The Improbability of Converting Everyone to the Baha’i Faith

Are you still waiting for “entry by troops”? I was a Baha’i thirty years, from the end of the 1960’s until 2001, and believed “entry by troops” and the Lesser Peace would definitely happen by the end of the century.

The Baha’i “entry by troops” never happened. I worked very hard to try to make it happen. Travel teaching. Teaching projects. Direct teaching. Door-to-door even. All very unsuccessful. Most “new believers” found during mass teaching projects are never consolidated into the Baha’i Faith, ending up as bad addresses on computer printouts.

Obviously, “entry by troops” hasn’t happened, and the fact is that the growth of the Baha’i Faith is very, very slow.

As the years passed and the promised mass conversions weren’t even on the horizon, I learned to look rationally at the world situation. I had to take off my Baha’i rose-colored glasses and see for myself that most of the people in the world have no desire to enter a religion with a lot of rigid laws, many of which may seem irrational or unnecessarily restrictive.

The flowery translation of Baha’u’llah’s writing into Elizabethan English, to make it resemble the King James Version of the Bible, was not enough to impress most people of the divinity of the “Blessed Beauty.”

In fact, most people these days have no desire to read.

Baha’i is a religion for intellectuals… people who could possibly read the voluminous writings of the founders of the Baha’i Faith. That leaves out a lot of people who, if they did decide to become Baha’i, would probably not choose to be deepened unless channeled into a Ruhi class, where they’d at least get the basic brainwashing information, in a systematic and comprehensive way.

Eventually I could see that “entry by troops” was an empty promise. The people of the world apparently are not looking for a new savior. There probably will never be massive numbers of conversions to Baha’i.

There are a lot of other more popular religions to choose from in case it is true that there are “populations desperately searching for solutions to the crisis in which society is sinking.” (Quoting from a letter of the UHJ.)

If you want to see “entry by troops” – have a look at this cool video of the “Revelation Song,” because that’s where a lot of the converts went.

If you weren’t a Baha’i in the late 1900’s you may not realize that we were under the impression that the Lesser Peace would be established by the end of the century. We believed there was an urgent need to donate to the building of the World Center in Haifa, Israel, so the Faith would be ready for the mass conversions that were imminent.

“Are there any signs that the permanent peace of the world will be established in anything like a reasonable period?” `Abdu’l-Bahá was asked. “It will be established in this century,” He answered. “It will be universal in the twentieth century. All nations will be forced into it.”

`Abdu’l-Bahá in Canada (Ontario: Bahá’í Canada Publications, 1987), p. 35.

After these expectations were dashed, the Universal House of Justice provided a statement on why our expectations were not met.

The new spin is that there’s a “kingdom of peace” which indeed has been established, but it is not yet visible. That’s based on this quote:

“The kingdom of peace, salvation, uprightness, and reconciliation is founded in the invisible world, and it will by degrees become manifest and apparent through the power of the Word of God!”

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha

In Enrollments and limited growth in the Baha’i Community (2002) the point is made that if people aren’t converting to the Baha’i Faith, it is the fault of the incompetent national and local elected assembly members:

“Ultimately, the responsibility for ensuring that their own community arises to the challenge must rest with the elected representatives of the believers, at local and national levels.”

- Universal House of Justice

Just another guilt trip in case they haven’t had enough Baha’i guilt trips already.

It is probably true that Baha’i communities aren’t trying hard to get enrollments. I’ve seen a lot of apathy in the Baha’i Faith, though I recall trying multiple times with firesides, teaching campaigns, direct teaching projects, and more… with almost all efforts ending in the eventual frustration of failure.

The few real conversion experiences I was part of, I now very much regret.

Has anyone considered that maybe the Baha’i Faith isn’t meant to grow?

Do failed prophecies convince anyone in this religion that something’s gone awry?

www.ex-bahai.com