# Nature and Challenge of Tests, The

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> Dear Friends,
> 
> I speak for both Janet and myself in expressing our boundless
> happiness to back here in the bosom of the American Bahá'í Community.
> We lived here for 12 years in the state of Michigan. They were 12 very
> formative, very happy years where we learned so much about the Faith
> and about the nature of the Bahá'í community.
> 
> And in returning to the United States on this occasion, our hearts are
> filled with the memory of those years and of the energy, the
> dedication and the wonder of the American Bahá'ís we had the pleasure
> of knowing at that time.
> 
> I speak to you, of course, tonight as an individual. I do not speak
> for the Universal House of Justice. I speak simply as an individual
> Bahá'í who happens at this time to be a member of that body. So the
> remarks I offer you this evening are mine alone.
> 
> I begin by directing my attention and yours to a theme given emphasis
> by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, from the earliest years of
> his ministry as Guardian of the Cause. In fact, in the very first
> message sent by the Guardian to the Bahá'ís of the United States and
> Canada, on January 21, 1922, the Guardian drew attention to this
> point, and reiterated it in subsequent messages. And what was the
> point?
> 
> Shoghi Effendi, 73 years ago, told the believers in America that at
> some time in the future they would be tested. He said that they would
> receive tests--intellectual rather than physical. He said that
> they would be sent to purify the American Bahá'ís and to make them
> brighter than ever.
> 
> A few years later Shoghi Effendi returned to that theme. He said,
> "and yet how often we seem to forget the clear and repeated
> warnings of our beloved Master, Who, in particular during the
> concluding years of His mission on earth, laid stress on the severe
> mental tests which would inevitably sweep over his loved ones of the
> west. Test that would purge, purify and prepare them for their noble
> mission in life."
> 
>  Inevitable mental tests
> 
> This theme, that the American Bahá'ís were being prepared for what
> Shoghi Effendi describes as the inevitable coming of mental tests,
> appears again and again in his writings and was further emphasized by
> the Universal House of Justice in its lengthy letter of May 19, 1994,
> in which the House of Justice offered the hope and the prayer "may
> they, the American Bahá'ís, be granted the celestial strength to pass
> over and over again the mental tests which 'Abdu'l-Bahá promised He
> would send to them to purify them."
> 
> There are many other passages in the writings of the Guardian which
> refer to these mental tests. For example, in the last of the published
> messages from Shoghi Effendi to the American Bahá'ís, he foreshadowed
> what the future would hold. He indicated at that time that there would
> be intellectual rather than physical tests from outside the Bahá'í
> community. He referred to the fact that the Faith would be subject ot
> the onslaught of ecclesiastical leaders , the traditional defenders of
> religious orthodoxy, and that these would be powerful detractors
> aiming at the extinction of the Faith from without.
> 
> But in addition, in that last message of September 1957, Shoghi
> Effendi clearly and unambiguously referred to the fact that there
> would be mental tests to the American Bahá'ís from within their
> community. He listed a number of forces at work in American society
> and said the administrative strongholds of the Faith were bound to be
> subjected to a severe spiritual challenge from within due to the
> impact of those forces, and he urged the friends to strengthen the
> Bahá'í community in preparation for the combat with the "nefarious
> elements seeking to undermine it form within."
> 
> These statements are part of the heritage of the American Bahá'í
> community. They are statements which foreshadow periods of challenge,
> periods of difficulty, periods of testing and also foreshadow great
> victories.
> 
> As one of the statements I have read points out, Shoghi Effendi
> describes these tests as having the purpose of making the friends
> "shine ever brighter," of being "ever more luminous," of "enabling the
> American Bahá'í community to fulfill the glorious destiny laid down
> for it in the Writings of the Bab, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá."
> 
> The point I make tonight is that I have, over a period of time, come
> to the conclusion that we live now in that time of mental tests. That
> the time of mental tests is not off in the distant future but it is
> now.
> 
>  The nature of mental test
> 
> Why do I say this? I say this because of the nature of mental tests.
