How I Became a Baha’i by Susan Andreini Lefton

Submitted April 2024

It was November 1975.  My [then] husband, Scott Matheny, and I and our two young daughters, Andrea and Samantha, were living in the small town of Stanwood, IA (800 people and thirty miles east of Cedar Rapids), where we had moved two years previously.  Still adjusting to rural life – I grew up in Oakland, CA – we were refurbishing a one-hundred-year-old house, nurturing a new vegetable garden, settling our girls into school and daycare, commuting daily for jobs in the “city,” and feeling a bit isolated.  Seeking religion was not on my mind. To celebrate my 30^th birthday that month, we arranged for a child-sitter and made dinner reservations at the aging but still elegant Roosevelt Hotel in Cedar Rapids.  While waiting to be seated that evening, we enjoyed drinks in the lounge and the talented duo singing at the other end of the room.  Following our meal, we lingered in the lounge, listening to the familiar and upbeat songs of “A Brand New Day.”  Little did I know that this evening was the beginning of an amazing spiritual journey I would be traveling for the rest of my life.

We returned to the Roosevelt Hotel over the next few weeks on a regular basis, often staying until the lounge closed after midnight, chatting with the happy troubadours, Phil and Janine – she with the angelic voice – and soon with other “regulars” at their performances.  Not only was their music and engagement with the audience appealing, their attitudes about the world and its future were so positive and so contrary to current opinions and conversations. In time I learned that they were members of a religion I had never heard of, one that believed there is only one God, that people of all religions actually worship the same God, and that we are all members of one human race.  I was intrigued and asked for some literature about this “Bahá’í Faith,’’ which was slow in coming.  In the meantime, I asked a lot of questions to which I received straightforward answers without information overload; I observed that the actions of this couple and their fellow Bahá’ís were consistent with their statements regarding the teachings of their faith; and I was delighted with the new friends in our life – Phil and Janine and the growing number of diverse, interesting and warm-hearted folks and families in their circle.

Over the next few months, we began attending firesides in the homes of Bahá’ís in Cedar Rapids (recalling fondly Hank and Claudia’s hospitality in particular), and gatherings in other Bahá’í communities in eastern Iowa, especially if Janine and Phil were performing there.  We spent time with them in their home in Garrison, IA, meeting more fascinating folks.  I remember in particular attending an Ayyám-i-Há party there like no other party I’d ever been to – so much joy and fellowship among people of all different ages, languages, talents, colors, interests, and no alcohol.  I was enamored with the people we were meeting, but what about this religion? 

In my childhood home religion had been referred to as “make-believe” and a “crutch.” While I had occasionally attended Sunday School with friends, and was even baptized in my teens, I could never reconcile the Christian belief that only those “saved” through Jesus were favored by God, or would have entry into heaven.  What about followers of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, other religions and spiritual beliefs – were they all doomed to some eternal spiritual hell?  While Scott and I had been married in a non-denominational church, we had given little thought to religion or our spiritual lives in the years following.

After several requests for literature about the Faith, Janine finally gifted me with a copy of the Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude). I had no idea what I would learn from this book with the strange title, but began reading. Looking back now, almost 50 years later, I am amazed that I actually grasped much of anything that I read, but evidently God had prepared my soul and opened my mind as I read with eagerness from cover to cover about the concept of progressive revelation and the unity embedded in all the major religions. This I could believe. With this new understanding, how could I not now embrace God’s most recent Messenger for this Day, Bahá’u’lláh! Attracted by His followers, lovingly and patiently nurtured by the Bahá’í community, and confirmed in His Revelation, I wanted to be a part of this religion.  Six months after entering the Roosevelt Hotel for dinner, I signed my Bahá’í enrollment card, and have since marveled daily, with awe and gratitude, at the blessings this precious Faith has bestowed on me.