Baha’i Faith is hip with the kids.
Friday, April 28th, 2006
I wasn’t sure whether or not I really wanted to put this up, but, you know, since doing so allows me to put a picture of Tom Cruise up on the blog I figured it was worth it. So to everyone that just googled “Tom Cruise + “Baha’i” + “Blog”, thanks for stopping by.
So there was a story in the New York Daily News last week about all the “alternative” religions that today’s youth are getting into. Of course they mention Tom-Cruise-approved scientology, as well as Madonna-rific Kabbalah but then, strangely, they also cover the Baha’i Faith:
Questioning the religious status quo is what led Hannah Doherty, a smart and articulate 17-year-old from Connecticut, to convert to the Baha’i faith, a humanist religion with more than 6 million members worldwide.
As a freshman, she started exploring the faith (having been raised in a nominally Christian household) and found it offered satisfying answers.
“The thing that appeals the most about it is how there isn’t a clergy and it isn’t about rules and the dogma,” Hannah says. “That’s what I disliked so much about the church - everyone saying the exact same prayer at the same time and at the end of the service, you could go back to work and still screw people over.”
Hannah was also attracted to the faith’s emphasis on action - whether helping AIDS patients or encouraging women’s education - and is refreshingly self-aware when talking about her beliefs. “It’s such a worldwide view, that’s why I like it. They have a plan, and it’s more than just an idea.” She pauses, then chuckles. “It sounds like a cult, I know.”
Well. Ok, so they call it a humanist religion, which it isn’t; and Hannah herself says that it “sounds like a cult” (nice work Hannah) but hey, at least now we have some of that alt-punk-rock allure that all the kids are looking for. That, and I have Tom Cruise on my blog.
For those of us who came into the Baha'i Faith through the ever popular 