> We are well experienced and well knowledgeable about physical tests.
> Our dear friends from the Cradle of the Faith, many of whom are in the
> audience tonight, are well versed in physical tests. For 150 years
> this infant Faith in various countries of the world has had to contend
> with physical tests--with torture, imprisonment, martyrdom, the
> disruption of homes and families. We are note experienced in mental
> tests.
> 
> The Universal House of Justice, in a message of January 1986, referred
> to the fact that the Cause of God was emerging from obscurity. In
> other words, it was leaving the first of the seven stages of its
> evolution laid down by the Guardian and entering the second stage,
> and that second stage is that of persecution or repression. We
> are now entering and have entered the stage where we, as a worldwide
> Bahá'í community, will learn more and more about mental tests.
> 
> And my perception, my view, is that tonight as we gather here, my
> belief is that we are now experiencing these mental tests. What do I
> mean by mental tests? Tests which lead to an erosion of faith and
> belief and which can give rise to disorder in the Bahá'í community.
> One of the features of mental tests is that we may be blinded by the
> standards and values of a non-Bahá'í society and by being blinded
> thereby may fail these tests.
> 
> We may run the risk of underestimating the danger of such tests, of
> being complacent, of not becoming aware of these tests until it is too
> late. We may be like the warrior in his armor plate waiting for
> battle, waiting too late while the battle rages and is decided in
> front of him while he stands there waiting.
> 
> I believe that there are elements to the mental tests which we, as
> part of the American Bahá'í community--and I think Janet and I
> still think of ourselves as being American Bahá'ís in many ways--
> and I hope no tape of this reaches Australia!--there are three
> elements of the mental tests which I feel are pertinent to us tonight.
> And I'd like to mention these three and then discuss them in detail.
> 
> The first is this. I believe we are tested now by the need to develop
> spirituality in a materialistic environment. This is our test. Second,
> we are tested in our level of commitment to the betterment of humanity
> in an environment which is increasingly characterized by apathy and
> lethargy. And third, we re tested by the need to acquire an entirely
> new attitude toward social organizations and institutions.
> 
> I believe that it is in these three areas that we, who live in this
> glorious country, who are part of this vibrant community, we are
> tested. Will we pass or will we fail. The community will pass. The
> American Bahá'í community is destined to go through great and
> wonderful things. But we, as individuals, are subject to tests.
> 
>  Developing a sense of spirituality
> 
> Let me take up the first of these. The first mental test that I think
> is upon us today is the challenge to develop a sense of spirituality
> in an environment which is increasingly preoccupied and, indeed,
> obsessed with the materialistic dimensions of life. The writings of
> the Guardian, the statements of the House of Justice in recent years,
> repeatedly call upon the friends to spiritualize their lives, to
> develop a world view which accommodates the all-important, the vital
> spiritual dimension of existence together with and, indeed, with
> priority over its material dimension.
> 
> We are urged to do this. We are told in our Teachings that our duty as
> believers in Bahá'u'lláh is to commit ourselves to the
> spiritualization of our lives. We are promised that if we do this, we
> will augment our powers and capacities and that we will, only in this
> way, find happiness and fulfillment.
> 
> When this does not occur--and who is to say that we will pass
> this test--when this does not occur, religion degenerates to a
> mere creed; a set of rituals and empty practices. When this does not
> occur, we will find ourselves drawn inevitably into the materialistic
> perception of the world events and course of world history. WE will be
> obsessed with the fears, the anxieties, the preoccupations, the
> apprehensions and suspicions of those around us and our world view of
> the spiritual progress of humanity will be lost. Our community life
> will degenerate into ritualistic practice if this process of
> spiritualization is not embarked on and energetically pursued.
> 
> Why do we find it so difficult? I think it is because we--no
> matter how many Bahá'ís there are in any location, we are relatively
> few. We spend most of our lives interacting with people who are not
> Bahá'ís, some of whom are wonderful people of fine and exalted values
> and others are not. WE are subject to forces and influences and
> inclinations and advice and ideas which are essentially materialistic.
