Posted by Helen on: 05.29.2008 /
I ran across an interesting interview with Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute in the US version of “The Office”) in which he discusses Hollywood, his family and his Baha’i faith. (I saw this on The Dude Abides)
Here is Rainn’s answer to what it was like to grow up in the Baha’i faith.
When you grow up with a spiritual foundation that asks you to be conscious of the fact that all races are created equal, that men and women are equal and that all religions worship the same (God), it helps you see the world as one family and not get lost in the traps of political, social, and economic belief systems that can lead you astray. I always think of myself as a world citizen. It’s a powerful thing.
Rainn left the faith in his twenties but then a personal spiritual investigation led him back to it. You can read the whole interview here.
Comment by: Jason Horton
1It’s interesting that he rebelled against his faith but later came back to it. we’ve been talking about deconversion on the eBay atheist (free plug) and it makes me wonder how many people who deconvert reconvert later in life. Rather than trying to hold on to a believer and discourage ‘back sliding’ the Baha’i seem to encourage followers to explore their faith.
This obviously makes it more likely that those who do leave the religion will do so on friendly terms. The lack of anger means that one barrier to returning to faith isn’t there.
Comment by: Helen
2Jason, you raise some interesting issues.
My experience is that it’s hard to leave conservative Christianity on friendly terms. (That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to leave and have any conservative Christian friends – although it’s not easy to find conservative Christians ok with that) Some other forms of Christianity are so open you can do a lot of exploring without leaving. They’re pretty much defined as ‘spiritual exploration’.
Comment by: karen
3I always had a fairly positive view of the Baha’i faith. My dad dabbled in it for a bit when I was a kid and we attended a couple of house parties organized by the group. They seemed like kind, accepting people.
However, we had someone come into an ex-fundy support group that I moderate online who claimed that at the leadership level Baha’i is much more fundamentalist than not. I believe he’d disagreed with the leadership and been excommunicated, and he wasn’t so down with the whole “One People, One Planet” message that they put out for the public.
Comment by: Jason Horton
4It may be a myth but I understand that the Amish do something similar during the Rumspringa time for adolescents. Of course this must be quite scary for them so it’s no wonder that most decide to become baptised and return to the community.
Comment by: karen
5One of my major objections to the Amish is the way they treat those who choose to leave the community and faith: They basically disown them, including their own children.
As a deconvert myself, I know how difficult emotionally it is to reject religion, in part because so much of your family and friendships are connected with it. If I had to also know I could never be on friendly terms with my family and community – or maybe never even see them again – I probably would have just disbelieved quietly and outwardly put on the show of continuing to attend church, etc.