The rules of polite conversation say that there are two topics that should be avoided if one does not want to make a scene: politics and religion. Obviously here at $O$, politics is unavoidable. With policy change as an integral part of our mission, we are going to have to talk about it. But we do our best to avoid controversy by not taking sides on anything except the issues at hand. We avoid being specifically partisan, and although our mission does bias us toward one side of the political spectrum more than the other, we remain steadfast in our decision not to support any party more than any other. We support issues, not candidates or parties.
That just leaves religion. Religion is a particularly interesting topic with us because while the co-founders of $O$ are fairly devout individuals, we both subscribe to non-mainstream faiths: I am a Buddhist and Alan is Baha’i. And although Alan is without a doubt much more active and devout than I am, his religion is also much more obscure. Most people have at least heard of Buddhism. The average person on the street is not likely to know much at all about the Baha’i faith.
According to the Pew Research Center*, 70.6% of Americans are some form of Christian. Buddhism is practiced by just 0.7% of the population and Baha’i didn’t even make it onto the chart. This means that we don’t talk much about our religious beliefs, because our beliefs don’t match the majority of America. What we DO talk about is our morality. While specific religions beliefs may differ, most moral beliefs are the same. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t rape, be kind to others, help people in need, etc. Another thing that is universal is the concept of believing in something larger than yourself, the thing we call faith.
$O$ has been an exercise in faith from start to finish. When Alan and I decided to take an untested idea and run with it, it was faith that guided us. When Alan and I quit our jobs to pursue it, it was faith that led us. When we chose to work with former drug addicts and convicted felons, it was faith that made the decisions. And so far, every one of those decisions has been right. Not just right, but lead us to astounding success. Of course, we also put in a lot of hard work and planning, but eventually, you just have to close your eyes and trust that things will work.
Faith is an integral part of our organization. It may not be exactly the same faith that you practice at home, but we still believe in the divine, the power of kindness and second chances, the rightness of a strong moral compass, and putting ourselves in the hands of something greater than us and letting it lead. We both practice our religion every day. We are both men of faith, and $O$ is an extension of that.