> And this unconsciously molds our world view.
> 
> For decades, and indeed centuries, it was commonly held that in order
> to spiritualize our lives, we should forsake the material world. We
> should discard material possessions. WE should embrace asceticism in
> the pursuit of the spiritual development of ourselves. This erroneous
> conception has been put to rest by the Revelation by Bahá'u'lláh of
> the Law of Huququ'llah.
> 
> In giving us the mercy and the benefit of the Law of Huququ'llah,
> Bahá'u'lláh has, in essence, told us this part of your surplus, of
> your accumulated assets, this part belongs to God. The rest of it, the
> other 81 percent, is yours.
> 
> You may wish to offer it sacrificially for the welfare of mankind. You
> may wish not to do so, that is your business. Part of it belongs to
> God. We are called upon as a matter of conscience o pay our Huquq. We
> don't speak of contributing to Huququ'llah. One contributes to the
> national, local and international Funds but one pays Huququ'llah.
> 
>  The wisdom of Huququ'llah
> 
> The concept of spiritualization as involving necessarily the total
> abandonment of material comforts, pursuits and benefits, that concept
> has been overthrown by the insight and wisdom provided by the Law of
> Huququ'llah. I want to share with you my perception of spirituality,
> of how it is that we may attain spirituality. Because this is our
> challenge. This is a challenge to every one of us--how to attain
> a spiritualized development of ourselves.
> 
> I believe that the process of spiritual development rests upon three
> principles. The first is this: that certain actions which we carry out
> in this world prescribed by the Manifestation of God attract a
> mysterious but vital spiritual power to them.
> 
> That there are certain prescriptions given in the Teachings of our
> religion which we accept with faith on the understanding that if we
> follow these prescriptions, we will attract in a mysterious,
> incomprehensible manner a great spiritual power. This is a complex and
> difficult point for us to understand.
> 
> Fortunately, during the course of the Dispensation preceding the
> coming of the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh, scientists began the systematic
> study of magnetism. And as a result, human society learned something
> about magnets and about the magnetic principle and magnetism as a
> phenomenon. We know now that magnetism is a phenomenon whereby atoms
> are arranged in little systems of organization called dipoles which
> are pointing in the same direction, and associated with it is
> something we call magnetic force--a force which acts at a
> distance which is invisible but which is very strong.
> 
> As a result, one finds that this first of the three principles that I
> see underlying the process of spiritual development, that this
> principle is illustrated in the Bahá'í Writings repeatedly by
> Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian by use of the analogy of
> the magnet. The analogy of the magnet has enabled the central Figures
> of our Faith to vividly convey to us the vital principle that certain
> actions carried out, according to the prescription of God, attract a
> powerful invisible force.
> 
> Let me read some examples. One place, "Faith is the magnet which draws
> the confirmation of the Merciful One." 'Abdu'l-Bahá saying, "the
> commemoration of God attracts confirmation and assistance like unto a
> magnet." Again, "unity and harmony is the magnet which draws the
> confirmations of God," and so on. "Directing mankind in the right path
> is the magnet which attracts the help of God."
> 
>  The magnet which attracts
> 
> Shoghi Effendi says, "Today, as never before, the magnet which
> attracts blessings from on high is teaching the Faith of God." In
> another place, the Guardian says, "consecration to the glorious task
> of spreading the Faith and living the Bahá'í life creates the magnet
> for the Holy Spirit." And so it goes on.
> 
> So the first of the three principles which I see as underlying
> spiritual development is the principal of magnetism--the
> principle of certain actions carried out in a spirit of devotion and
> consecration attracting a great spiritual force just as in the mundane
> world certain arrangements of atoms attract the force of magnetism.
> This principle of magnetism carries right through the Bahá'í Writings.
> You find, for example, that Bahá'u'lláh speaks of His Revelation and
> describes it as a "magnet" or "lodestone."
