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.

Shawntay Henry, a 15-year-old from the Virgin Islands, won
this year's national 'Poetry Out Loud' contest with her moving
recitation of "Fredrick Douglass" by Robert Hayden, an
African-American Baha'i poet. Listen on NPR.

"Equal education and the equality it brings to women will not merely give them equal power in the same world, it will change the world," writes Out of my Head.

It would be free of rancor and unifying for starters, says Baha'i Chris Gilbert.

Baha'is have a unique take on elections, which a member of the Faith describes in her post on Bahai Perspectives.

Ruminating on how religious figures have variously been portrayed on screen, The Geza Fracas breathes a cinematic sigh of relief that the Baha'i Faith has an injunction prohibiting the representation of holy personages as characters in a story.

April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the "Women, Faith and Abuse" segment of the April 3 Interfaith Voices radio program includes Layli Miller-Muro telling how the Baha'i Faith inspired her to establish the Tahirih Justice Center. The organization, based in Falls Church, Va., provides legal support for women and girls who have experienced sexual abuse and violence.

A slew of readers respond to Victor Kulkosky's March 21 blog about the importance of achieving race unity.

Baha'is believe the "most vital and challenging issue” in the United States is eliminating racial prejudice. "Vital, because the very life of the nation depends on achieving race unity; challenging, because it is difficult to achieve and makes demands on those who wish to achieve it," writes Victor Kulkosky, a professional journalist, editor, Baha'i and blogger who examines the Faith's writings on achieving race unity.

As I listened to the news today, Los Angelista writes, “I found myself thinking specifically about how as a nation we have not addressed our religious prejudices against Muslims. In fact, we are guilty of a great deal of religious prejudice toward our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

“When you are up, don’t worry, you’ll be down. And when you are down, you’ll be up again." Taking her father's words of wisdom to heart, Baha'i Shoaleh Young copes with life's vicissitudes by striving, working and praying. As a bonus, she provides readers with Baha'i prayers for several different circumstances and links to more.

To live a life of peace and spirit, “we must offer others what we are looking for ourselves,” Chris Gilbert, a Baha'i in Washington State, writes in The Peninsula Gateway. That involves using “head, heart and soul,” which he likens to the “three legs of a stool upon which we balance our lives.”

On the surface, living the Baha'i Life means saying daily obligatory prayers, abstaining from alcohol and illicit drugs, and fasting once a year, to name a few commitments. But on a deeper level, explains the Daily Baha'i Blog, being a Baha'i demands aligning one's inner life to the spirit of the Faith.

On the wisdom of searching for the truth with eyes wide open.

"Physical life is not ultimate reality," and it is only the soul that is real, writes Baha'i Joyce Fuller Kleikamp in 'Faith & Action: Mere Illusion.'