1893 Columbian Exposition - First Public Mention of the Bahá’í Faith in America

ON September 23, 1893 Chicago became the site of the first public mention of the Bahá’í Faith in America.

“At the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in connection with the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Bahá’í Faith was mentioned for the first time in the West. A paper written by the Reverend Henry H. Jessup, who was serving in Syria, quoted words spoken by Bahá’u’lláh in 1890 to the orientalist Edward Granville Browne that “gave utterance to sentiments so noble, so Christlike, that we repeat them as our closing words”:

“That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bond of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religions should cease and differences of race be annulled. What harm is there in this? Yet so it shall be. These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and “the Most Great Peace” shall come. Do not you in Europe need this also? Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.”

http://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org/index.php?option=com_content&v…