William Sears (Baháʼí)

William Bernard Sears (March 28, 1911 – March 25, 1992) was an American writer and a popular television and radio personality in various shows culminating in the 1950s with In the Park but left television popularity to promote the Baháʼí Faith in Africa and embarked on a lifelong service to the religion, for some 35 years as Hand of the Cause, the highest institution of the religion he could be appointed to.

[6] The plays did not generate enough income for him to continue writing full-time, so Sears got what would be his first job in a long career in broadcasting, at WOMT in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

[3]: 6:23min  They ended up living in Salt Lake City in spring 1939,[9] (apparently as their contribution to Shoghi Effendi's call for Baháʼís to relocate to support the religion)[10] where he was soon assistant manager of KUTA radio station (later KNRS (AM).

)[11] When they decided to marry, Marguerite and William's wedding was arranged in San Francisco by Marion Holley during their visit out there for a radio broadcast Sears did in September 1940.

After picking it up and setting it aside once,[1]: p.9  he read it three times in three weeks[3]: 7:47min  and by December 1939 was avowedly a Baháʼí,[14] officially joining the religion in 1940.

[13] Sears and Marguerite moved to San Mateo, California, about the summer of 1942, where a Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly had lapsed,[15] and he gave an especially noted talk about using radio to promote the religion.

[21] During this period he was also on a committee that consulted on the religion's use of radio along with Mildred Mottahedeh,[22] prominently appeared at a peace banquet with Dorothy Beecher Baker (also a future Hand of the Cause),[23] gave talks in 1946 at a meeting back in Los Angeles with scholar Marzieh Gail,[24] and helped produce a higher-profile radio segment in Denver.

)[43] Sears began to give more public talks for the religion covered in the newspapers, beginning with a funeral in Maine in the summer of 1952.

[44] The Ten Year Crusade, a major initiative to bring the religion to countries around the world, was announced in October and would soon figure prominently in the Sears' plans.

[48] Progress in organizing the efforts of the Ten Year Crusade included the opportunity for Marguerite to attend the February conference[49] of Baháʼís in Uganda.

Arriving about July 18,[51][52] Sears, his wife, and one of their children moved near Johannesburg, South Africa,[3]: 10:10min  on an initial six-month visa.

[1]: p.20  After recovering, they stayed in Kampala, Uganda, at the home of Hand of the Cause Músá Banání just after Enoch Olinga left for Cameroon.

[1]: p.21  In April 1954 the Sears went on Baháʼí pilgrimage,[7][54] with quick stops by Marguerite in the States sharing that pioneering doesn't magically transform someone,[55] and on return, their other son also moved to South Africa.

[1]: p.25  They helped elect the local assembly of Johannesburg,[1]: p.25  and he was appointed to the Auxiliary Board for Africa,[58] under Hand of the Cause Músá Banání.

[59] Sears gained a job with the South African Broadcasting Corporation pre-recording radio programs, and using the free time for trips to support the religion.

[1]: p.26  There was another brief trip to North America – Sears was in Canada possibly while adjusting passports for a longer stay, and gave a talk,[60] while Marguerite was in Illinois.

With the death of Shoghi Effendi the Hands of the Cause of God, now with its newest appointees, decided a select group would be voted on to act at the Baháʼí World Centre for the interests of the religion between the period of the leadership of Shoghi Effendi and promised election of the Universal House of Justice at the end of the Ten Year Crusade in 1963.

Sears next appears in news in the States is 1959 following a redistribution of responsibilities[71] and attended the national convention of the US community along with Corinne True and Horace Holley.

[75] Starting in June Sears wrote several telegrams reacting to the decision of fellow Hand of the Cause Mason Remey to call himself Guardian which initiated a Baháʼí division.

[94] In 1962 he visited at the University of Urbana-Champaign[95] and then participated in a radio program on WLS (AM) in Chicago[96] before attending that year's U. S. national convention (where he advocated for easing enrollment conditions that were then common practice and shared prayers in an African language,)[97] and then the French Baháʼí summer school.

[98] In 1963 he attended the conclave of the Hands of the Cause in Haifa anticipating the election of the Universal House of Justice to be the new head of the religion[99] and sent a taped message to an all-Indian council of Baháʼís held near Tucson.

[112] In 1968 Sears was at a centennial of Baháʼu'lláh's arrival at the prison of Akka in 1868 with 9 other Hands of the Cause and some 2300 Baháʼís at a conference in Palermo, Sicily before going to Haifa as a group.

[114] In December he helped dedicate a new Baháʼí center in San Bernardino, California[115] followed by attending several of the series of conferences arranged by the newly formed institution of the Continental Counsellors held across North America at Quebec, Ontario, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, Missouri, Saskatchewan and British Columbia into March 1969.

[118] Meanwhile, God Loves Laughter was included in donations to a library[119] and taped talks of his were used for a youth conference in Australia[120] and Honduras[121] in 1968.

In May he attended the French national convention[125] and in August an (Indian) oceanic conference in Mauritius[126] on the way to a task assigned by the Universal House of Justice.

It had requested that Sears tour Iran with Marguerite, and their travels were aided by the Iranian National Spiritual Assembly, several of whom were to disappear in a few years.

[136] Following events in South Carolina, wherein thousands of people were beginning to join the religion[137] Sears released a pair of hour-long taped discussions on the subject of mass engagement with and response of the public.

[169] In 1983 George Plagenz took an interest in the analysis Sears did of Christian prophecies (without naming Thief in the Night) and it is carried in a few cities over time.

Sears' book Thief in the Night, or, The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium deals with the history and understandings of prophecies in relation to the Báb and includes references to number of issues from the 1844 Edict of Toleration, William Miller's work on prophecy and the Millerism movement, the resulting Great Disappointment as it was understood in the West, and the history of the Bahá'í Faith in Persia.

"[181] The book has been noted by many Baháʼís: Dizzy Gillespie and friends including Flora Purim,[182] and several writers on diverse themes.