The latest commentary on the Baha'i Faith from bloggers and columnists.

The content of these blogs and columns does not necessarily represent the views of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.

Also listen to Baha'i audio feature stories and commentaries.

How do you deal with a friend who’s doing something you don’t approve of? If you’re a Baha'i – or not -- you could turn to The Hidden Words by Baha'u'llah. But, advises blogger Nikhil Ravi, keep in mind the context in which He offers guidance.

Being a Baha'i, says blogger Angela Shortt, is “living the life God intends for me, thus saving me from a certain and early death by my own hands. That's my take on what it means to be a Baha'i, and to be saved.”

A visitor to the Bahá'í World Center in Haifa, Israel, expresses wonder at how well aligned his beliefs are with those of the Bahá'í Faith. (Note: Bahá'ís do not use the term Bahaism.)

Phillipe Copeland, an expectant parent of a biracial baby, comments on a distinctive feature of the Baha'i Faith -- explicitly encouraging interracial marriages and the formation of multiracial families as a means of promoting the oneness of humankind.

“When I made a Baha'i pilgrimage to Haifa, Israel, recently, I experienced a reunion with my worldwide family, and with my own heart,” writes columnist Phyllis Edgerly Ring. What Bahá'u'lláh called “the changeless faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future, draws a circle meant to include each and every one.”

Whether racialism or racism are the same or slightly different concepts is of small consequence, contends Phillipe Copeland. The main problem, he says, quoting Shoghi Effendi, is that they are “the dark, the false, and crooked doctrines for which any man or people who believes in them, or acts upon them, must, sooner or later, incur the wrath and chastisement of God."

Thom Thompson, author of Questions from Christians about Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i Faith, talks about his conversion from Christianity to the Baha'i Faith, and the similarities and differences between Baha'is and Christians on CBS-TV’s “Issues of Faith.”

Answer: a frightening master plan, says the Baha'i Faith in Egypt & Iran blog, which examines an essay on the topic by a sympathetic Muslim.

"The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war," the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i community, wrote in 1985. Not much has changed, says Phillipe Copeland, making poverty the enemy of stability.