BEET FARMS, BLESSINGS AND BAHA’I

I love Rainn Wilson.

One of my favorite theater-going experiences was from five or six years ago when I went with my best girlfriends to see a production of “Taming of the Shrew” in San Diego where Rainn (pre-“The Office”) played Tranio. It’s still the funniest performance I’ve seen on stage, with the possible exception of Mario Cantone’s one-man Broadway show, “Laugh Whore.”

Rainn is Baha’i. I’ve heard him speak about his lifelong faith a few times and last week the Baha’i World News Service moved a long Q & A with Rainn aka “Dwight Schrute” of Dunder Mifflin and Schrute Beet Farms. It’s very interesting.

Here’s a bit:

_________________________________________________________________

LOS ANGELES — Actor Rainn Wilson is used to talking to the media – he is part of the award-winning cast of the U.S. television series “The Office,” and his recent role in the movie “The Last Mimzy” brought a flurry of new interviews. Time magazine, TV talk-show hosts and others came calling.

A member of the Baha’i Faith, he seems just as comfortable discussing his spiritual beliefs as he does shooting the breeze about Dwight Schrute, the pompous assistant manager he plays on “The Office,” the American version of a popular British TV show of the same name.

His show, seen weekly by 8 million people in the U.S. alone, also airs in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, parts of continental Europe, Australia, Saudi Arabia, parts of Latin America, Singapore, and several other countries.

His other acting credits include the character of Arthur Martin in the series “Six Feet Under” and a one-episode stint in “Entourage,” both on the U.S. cable network HBO; guest hosting “Saturday Night Live” on U.S. television; and movie roles in “Almost Famous,” “America’s Sweethearts,” “Galaxy Quest,” “House of 1000 Corpses,” “Sahara,” and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”

In a recent interview with U.S. Baha’i News, he talked about Hollywood, his family, his life and his beliefs. Here is that interview, reprinted with permission:

Q: Rainn, what was it like to grow up in the Baha’i Faith?

A: When you grow up with a spiritual foundation that asks you to be conscious of the fact that all races are created equal, that men and women are equal and that all religions worship the same (God), it helps you see the world as one family and not get lost in the traps of political, social, and economic belief systems that can lead you astray. I always think of myself as a world citizen. It’s a powerful thing.

Q: You stepped away from the Baha’i Faith in your 20s and returned to it 10 years later. What happened in that decade?

A: I was in New York City, going to acting school, and I was going through a rebellious phase. I didn’t want anyone telling me what to do. I was disenchanted with things that were organized. It was a spiritual journey I was on. And this is reflected in and supported by one of the central tenets of the Baha’i Faith, which obliges every spiritual seeker to undertake an individual investigation of truth.

I started at ground zero. I decided I didn’t know if there was even a God. I read religious books of the world. I asked myself, “If there is a God, how do we know what He wants us to do and what He wants for us? Do we read books? Do we buy crystals? Do we follow certain gurus? Do we sit under a tree? Because surely this omniscient creator has some kind of plan in store for mankind.”

Q: And that line of thinking led you back to the Baha’i Faith?

A: Yes, it brought me back to the Baha’i way of viewing things. I came to realize I did believe in God. I couldn’t conceive of a universe without someone overseeing it in a compassionate way. It just made the most sense to me that God gradually is unfolding a plan for humankind. That there is progressive revelation — the Baha’i belief that God sends Messengers for each day and age. I re-read books about the Baha’i Faith. And I came back to believing that Baha’u’llah was the Promised One and Messenger for this day and age. My quest took me from age 21 to 31. I’m 41 now.

Q: Your wife (author Holiday Reinhorn) recently became a Baha’i. How did that come about?

A: She wasn’t a Baha’i when we got married in a Baha’i ceremony almost 12 years ago. I never pressured her to join the faith. But she started attending Ruhi (a curriculum based on the Baha’i Writings) classes in the L.A. area and became interested. And the birth of our son, Walter, now 2 1/2, was such a miracle that she found herself saying prayers and spiritually connecting to the faith. She became a Baha’i in 2004. We pray with Walter every night before he goes to bed.

Q: What is it like being a Baha’i in Hollywood?

FOR THE ANSWER AND THE FULL INTERVIEW, CLICK HERE