> 
> He says His revelation will act as a "lodestone for all the nations
> and kindreds of the earth." In another place, 'Abdu'l-Bahá refers to
> Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God in these terms: 'The Lord has
> manifested the Magnet of the souls and hearts in the Pole of the
> existing world."
> 
> So this first principle underlying the spiritualization process, I
> believe, is that of the attraction of powerful spiritual forces
> through prescribed actions. A so-called magnetic principle.
> 
> The second principle, I see, in the process of spiritual development
> is that of constructive interaction. The first one is that if we pray,
> if we fast, if we teach the Faith, if we practice unity, if we hold
> spiritual meetings, we attract spiritual forces and powers.
> 
> The second principle of constructive interaction is illustrated by a
> simple example.
> 
> We know in our Writings that prayer attracts spiritual forces. Let us
> say I pray a little bit that I will attract a certain amount of the
> spiritual forces. This will reinforce my endeavors. This will make me
> stronger. I will pray more. It is a very simple model, but it is
> enough for our purpose. I will pray more. This will attract a greater
> measure of spiritual powers. I will pay even more. This will attract
> even further spiritual powers. I will pray even more and so it will
> build up.
> 
> So I speak of this second principle as one of what I call constructive
> interaction. You start off with a little bit. It attracts some forces,
> makes you stronger. You do more which attracts even more forces and so
> it builds up. And, in that sense, we are called upon to practice these
> spiritual virtues, to carry out these devotional practices--the
> practice of teaching and contributing to the Fund, of participating in
> the work of the Faith--confident that they will attract
> spiritual forces which will reinforce our endeavors and make us do
> even more and more.
> 
>  'The Temple is already built'
> 
> It is in this light--this principle of constructive interaction
> --this is the only way in which I can comprehend a strange and
> mysterious statement which appears in our Writings and which is
> attributed to the Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, here on this very spot in the
> year 1912. On that occasion, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá had laid the
> cornerstone of this magnificent edifice in which we are sheltered
> tonight, He made a very strange remark. Having laid the cornerstone,
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá is reported to have said to the friends gathered on that
> occasion, "The Temple is already built."
> 
> "The Temple is already built." In 1912 there was a stone that they put
> in the ground, none of this structure was here. 'Abdu'l-Bahá said,
> "The Temple is already built." How can we understand a statement such
> as that? I believe it was simply an expression of this principle of
> constructive interaction. That what He was saying as He explained at
> that time, "You have only to begin. Everything will be all right."
> 
> Telling the dear friends gathered in 1912, "Make a start, make a
> beginning. You will attract spiritual powers. This will reinforce your
> endeavors. You will do even more, attract even greater spiritual
> powers, and a time will come when the Temple will come into physical
> existence. It is already built by virtue of the efforts you have
> embarked upon in 1912." It is in that sense that I see this principle
> of constructive interaction as vital to the process of
> spiritualization.
> 
> As I mentioned, I think there are three elements of the
> spiritualization process. The principle of magnetism, by which we
> carry out certain actions and attract spiritual forces, and the
> principle of constructive interaction by which we make an effort that
> attracts even more powers and so it builds up form there.
> 
> If only there were these two principles--how much simpler life
> would be. It is a source of great regret to me that I have to tell you
> that there are not two principles but three. Because the third
> principle is that of testing.
> 
> The testing is inevitable. The testing is a source of drama, the
> source of success and failure in our personal and collective lives.
> But when we make efforts, when we attract spiritual forces, when we
> build up in strength, and so on, we are tested.
> 
> We are subject to tests again and again. We are told that the testing
> process is intrinsic to that of spiritual development. There are not
> two principles, there are three, and the third is that of testing.
> 
> We are tested to see if we really have the fortitude, the strength,
> the determination to persist in the face of adversity, in the face of
> distraction, in the face of ridicule, in the face of the desire to
> relax, to avoid the hardship and the effort that is involved.
