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Last week I wrote about my belief that a loving God would not send anyone to hell, and offered an alternative view of salvation. This week I propose something even more radical. I don’t believe that God punishes us. That is, I don’t believe that God ever does anything to us that is not secretly a gift, and therefore, when looked at properly, nothing can be called punishment. To get to this understanding, my book Why Me? takes three steps. First, I tell a story about four rose bushes whose responses to being pruned by the Gardener reinforce their view of the […]

I don’t believe that God punishes us. That is, I don’t believe that God ever does anything to us that is not secretly a gift. From this perspective, when looked at properly, nothing can be called punishment. To get to this understanding, my book Why Me? takes three steps. First, I tell a story about four rose bushes whose responses to being pruned by the Gardener reinforce their view of the world.  That story is found at the beginning of the book, and also on the back of my “Gardener and the Rose” art print/pamphlet: The Gardener and the Rose

Before I became a Baha’i, the thing that troubled me most about Christianity was the idea that I needed to be “saved” by Jesus in order to avoid being sent to Hell. Since I couldn’t imagine a loving God sending anyone to Hell, I couldn’t understand what I needed to be saved from, or why I needed Jesus to do it. Since there are many seekers who have these same questions, they are the first issues that I address at the beginning of my book My Baha’i Faith.  Scroll down to read an excerpt. At 6 for $24, it is a comprehensive

The manager of the Ottawa Baha’i Center Bookstore ordered several copies of Falling Into Grace today. She said that people find the “checklist” of challenges in the back very helpful. Falling Into Grace (on sale this week) was written to help new Baha’is  deal with some of the challenges of joining the Community. Once it was published, it became clear that it was helping long-time Baha’is too. It sold 3000 copies in less than a year, was reprinted, and then revised and reprinted again. The  checklist in the back is a simple list of Baha’i Teachings and Baha’i Laws. What makes it useful is

In all of the Baha’i Writings, there is no passage that stirs my soul and inspires me to serve more than the words the Bab addressed to the 19 Letters of the Living when he sent them into the world to teach. I think we would do well to ponder them regularly during this Bicentenary Year.  If you are not familiar with them, here is how they were recorded in The Dawn Breakers. “O My beloved friends! You are the bearers of the name of God in this Day. You have been chosen as the repositories of His mystery. It behoves

If you are a long-time customer, then you’ve watched as Special Ideas went from just producing our own collection of Baha’i teaching materials, to selling teaching materials and other people’s books, to selling teaching materials, other people’s books, and our own collection of interfaith and character education materials. As we continue to try to simplify our lives, guess which of these categories is the one we are slowly dropping so we can focus more on our teaching materials. Yep. It’s the one that starts “other people’s….”  We’ve tried to keep the sacred texts from Baha’i Publishing in stock, but as

Twenty-five years ago, Karen and I drove to Wilmette to observe the Ascension of Baha’u’llah at the Baha’i House of Worship. When it was over, we went to the visitor’s center office and she signed her Baha’i Declaration Card.  After a long drive back to southern Indiana, she told me that she could see herself being married to me. I said “good,” and pulled a ring out of my pocket. That morning was the beginning of an amazing partnership that has witnessed the raising of her three children, the birth and raising of two more together (the last just graduated

Whether you are looking for an end-of-the-school-year gift for children’s classes or some how-do-I-keep-my-kids-entertained-all-summer games, crafts and activities, we’ve spent the last few years creating dozens of answers. From kid-friendly jewelry and medallions to activities books and games, you could get lost scrolling through all of the options on our new website. So here are some broad suggestions of gifts and activities: Above you can see our new Animals Building Character Coloring and Activities book. It is appropriate for a wide range of ages. The coloring pages appeal to everyone and the activities will challenge readers and thinkers from 2nd

May brings flowers and graduations. Whether it is Kindergarten, High School or College, graduations are rites of passage that deserve to be acknowledged. Here are some special ideas for the special graduate on your list: Our Spiritual Education Flashlight Stylus Pen is both thoughtful and useful.  It is a metal pen engraved with the phrase “Spiritual Education is the light of the world of humanity.” It is appropriate for HS and College graduates as well as teachers. We also have other flashlight pens for younger students. Silver Hafez Quote Medallion Whether they graduate at the top of their class or

Scrabinoes can also be used as a group-building game! I was asked to develop our local community’s program for the 1st day of Ridvan.  I had just finished writing up instructions for some new variations on how to play with our new Scrabinoes cards, and a completely different idea came to me. Here’s what I did. I put a deck of Scrabinoes cards in a basket, and had each person attending the Ridvan celebration pick one card. Scrabinoes cards have quotations on them with special words highlighted in color. Then I asked them to arrange themselves in a big circle

I sent sample decks of Scrabinoes to communities all across the country to see what people thought. The reviews are in, and people loved it! Scrabinoes is an entertaining Bahai card game that combines elements of Scrabble and Dominoes for a unique and challenging evening of fun. Perfect for Family Games Nights, Jr. Youth gatherings, College Clubs, Holy Day Parties and the Social Portion of Feast. The Bahai Writings contain many repeating themes and words. Finding those common words on the Scrabinoes cards earns you points. The more connections you can find, the more points you earn. Color coding makes

Twenty-five years ago Special Ideas took the bold step of moving from pamphlets and T-shirts to full books. Our first major publication was a pocket edition of The Hidden Words. We had been told by other publishers that “the last thing we need is another edition of The Hidden Words,” but we decided to print one anyway. The “Chickadee Edition” was an instant success, with the first 20,000 selling out within a year. Many additional printings followed, with total sales approaching half a million copies. To celebrate this milestone in our company – and in the availability of low-cost teaching