svanneck

Two missionaries are tracting through South Central Los Angeles when all of a sudden they hear a gunshot from across the street. In an instant, one of the missionaries goes down. His companion stoops over him, trying to find out how badly he is hurt. A few seconds later, the fallen missionary opens his eyes, gets up, and dusts himself off. Miraculously, he is completely unharmed! He reaches inside his coat pocket and pulls out his Book of Mormon, with the bullet still lodged in it. He opens the book, looks at his companion and exclaims, "Can you believe it, elder? Even the bullet couldn't get through Second Nephi!"

Thanks, rren! A good source of information is the web site of the Baha'is of the United States at bahai.us.

As a non-member, I agree with the policy not to watch movies that have gratuitous violence or sexual content in them, even as an adult. However, I wonder if it is overly simplistic simply to say "Don't watch R-Rated movies". If the Church had its own ratings board, then I could see that being a viable thing, but in effect it is saying to rely on the judgment of the MPAA as to what you should or shouldn't watch. Firstly the MPAA categories are overly broad, and secondly they're very inconsistent, as has been noted earlier. Not only are movies such as Schindler's List lumped in with all the frat movies, I also find that some MPAA ratings seem to be biased in favor of or against a certain message, e.g. I did not find anything in the movie Kingdom of Heaven (with Orlando Bloom) to warrant an R rating, and I can't help but feel that the MPAA was unhappy with the movie's negative portrayal of the Crusaders. My wife and I have resorted to all but ignoring the MPAA ratings wherever there is a Netflix rating available. Netflix has a very detailed rating system that not only looks at age-appropriateness, but also at specific examples of immoral behavior, language, drug- and alcohol use, etc. This was brought home to us recently as we watched the new movie "Fame", which was rated PG but should have at least been rated PG-13 due to a lot of objectionable scenes, in my view. When we later looked at Netflix, they had rated it "Iffy for 12+" and listed all of the things which I had a problem with. Had we first looked there, we would not have watched it with our kids. An opposite example is the movie "Frost/Nixon", which the MPAA rates R but Netflix says is OK for 14+. I think ultimately we cannot rely on someone else making the decision for us. We need to educate ourselves and use our own best judgment to decide what is healthy for our kids and ourselves to watch. This may include making trade-offs, such as allowing kids to see a movie with a few bad words (which they hear in school every day) but which otherwise is a good movie with an important message. Just my 2 cents...

I just wanted to say to Gwen, I love the quotes in your signature!

Thanks for the welcome! To answer your question, there are some differences in how Mormons and Baha'is understand the concept of prophethood that prevent me from answering in the affirmative. But what I can tell you is that the spiritual and administrative head of the Baha'i Faith is the Universal House of Justice, a body of nine people who individually have no authority but who collectively are promised divine guidance (infallibility) by the founder of the Faith, Baha'u'llah. One of the purposes of the UHJ is to provide continuous guidance to mankind, commensurate to the needs of the time. So in that sense, the way Baha'is see their supreme institution, the Universal House of Justice, is similar to how Mormons view their living prophet. I hope that answers the question... :)

Yes, I did the full 9-day pilgrimage, and I got to spend time at the mansions of Bahji and Mazra'ih near Acre, and also the Garden of Ridvan. Every one of those places is beautiful. The terraces on Mt. Carmel as well as the Shrine of the Bab are open to the public, by the way. Where in Russia did you serve your mission? I've never been there nor do I speak Russian but I love the language, it's beautiful to listen to. And it's a very diverse country both geographically and demographically.

I had the bounty of taking my family to Haifa on a Baha'i pilgrimage in the summer of '07. It was an indescribably beautiful experience for me. Thank you for reminding me of it.

Hmm. No, I'm not familiar with that phrase. Do you know what it was in reference to? My initial impression is that it has to do with letting things happen organically, not to force the process. But it is not a "Baha'i" phrase to the best of my knowledge. I've heard about Jainism but I know virtually nothing about it. It would be interesting some time to learn a little about your former religion and specifically about the path from Jain to Mormon.

Hi all! I noticed there's one or two other Baha'is on this forum, and mention has already been made of the many things Baha'is and Latter-day Saints have in common. I've been married to my wonderful wife, who's a devout and active Church member, for over 14 years, and I've been a Baha'i for most of that time. I appreciate the teachings of the Church and have read the BoM, D&C, PGP as well as much of the rich collection of historical church publications. I'm good friends with many people in my wife's ward and enjoy going to church whenever I can -- although my own activities in my faith have prevented me of late. I'm always looking to learn more about the LDS faith, and if anyone wants to ask me about some of the things I've discovered we have in common, feel free. I'm not interested in converting anyone, and I'm not interested in being converted. My only goal as a Baha'i is to learn from people of different religions, to find common ground, and to do my small part in promoting the cause of religious harmony. Warm regards, S