Rainn Wilson On How The Baha’i Faith Inspires Unity in an ‘Outrage Culture’
Rainn Wilson. Creative Commons image.
Rainn Wilson, the 54-year-old actor, writer and producer primarily known for his breakout role as Dwight Schrute on the hit American television show, The Office, has had a somewhat hidden inspiration for the way he approaches his acting career.
Five days a week, he prays and meditates in the morning. Ninety-five times a day, Wilson repeats, “Alláh-u-Abhá,” meaning, “God is all glorious.” Once a day, Wilson recites the obligatory prayer that goes, “I bear witness, oh my God, that Thou has created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify at this moment to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth, that there is none other God but Thee, the Help in peril, the self-subsisting.”
“I think for a lot of people, they’re like ‘woah, what the hell is this guy talking about? This guy played Dwight and he’s funny and he’s weird but he’s talking about God all the time?’” Wilson told Religion Unplugged.
He’s a member of the Baha’i faith, which started in Persia in 1844 and spread from there to nearly every country in the world, attracting an estimated 5-7 million followers today.
Members of the Baha’i faith acknowledge and respect all world religions and their messengers or prophets, including Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Krishna and many more religious figures. Baha’is believe that these figures are “manifestations of God,” messengers of the one divine God.
“Basically, if I know my meaning of life and my purpose, to know and worship God, and if to know and worship God is that very multi-colored, multi-faceted and multi-variegated kind of exploration of what it is to be a human being—to be kind, to serve, to create beauty, to bring together, to love and appreciate nature—that’s all part of it,” Wilson said.
Listen to the full interview with Rainn Wilson on the Religion Unplugged podcast.
Baha’i culture places great importance on prayer and meditation as a way to unite people, apt tools during a time of polarization and “outrage culture,” Wilson said.
“No matter what your belief system, we can come together and pray,” Wilson said. “We have Jews, born-again Christians and agnostics who bring a poem. We’ll do just a real simple meditation sometimes and read some Baha’i prayers and read some stuff from the Bible and the Qur’an.”
While drawing on all major religions, members of the Baha’i faith put greater emphasis on the teachings of their leaders Bab and Baha’u’llah, commonly called the “twin manifestations.” The Bab, meaning the gate, was martyred by the Persian authorities in the mid-19th century. Baha’u’llah, meaning the glory of God, took on the name after living in exile and being inspired by the Bab.
Rainn compared the Bab to John the Baptist in Christian terms, someone that warned of someone greater than he—or Baha’u’llah. Both men are believed to be the two most recent, and significant, messengers of God in the Baha’i faith.
“Baha’u’llah’s teachings are very much progressive social teachings that are here for the unification of humankind,” Wilson said. “This is why I’m a Baha’i right now, especially because of this current political climate, Baha’u’llah’s message is one of love and unity and bringing people together. It’s the elimination of racial prejudice, the equality of women and men, elimination of extremes between wealth and poverty, universal education and the harmony of science and religion.”
Baha’u’llah spent the majority of his life in prison—enabling him to write hundreds of books and tablets teaching the key principles of the Baha’i faith. The primary readings can be found in Baha’u’llah’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas (A legszentebb könyv), which is considered to be the “most holy book.”
Wilson’s Baha’i faith journey began with his parents, his mom an actress and yoga teacher and his dad a writer and businessman. They converted in the ‘60’s with the Civil Rights movement and rise of American disillusionment with the government and war. Baha’i’s principles of peace and unity attracted people, fueling its immense growth in the U.S.
The Baha’i population in the U.S. was around 10,000 individuals in 1963. By 1974, that number had reached 60,000.
“It really exploded,” Wilson said. “There were a lot of Baha’i actor celebrities, actors and artists.”
Baha’i’s principles of peace and anti-prejudice were attractive to those in both urban centers and states like South Carolina and Georgia with high Black populations.
Wilson grew up in the ‘70s in a Seattle home that he described as having frequent “Baha’i talks.” These talks didn’t just focus on Baha’u’llah, they also centered around reading and discussing other prominent religious texts like the Bible and the Qur’an.
This upbringing helped him develop the idea for his media company founded in 2008, SoulPancake, which centers around discussing life’s biggest questions.
“When you go to a Baha’i talk, it’s not like we’re trying to convert you to the Baha’i faith. We certainly want to teach people about the Baha’i faith but the goal is not conversions,” Wilson said. “We talk about spiritual ideas and life’s big questions.”
When Wilson left his hometown to pursue acting in New York City in the ‘80’s, his religious connection took a hit. He renounced Baha’i and all things religion until he had reached his acting goals in the city, and still felt like there was something missing.
“I didn’t want to be held down by morality, I didn’t want the religion of my parents. I just wanted to move to New York City and do whatever I wanted to do as a young, bohemian artist,” Wilson said. “I found myself lonely, unhappy, depressed and a little lost. I was living my dream, I was an actor working in the theatre.”
Wilson then decided to embark on a spiritual journey in an attempt to better understand himself. He read the world’s holy texts and started attending a variety of religious services until he returned back to the readings of Baha’i.
“I had that second conversion in my heart,” Wilson said.
Now, Wilson participates in many of his own “firesides,” or Baha’i talks, like his parents, with his community. He finds much of the beauty of the Baha’i faith in the meditation and prayer with his community—whether that be with other Baha’is or members of other faiths.
“People in the blue states meditate but don’t pray. People in the red states pray and don’t meditate,” Wilson said. “Baha’is pray and meditate. We believe in God and the power of prayer.”
Besides prayer, the highest form of worship in the Baha’i faith is service to others. Wilson cited Baha’u’llah when he said, “Work in the spirit of service is worship in the eyes of God.”
Wilson often asks himself, “how can my spiritual tools help make the world better?” He said that when someone becomes Baha’i, they must have the internal dialogue of, “I believe in Baha’u’llah so I have to work my ass off to try and make myself a better person and make the world a better place.”
Mattie Townson is an editorial intern for Religion Unplugged and a journalism student at The King's College in New York City. She is the Campus Editor for her school newspaper, The Empire State Tribune.