ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703070012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: the back pew
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
There are few people more enthusiastic than evangelists or missionaries.
Their causes are not always religious. There are environmentalist missionaries, feminist evangelists, "X-Files" apostles.
But generally we associate the word missionary with religion, and specifically with the label "Christian."
Other faiths, however, also have their missionaries - just as enthusiastic, just as motivated, just as zealous as their Christian counterparts.
Roanoke's Alfred Fox and Marcus Potts are two of those.
Earlier this winter, the men were part of a nine-person team from the United States that traveled to the African nation of Namibia to spread the Baha'i faith.
While Baha'is claim to be more geographically widespread - that is, represented by adherents in more nations - than any religion besides Christianity, they continue to be relatively unknown and small in number.
Out of Islam, a new religion
The faith has its roots in 19th-century Islamic Iran - then known as Persia - where holy man Siyyad Ali-Muhammad, known as the Bab (pronounced ``bob''), prophesied about the coming of a new revelation from God.
In 1863, a few years after the martyrdom of the Bab, Tehran-born Mirza Husayn Ali proclaimed himself the prophesied "manifestation of God." He became known as Baha'u'llah - "Splendor of God" - and began his mission as "God's messenger for this age." He died in 1892 in what is now Israel.
The religion he founded is known as the Baha'i faith.
Baha'u'llah taught that all the great religions of the Earth are divine in origin and destined for unity; that a world civilization will spring from the inherent unity and equality of all humans; that all racial, ethnic, gender and nationalistic prejudices must be erased; that religion and science work in harmony; and that God's nature is essentially unknowable.
There is no clergy, and leadership positions are filled after a spiritual consensus is reached by local fellowships - such as the ones in the Roanoke and New River valleys - or larger assemblies. As do many other religions, the Baha'i faith forbids murder, arson, theft, gambling, homosexuality and the use of alcohol and other habit-forming drugs.
Baha'is revere earlier religious leaders, such as Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, as similarly legitimate deliverers of God's revelation to human beings, but consider Baha'u'llah the ultimate manifestation.
It was to tell that story that nine African-American men left the United States in mid-January for a 20-day teaching mission.
Most of the time was spent in Namibia in southern Africa, though there also was a visit to Angola and a pilgrimage to Haifa, Israel, where Baha'u'llah is buried.
Enthusiasm in the `homeland'
When Alfred Fox recounts the journey, his face beams and his words spill out in waves of enthusiastic description.
The entire trip was "unbelievable," Fox said, beginning with their landing and greeting from the speaker of the Namibian parliament.
The missionaries met with various tribal groups, trying to promote unity among them and between the nation's black majority and white minority.
The delegation received a boost after being credited by some, at least, for bringing rain to a region that had been suffering a multiyear drought.
"The first day, it started raining," Fox said. In just over a week, a reservoir that had been reduced to about 10 percent of its capacity was fully replenished, he said.
Fox, who became a Baha'i in 1992 after converting from Christianity, said the African trip was "an eye-opener" for him, as well as an opportunity to spread the word about the faith.
Each of the team members had to pay his own way. Fox put in some overtime on his Norfolk Southern job and took on a second job to raise the money. He used his vacation time to travel.
The effort was more than worth it, he said.
"The joy within the hearts of the people there" was an inspiration, as was the realization that he was treading in a place from which his ancestors came.
Repeatedly, "the people greeted us by saying, `Welcome home, brother.'''
As a traveler who "did not know a great deal about Africa," that represented "a fulfillment."
But the group also went to teach, not just to learn.
"I only went to serve, as a servant," Fox said. He reported numerous conversions to the faith based on the testimony and teaching of the U.S. group, and a "concentration on teaching the children," who he said he hopes will be "a generation raised free of racism."
Like many a missionary before him, Fox's experience left him with a determination to do more.
"I definitely plan on doing it again. Next year, if God is willing."
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB