Initial Analysis of FACT 2024 Member Survey of Bahá’í Communities

This paper will explore how American Bahá’ís in diverse communities throughout the US have adapted to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. I will present data on hundreds of Bahá’ís from dozens of communities concerning attendance at religious worship and religious education classes, outreach to the community, the shift to online forms of worship and celebration of sacred holidays, and their personal religious practices (prayer, reading holy writings, fasting, etc.) during the pandemic. This data will be compared with Christian churches  to see how other Americans in varied Christian denominations coped and thrived spiritually during the restrictions of COVID. Results indicate that Bahá’ís were able to maintain attendance levels at their online worship services and children and adult education classes at rates much higher than churches did on average. Both Bahá’í communities and Christian churches maintained a similar level of community service throughout the pandemic.