"When a person becomes a Baha'i, he gives up the past only in the sense
that he is a part of this new and living Faith of God, and must seek to
pattern himself, in act and thought, along the lines laid down by
Baha'u'llah. The fact that he is by origin a Jew or a Christian, a black
man or a white man, is not important any more, but, as you say, lends
color and charm to the Baha'i community in that it demonstrates unity in
diversity."