Reli gio n • Society • Polity • Arts In this issue ... Historical Absolutism Versus Historical Diversity Editorial Island Life­ Robin White in New Zealand and Kiribati Adrienne Jervis Rethinking "There Goes the Neighborhood" Lynnea Yancy The Art of Romare Bearden Anne Gordon Perry Out of Iran B. Barry Darugar Poems by: Susan McLaren, Paul Mantle, Valerie Martinez, Ron Price, and Janet Tomkins T he Literary and Visual Arts­ Exploring Social Issues and Social Change 2004-05 Volume 36, No. 2 INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS World Order is published quarterly by the National Spiri­ rnal Assembly of the Baha' ls of the United States, 536 Sheri­ dan Road , W il mette, IL 60091- 1811. T he views expressed here in are those of the authors and do not necessarily refl ect the opinions of the publisher or of the Editorial Board. Peer review: Submiss ions to the journal will be subj ect to extern al blind peer review if they fa ll outside the expertise of the Editorial Board or upon request by the author. 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Jim Stokes COPYRIGHT INFORMATION CONSULTANT IN POETRY Copyright © 2005 by th e National Spiritual Asse mbly of Herbert Woodward Martin rhe Baha'ls of the United States; all rights rese rved. World Order is protected th ro ugh trademark registrati on in the U.S. Parent O ffi ce. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0043-8804. ART CREDITS C over des ig n by Richard D oering; p. 7, p hotograph, Steve Garri gues; pp. 8, II, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, photo­ graphs, courtesy Ro bin W hite; pp. 20 , 27, 28, photo­ graphs, courtesy Paula H enderso n; p. 34, photograph, Stan Phillips; p. 38, The Blues a nd The Piano Lesson, Art © Roma re Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York , NY; pp. 4 0, 48, photographs, Steve G arrigues. 2 Historical Absolutism Versus Historical Diversity Editorial 4 Interchange: Letters from and to the Editor 9 Island Life-Robin White in New Zealand and Kiribati by Adrienne Jervis 19 Nude a poem by Valerie Martinez 21 Rethinking "There Goes the Neighborhood" by Lynnea Ytmry 30 The Grudge a poem by Paul Mantle 31 Crystalizing a Beauty a poem by Ron Price 32 Temple Storm a poem by Susan Mclaren 35 The Art of Romare Bearden by Anne Gordon Perry 39 The Baha'i Faith grows a poem by Janet Tomkins 41 Out of Iran by B. Barry Darugar Editorial Historical Absolutism Versus Historical Diversity The Bah6'f Faith teaches that all of the revealed religions, collectively, constitute the world's greatest good. With each successive religion, Bah6'u'll6h writes, come incalculable infusions of faith, vision, inspira­ tion, hope, and guidance for a struggling humanity. The restorative and generative power of the new religion is so great that it produces not only a new religious community but a new civilization that fulfills many of the promises embed­ ded in earlier faiths. While great religions, as historical phenomena, appear to specific peoples in specific times and places, their influence, Baha'is believe, eventually pervades many regions and many peoples, empirically, intellectually, and mystically. Inevitably, each new revelation is destined to come into conflict with older religions and cultures, and-because of its vitality and its more comprehensive social vision-eventually to supplant earlier religions as the dominant spiritual organizing principle in human societies. Yet a new religion, vital though it is, owes its ex istence to earlier traditions. Indeed, a new religion's relationship to immediate older religious traditions is primal, in the way that a child's relationship to its parents is primal. The new religion is destined to survive older religions and to surpass them, but without them it would never have been born. Historically there has always been an unfortunate tendency among some to equate the appearance of a new religion with the disappearance, or, more pointedly, with the instant irrelevance of earlier traditions. Such adherents of more recently appear­ ing religions (in the broad historical sense), all too often develop a disdain for older traditions. The more fanatical among their ranks characteristically begin to objectify and to demonize the people of the older religious traditions and to use chronological superiority as a license (at the least) to discriminate or (at the worst) to exterminate. Just as insidiously, the peoples of older religious traditions often use the historical calendar to prove their own superiority. Using as justification the argument that older is greater, they, too, terrorize people who dare to investigate or, even worse in their eyes, to accept a more recently appearing religion. Cultures and societies wage con­ flicts for extraordinarily complex reasons, but they often find it easy to use religious claims to garner support and to inflame their followers against those whose beliefs do not coincide with their own. History is littered with the residue of bloodbaths fueled by religious arguments: the Christian pogroms against Jews in Medieval Europe and against Muslims in Spain and the Middle East; the discrimination against Christians and Jews (even though Muhammad explicitly called for the protection of "the people of the Book") 2 World Order. 2004-05. Vo l. 36. No. 2 EDI TORIAL and against Bahi'fs and other non-Muslims in Muslim countries; the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in Pakistan and India; and so on. The most current and universally visible is the declared war against the Christian and Jewish West by ultra-extremist elements within Islam who claim a religious motive in defending their actions. But other lava flows of hate, including arguments within various religions, often between conservatives and liberals, continue to spread dangerously even within the avowedly moderate centers of every society. Given our collective history, has humanity the means to interrupt this recurrent and devastating pattern? Throughout the ages the greatest changes have always begun with a shift in perception, reflected in changes to language, new metaphors signaling new life. What our own time needs is an utterly new perception of what is meant by "history" and by "historical diversity." Collectively, we need to abandon the reductive assumptions that history mainly involves the appearance of absolute events that instantly erase everything that has come before. We also need to abandon the notions that history is purely linear and that history is simple. Humanity needs to acknowledge that, although superseded by new historical events, ideas, philosophies, and revelations, older religions continue to live and to contribute for centuries and ages after the birth of a new one, both as communities (however much they may dwindle in size) and as ideas that continue to influence humanity even when disconnected from their source.