Tag Archives: bahaullah

The recent SpokaneFāVS series on “The Evil in this World” may have missed something. Evil is certainly abundant; multiple examples are provided. But how much is focused on what may be the most common evil of all — lying? This simple act ranges from the deliberate whopper to nuanced shading of truth, from military propaganda to religious leaders denying child molestation to rationalization.

Consider the fate of two Baha’i women in Iran who, in November, were sentenced to their second 10-year prison terms after a hiatus of four years. Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, were first incarcerated in 2008 and released in 2018. At the time they were part of an informal group of five men and two women who tended to the basic pastoral needs of the Iranian Baha’i community. This was with “full knowledge of the Iranian government,” according to the Baha’I International Community (BIC) in Geneva. The BIC represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums.

Besides symbolizing God’s eternal promise, the rainbow’s physical and spiritual beauty can be viewed as a metaphor for how we humans age. As we go through life, we admire rainbows from afar, pure light scattering myriad hues through crystal prisms of raindrops. The naked eye detects only bright colors, distinct yet inseparable.

Politics extends far beyond “local.” Social, economic and, more recently, environmental examples abound. Most comprehensive is the Earth we share. Only in recent decades have we been aware of that blue marble — Earth photographed from space — our commons, tragically being plundered.

Despite institutional inadequacies, the scope and extent of the U.N.’s influence throughout our global civilization is beyond comprehension. Just as our own country continuously struggles to unify states, so also has the U.N. struggled to bring nations together. But the trajectory is clear. Last week’s show of unity at the U.N. was unprecedented.

We’re now manipulated by information from all over. Hackers on both sides of the Ukraine war, for example, jockey to influence its outcome. Feeds from global social media draw viewers by the millions. How much of the information we imbibe is accurate? How much is generated by artificial intelligence? How much is just plain lies? Most importantly, how do we know?