments for various crimes, marriage. Bahais do not dare translate it
> into English for fear of the damage it would do their movement.
> 
> Dr. Bach entitled his article: "Bahai: A Second Look." May I respectfully
> suggest that he take a third look by reading such books as Miller's
> Bahá'ísm: Its Origin, History, and Teachings, or Richards' The
> Religion of the Bahá'ís; or, if he knows Persian, Kashf-ul-Hayal
> (Exposure of Fraud) by Avareh, the historian of the Bahai movement, who
> later defected, or Niku's Felsefeh-yi-Niku (Niku's Philosophy),
> written by another former Bahai.
> 
> - C. H. ALLEN
> 
> New York, N.Y.
> 
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> Views11215 views since posted 2002-09-01; last edit 2026-03-24 02:06 UTC;
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> previous at archive.org.../bach_bahai_second_look;
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> — *Baha'i: A Second Look (Used by permission of the curator)*