Posted by Rob on November 05, 2101 at 13:26:38:

In Reply to: Here's my nine! posted by Dawud on November 05, 2101 at 08:10:23:

Dawud wrote:
1. No matter what you write, Evangelicals will be more likely to read it if you print it into little black-and-white comic books and leave them on people's windshields or in restrooms.

Comment: The Baha'i Faith does not prescribe littering nor pushing the Faith on others in this manner. Courtesy is better.

Dawud wrote:
2. Be sure to emphasize that you believe in a one-world government with a new religion to match. Christians seem really interested in that part for some reason.

Comment: The Baha'i Faith finds common ground with many Christians in the concept of a one world government, especially the vast majority of Christians who have supported through their governments the United Nations, with the understanding that the abolution of nationhood is not an aspect of such a universal organization.

Dawud wrote:
3. Rather than simply read the scripted Baha'i prayers, consider having everybody lift up their hands (go ahead and do it Muslim-style, it's close enough) and give the impression of being moved by the spirit.

Comment: The Baha'i Faith does not prescribe this method of prayer as a general rule. The raising of hands is not a Baha'i tradition, though nothing prevents it from becoming one.

Dawud wrote:
4. Emphasize common values such as opposition to homosexuality and abortion, quiet unease with respect to secular scholarship and feminism, and hostility toward dissent.

Commnet: The Baha'i Faith teaches that homosexuality and abortion are not acceptable practices. Secular scholarship is encouraged and praised through peer review as with any academic setting with high standards. Dissent is treated with the normal amount of social controls found in societies with membership values where the rights of the community are more important than the rights of the individual.

Dawud wrote:
5. Coffee and donuts.
Comment: Baha'i generally agree with coffee and donuts. No alchohol, drugs and illegal substances though.

Dawud wrote:
6. Find a common enemy despised by both, such as Mormonism or Scientology.
Comment: The Baha'i Faith and its followers do no despise other religious groups, though Baha'is may disagree with some theological points of such groups.

Dawud wrote:
7. When they call you hellbound, remember that they are laggards who missed out on the latest stage in humanity's spiritual evolution.
Comment: Baha'is generally do not regard non-Baha'is as laggards.

Dawud wrote:
8. Consider turning to numerology, gematria, and cryptography as common languages which can bridge the gap between your religions' end-time chronologies.
Comment: The Baha'i Faith has a very limited set of teachings along these lines which deal with prophectic dates in accord with Biblical dates. The Abjad numbering system employed by the early Babis and Baha'is was a tradition of that time among theologians and does not continue in the Faith of today, other than a means to understand the earliest Writings where it was employed in poetic and metaphoric ways.

Dawud wrote:
9. A positive impression of the faith can be produced by encouraging your younger members to have sex with evangelicals.
Comment: The Baha'i community and its teachings abhor such an idea. Chastity is taught to our youth.

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