Melyssa Munn has been exposed to the Bahá’í Faith all her life, but this exposure is not what solidified her place in the faith. After both her parents died of cancer when she was 15, Munn took the time to explore her belief in the existence of God.
As a third-year psychology and women’s and gender studies major, Munn is the co-president of the Bahá’í Student Association at the University of Georgia and seeks to share the principles of the Bahá’í Faith with students.
Q: Can you tell me about your journey with the Bahá’í Faith?
A: So my mom actually found the Bahá’í Faith while she was in college. She met some Bahá’ís, and she just really liked the morals behind it and such so she wanted to join. And then she raised me and my three siblings as Bahá’í as well. And then my parents, they passed away when I was 15.
One of the big things about the Bahá’í Faith is that you can’t really become a Bahá’í until you’re 15. When you’re 15, that’s when you kind of reach spiritual maturity. I procrastinated it heavily until I was 18. My fall semester freshman year here at UGA I was like, I should probably do that.
Q: Did anything change for you with your faith when your parents died?
A: Honestly, a little bit before, because I’m atheist and Bahá’í. I feel like my parents’ death did just solidify me being atheist in a way. Just getting the like, “Oh, it’s part of God’s plan,” just wasn’t really something that a 15-year-old needed to hear at that moment. But I’ve wanted to stay Bahá’í because I really like the other principles of spreading love, equality, lack of prejudice, all of those. And I guess in a sense, it also keeps me connected to my mother.
Q: Something that I kept seeing in my research was “the oneness of God” tenant. What does that mean to you?
A: There’s three aspects of the oneness. So it’s oneness of God, oneness of humanity, and oneness of religion. So, I feel like in that sense, it’s just, we’re all the same at the end of the day. Like oneness of soul, everyone has a soul. A soul lacks ethnicity, the soul lacks sexuality. We are all just one. And that’s why we all love each other and look past any differences.
Q: You guys are all like one big community, but I’m wondering, how does that translate to getting people to join the faith? Is there an aspect of converting people?
A: Not really. There’s no mission trips or anything. An aspect of the Bahá’í Faith is that each member, we are all our own messenger, and so how we are as a person is a representation of the Bahá’í Faith. So, if people want to talk to us about the Bahá’í Faith, we will, but we don’t go out of our way to tell people about it or tell them they should join or anything.
Q: What is your favorite part of being part of the faith?
A: That it’s so niche. Really no one knows about it. It’s like a fun fact. I get to teach someone something new when they ask about it. I really like the equality between man and woman, the harmony between science and religion as well. Just the fact that the Bahá’í Faith is like a religion for the times. So it’s like growing with society to bring in more inclusion.
Comments trimmed for length and clarity.
Rachel Sandstrom is a journalism major in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. This story was produced in the Religion Reporting course.
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