The Bahá’í Faith had its origins in nineteenth century Shi’ite Islam, but embraces Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad—among others—as prophets, each seen as a divine messenger uniquely suited to the needs of his time. The Bahá’í community has spread to become the second most geographically widespread religion in the world. It has a 120 year history in the United States, where members have promoted their core belief that all people are created equal. American Bahá’ís have been remarkably successful in attracting a diverse membership. They instituted efforts to promote racial unity in the deep South decades before the modern civil rights movement, and despite lip service to fostering multi racial congregations among Christian churches, over half of American Bahá’í congregations today are multiracial, in comparison to just 5 to 7 percent of U.S. Christian churches. This level of diversity is unique among all religious groups in the United States. As the story of a relatively new religious movement, the history of the Bahá’ís in America in the 20th and early 21st centuries offers a case study of institutional maturation, showcasing the community’s efforts to weather conflict and achieve steady growth. While much scholarly attention has been paid to extremist religious movements, this book highlights a religious movement that promotes the idea of the unity of all religions. Mike McMullen traces the hard work of the Bahá’ís’ leadership and congregants to achieve their high level of diversity and manage to grow so successfully in America.

When a family hunting trip collides with a terror plot in the Colorado Valley, a father and his sons must fight for their lives in this survival thriller. Military veteran Tony Acero would do anything to help his two sons succeed. With his thirteen-year-old floundering at his new Kansas prep school, and his older son on a downward spiral, Tony decides to take both of them on an elk hunt in Colorado. Meanwhile in Boston, another pair of brothers are plotting an expedition of their own. Radical anarchists, Pel and Moom Adams have contracted with Chechen terrorists to shoot down Air Force One as the president descends into Aspen for a G-8 Summit. When these two parties collide in the Colorado wilderness, the terrorists must Tony and his sons suddenly become the hunted.

This book examines the intersection of African American history with that of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Bahá’ís in America have actively worked to establish interracial harmony within its own ranks and to contribute to social justice in the wider community, becoming in the process one of the country’s most diverse religious bodies. Spanning from the start of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first, the essays in this volume examine aspects of the phenomenon of this religion confronting America’s original sin of racism and the significant roles African Americans came to play in the development of the Bahá’í Faith’s culture, identity, administrative structures, and aspirations.

We decided to write about the topic of introducing this country to you. You have made a great choice. You chose to come here, and I believe you have made a great first step towards achieving better things in your life. You have to be ready and responsible for the consequences. You can have a great and wonderful life if you understand the environment in which you live. This is very important because you are coming from a different culture with traditions and habits that might be different from traditions and habits in this country. We're not asking you to change; in fact, we are encouraging you to keep your identity, but you always need to seek improvement in everything you do or plan to do. That includes learning how to integrate into the society in which you have chosen to live. We wrote this book as a resource to guide newly arriving immigrants to the United States. We used straightforward language and a simple format so that everyone can easily find, interpret, and understand the information. We hope you will find it informative, resourceful, and a joy to read. To give you insight, we will provide the information we have gained while living in the United States. If you read this book and try to use it in your daily life, you will avoid many consequences that might cost you more than you think. Do not try to figure out everything on your own. You might wrongly understand an issue because of differences in cultures. Discussing the issue with many different people will help you learn many perspectives and may help you understand the issue better. I hope to provide you a positive perspective and some understanding of how to go about solving some of the challenges you may face coming to a new country. So, to successfully find your way in American society, I encourage you to use this book to become familiar with the ways of living in the United States.

Evildoers, Take Heed! Justice has a new face, and it wears a mask. Who are we talking about? Ordinary folk like Mike McMullen, a.k.a. The Amazing Whitebread, who become something entirely new and occasionally borderline pathological: Real-Life Superheroes (RLSHs). "Being a singing superheroine is a way for me to not only pay the bills, it also helps me give the baddies such a headache." --Danger Woman Complete with costumes and all the gadgetry they can afford from selling old copies of Action Comics on eBay, RLSHs dish out their own brand of justice--while criminals go about their business and law enforcers roll their eyes. "Me and Shadowhare were walking past a bank and we stopped to make a phone call. As soon as we started walking away, the police came up and said, 'Do you know why we stopped you? Because you guys are wearing masks standing in front of a bank.'" --Mr. Xtreme McMullen spans the country, coach class, seeking to develop his own RLSH identity and address such weighty issues as: Sidekicks: Faithful wards or CPS bait? Bad Guys: Where the hell are they all hiding? Super-tights: How snug is too snug? So don your mask, suck in your gut, and join us. "Hey, you're with a superhero. . .what could go wrong?" --Geist, the Emerald Cowboy Michael McMullen, a.k.a. The Amazing Whitebread, was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. He earned an undergraduate degree in history and philosophy, and subsequently took the only employment option open to someone with the resultant lack of marketable skills: government service. He's worked as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice for just over a decade and currently lives in Arlington, Texas, with his wife, Lauren, and their children, Grant and Gracie. His hobbies include aspiring to get some woodworking done, thinking about learning a musical instrument, and trying to get interested in any computer game other than Text Twist. He has had short pieces published in various science fiction/fantasy magazines and currently holds the record for "Worst-Kept Secret Identity."

A father takes his two teenage sons elk hunting in Colorado, only to discover they are the ones being hunted. Tony Acero, a Mexican-American veteran of four combat tours, has a problem on his hands. His undersized thirteen-year-old son Luke is floundering at his new Kansas prep school. To save the young teen from his downward spiral, and to cheer up older brother Matt, Tony proposes to take both sons on a confidence-building elk hunt in Colorado. Meanwhile in Boston, rootless young brothers, Pel and Moom Adams, are plotting a Colorado expedition of their own. Radical anarchists, the brothers have contracted with a trio of hardened Chechen terrorists to carry out a plot that will shake America to the core. They plan to shoot the plane carrying the president out of the sky as it descends into Aspen for a G-8 Summit. The two parties collide in a remote Colorado valley. The terrorists are determined that Tony and his sons will not leave the valley alive.

When Addie Moore finds herself sitting on a tree limb next to a distractingly cute incarnation of Death, looking down at her own corpse, she thinks things couldn't possibly get worse.She's wrong.After basic training in almost-but-not-quite Heaven, Addie returns to Earth as a guardian angel on a personal mission to find the man...and demon...who killed her. But will navigating a bizarre love triangle, and tracking down her own murderer be too much for a newly-dead teenage girl?

When Addie Moore finds herself sitting on a tree limb next to a distractingly cute incarnation of Death, looking down at her own corpse, she thinks things couldn't possibly get worse. She's wrong. After basic training in almost-but-not-quite Heaven, Addie returns to Earth as a guardian angel on a personal mission to find the man...and demon...who killed her. But will navigating a bizarre love triangle, and tracking down her own murderer be too much for a newly-dead teenage girl?