Bahá`í/Expert Profile

Expertise

I've been a member of the Reform Bahai Faith since 1976, have published in the Bahai journal World Order, and served in several Bahai communities throughout the United States. Having read extensively in the Bahai writings for over thirty years and having had university coursework in religious studies and theology, I can confidently address issues of cultural, historical, and spiritual importance to Bahais and other interested people of various religious and secular outlook.

Experience in the area

As a member of the Reform Bahai Faith and one of the founders of the Usenet discussion group talk.religion.bahai, I have been intimately involved in the issues of free speech and conscience within the Bahai Faith since 1996, if not longer. http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship

Organizations

Reform Bahai Faith http://www.reformbahai.org

Publications

I am also the editor or author of two books on the Bahai teachings. The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Baha'u'llah & Abdu'l-Baha. With a new Introduction and the original 1912 Foreword. Hardcover: ISBN: 9780967042138 148 pages. Reform Bahai Press, 2008. Letters from the American Desert: Signposts of a Journey, A Vision. ISBN: 9780967042114. Preface. 172 pages. 2008. In Letters from the American Desert, Glaysher reflects on the cultural, political, and religious history of Western and non-Western civilizations, pondering the dilemmas of postmodernity, in a compelling struggle for spiritual knowledge and truth. Fully cognizant of the relativism and nihilism of modern life, Glaysher finds a deeper meaning and purpose for the individual and the world community in the writings and global vision of Baha’u’llah, as expressed in the Reform Bahai Faith. Confronting the antinomies of the soul, grounded in the dialectic, Glaysher explores a path beyond the postmodern desert. Alluding to Martin Luther and W. B. Yeats at All Souls Chapel, Glaysher calls Reform Bahais and others to consider the universal, moderate form of the Bahai Teachings as interpreted by Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son, who had spoken throughout the West in Europe, England, and the United States from 1911 to 1913. Abdu’l-Baha’s message of the oneness of God, all religions, and humankind holds out a new hope and vision for a world in spiritual and global crisis. Far from a theocracy, the Reform Bahai Faith envisions a modest separation of church and state as the will of God, in harmony and balance with universal peace, in a global age of pluralism, where religious belief is a distinctive mark of the individual, not collective, communal identity. Printed books and eBooks available via links at http://www.fglaysher.com/order_books.html

Education/Credentials

MA, University of Michigan, English, 1981 BGS, University of Michigan, English, Biblical Studies, Islam, 1980 Ten years teaching, at the university and college level, English, Rhetoric, American literature, non-Western literature, World Religions, and other courses.

Awards and Honors

A Fulbright-Hays scholar to China in 1994, I studied at Beijing University, the Buddhist Mogao Caves on the old Silk Road, and elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. While a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in 1995 on India, I further explored the conflicts between the traditional regional civilizations of Islamic and Hindu cultures and modernity. I have been an outspoken advocate of the United Nations and was an accredited participant at the UN Millennium Forum (2000).

What do you like about this subject?

I've had to turn off the "Rating" system because of the widely recognized tendency of some Baha'i denominations to use reprehensible methods against dissenters. See the Baha'i Faith & Religious Freedom of Conscience website for details. http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field?

I hope that people can come to understand and explore the profundity of Abdul-Baha's interpretation of Baha'u'llah's universal teachings, as when Abdul-Baha emphasized, "The conscience of man is sacred and to be respected."

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know:

Of the several Bahai denominations, the Reform Bahai Faith is the only denomination that follows Abdul-Baha'is 1912 Authentic Covenant, which he publicly delivered in New York, the City of the Covenant, and it was to the 1912 Authentic Covenant that all early Bahais referred when they used the term.

Something controversial or provocative about this subject

Long suppressed by Bahais of other denominations, Reform Bahais have returned to, and renewed, Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant. Available at http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.html