Mary Jo Adams
Reno, Nevada
Bahá'í since 2007

I was raised Catholic, and for much of my youth dreamed of becoming a nun. But eventually I found I didn’t agree with much of the doctrine and felt unmoved by the services.

Stephen and Megan Morris
Albuquerque
Bahá’ís since summer 2006

Having moved away from the southern Baptist church, the religion of his youth, Stephen Morris thought he was doing fine with his self-created belief system.

Ed LaBonte
Athol, Massachusetts
Baha'i since November 2007

After being an atheist my whole life, I decided, as part of a midlife crisis, that there had to be something out there that was better than nothing. Secular humanists say you have to make your own meaning, but when you’re faced with a gigantic universe that doesn’t care about you, it’s hard to do.

Greta and John Perrine
Flint, Michigan
Baha'is since 2005

Cary Enoch Reinstein
Fort Valley, Georgia
Baha'i since 1963

If I hadn’t offered a pretty girl a can of beer at a 1963 Fourth of July party in the Berkeley Hills of northern California, I probably wouldn’t have come across the Baha'i Faith quite so soon.

Karen Webb
Centerville, Utah
Baha'i since 1971

Ted Taylor
Eugene, Oregon
Baha'i since 1990

Shanel Taylor
Evanston, Illinois
Baha'i since March 2007

Jason “Oak” Ritchie
Columbia, S.C.
Baha'i since 1999

‘I wanted to see the world change for the better, to do good in this world’

Amy Lugsch
Persia, Iowa
Baha'i since 1994

'The principles of the Faith were everything I had always believed in'

I was raised Catholic and thought I was comfortable with my faith. But it always bothered me that I was taught everyone else was going to go to hell.