As a member of the Baha’i Faith for 34 years, I would like to thank the Rev. Daryl E. Witmer for mentioning the Birth of the Bab (Oct. 20, 1819) in his commentary in “Voices.” The Bab, whose name means “Gate,” is the prophet-herald of the Baha’i Faith, an independent world religion, which as the Rev. Witmer correctly stated, has some 6 million adherents around the world. There are approximately 700 members of this faith in Maine.

Although I greatly appreciate the minister’s mostly accurate and positive portrayal of the Baha’i Faith, I’d like to stress that the Baha’i tenet of the oneness of religion does not exclude “important religious distinctions,” as the commentary in “Voices” suggested.

When Baha’is say that the religions are one, they do not mean that the various creeds and organizations are the same. Rather, they believe that there is simply one religion and all of the Messengers of God have progressively revealed its nature, according to the informative Baha’i Web site www.bahai.org/faq/beliefs/progressive.

In other words, Baha’is view the world’s great religions as an expression of a single, unfolding plan, “the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.” For this reason, we see religious unity as not only attainable but as a reality.

Lynn Ascrizzi

Freedom