Bahá’í is a faith of service and unity geared towards the benefit of humanity. We’re unifiers. Nothing gets a Bahá’í going more than the idea of universal unity, and people living their lives for the betterment of the world. We believe in the inevitable progression of the soul, in the absolute goodness of what God is and humankind’s responsibility unto itself. So when we talk about sin, we have to keep that basic framework in mind.

The Bahá’í Faith is a socially progressive faith, and we as Bahá’ís take great strides to address the causes of poverty, violence and the –isms of our global society. It pains us, then, to find that many leaders of important human rights movements fuel their passion with anger and vicious speech. What can come of that but more disappointment and continued embitterment? Nothing worth having comes from words spoken in anger.

I wouldn’t be surprised if murder, idolatry and adultery were counted amongst the most deplorable sins in the world’s monotheistic religions. And while that’s certainly true in the Bahá’í Faith, I don’t want to harp on those things right now. I’d like to focus on a topic that has more relevance to the collegiate audience, conveniently a behavior that couldn’t be more critically forbidden and condemned in my faith.

To a faith whose purpose is to unite humanity under the banner of absolute peace, anything that undermines this cause could be considered a sin of the utmost severity. In a letter written to an American friend, Abdu’l-Bahá, the perfect exemplar of the faith, wrote that “[t]he worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting, more especially when it emanates from the tongues of the believers of God.” And Bahá’u’lláh warned the believers that “backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.”

Backbiting is a ruinous and divisive force. The tongue of a backbiter has the power to break apart what may have taken lifetimes and generations to build up. It amazes me that an action so devastating and destructive takes almost no effort to engage in. We see this everywhere, from presidential campaigns to casual conversations. It’s still true that the quickest way for me to uncover your faults is to praise you to your friends, no matter how insignificant those faults are.

Actively overcoming backbiting is a frustrating struggle, and reconstructing our speech requires constant diligence. Even simple statements like “Why didn’t you try this?” have inbred hostility. As kindly as those words can be said, it still implies criticism that immediately puts the audience on the defensive. But as difficult as the challenge is, Bahá’ís cross the world are enkindled by a desire for true unity and peace.

I’m proud to be the member of a faith that makes the important point of acknowledging that sins against God are also sins against humanity. The concept of sin in the Bahá’í Faith is an interesting one, and Bahá’í scripture paints a different picture of what it actually means to sin than is traditionally accepted. I would encourage the reader to research the Bahá’í stance on “good,” “evil” and “sin” in Abdu’l-Baha’s “Some Answered Questions.”

Reach columnist Wade Caves at opinion@ddailyuw.com.