> 
> The Guardian tells us that this process of testing is necessary, as he
> describes it, so that inner spiritual forces become stimulated, and
> that tests are gifts of God to enable one to grow and develop. But let
> us also be aware that tests are not automatically passed. The very
> fact that we, as believers, are subject to testing implies no
> guarantee that we will successfully traverse that test. The history of
> our Faith repeatedly demonstrates that there are some who pass and
> there are some who fail, and the Cause of God proceeds toward its
> glorious destiny.
> 
> I have tonight chosen as my theme, mental tests. And the first of the
> mental tests that I have drawn attention to is that of spiritualizing
> our lives in a materialistic environment. To do this, we need to
> identify the dangers which confront us.
> 
> We need to commit ourselves with determination to the pursuit of acts
> of devotion, to the implementation of the great moral and ethical laws
> of our Faith. And we need to realize clearly and definitely that the
> principles to which we subscribe as Bahá'ís are in many ways radically
> different from what have become the standards and generally accepted
> norms of American society around us.
> 
> We are not here for the purpose of condemnation. We are here for the
> purposes of finding our paths to God, of finding our way forward
> during a time of great turmoil and testing and hardship and suffering
> for all elements of humanity. We will only do so by a full realization
> that we have chosen the path of Bahá'u'lláh--and the path of
> Bahá'u'lláh is in many ways quite distinctly different form that of
> society around us.
> 
> To take but one example: our concept of chastity as an indispensable
> element of the moral life of a Bahá'í is that sexual relations are
> permissible only between two people of the opposite sex who are
> married to each other. This is our standard. It is not the standard of
> our society. It is described in some areas as homophobic. It is
> described in many other ways. But this is our standard. This is what
> our religion tells us, and we are committing ourselves to a spiritual
> path in the pursuit of the law of Bahá'u'lláh irrespective of whether
> or not it conforms to the society around us.
> 
> We differ from the people around us very much in certain concepts. For
> example, we differ in the concept of duty. The concept of duty has in
> many ways become unpopular. But we are people of duty. We are people
> who do things we don't particularly want to do out of a sense of duty.
> We are people who do things we find difficult, which we find
> uncomfortable, which we find disconcerting. Why? Not out of a desire
> for martyrdom, but out of a sense of duty.
> 
> We Bahá'ís are a people of duty. We are a people of discipline. We are
> a people of responsibility. We are a people who revere and honor such
> concepts as honesty and trustworthiness. We need to pass the test of
> spiritualization in a materialistic environment.
> 
> We need, above all, courage; the courage and the willingness to be
> different, to persevere, to persist in the work of the
> spiritualization of our lives irrespective of other considerations and
> the forces and influences of the people around us.
> 
> The second of the three tests that I feel are upon us in the United
> States today is that we are tested to develop ourselves as committed
> human beings concerned about the future of humanity and the changing
> world. The Cause of God today requires more and more such committed
> human beings.
> 
> The future of America
> 
> Shoghi Effendi, in a passage written not long before his passing,
> referred to the future of the American nation. And one of the things
> he mentioned as being within the future of the American nation has
> arrested my attention in recent years. He said, at that time, that the
> Bahá'ís of America faced a future challenge. And what was that
> challenge? In the message published in the book Citadel of Faith,
> Shoghi Effendi refers to a number of challenges before the American
> friends, one of which was that "apathy and lethargy [would] paralyze
> their spiritual faculties in the future."
> 
> We, today, face that test--the test of overcoming apathy and
> lethargy. The test that those around us increasingly lack zeal and
> idealism and a passion for changing the world. Society around us has
> lost its vision. It lacks heroes and heroines. They have become
> discredited. Exposes have been written about them. They have been
> found to have feet of clay. There are no heroes. There are no
> heroines. There is no vision.
> 
> It is a matter of making it through day by day, being concerned only
> for one's self because no one else is interested in us. You survive or
> not. It is a hard, cruel world out there.
> 
>  The creation of a new society
> 
> That is not the Bahá'í way. We are people committed to the creation of
> a new society. We are summoned to heroism. We are summoned to
> sacrifice. We are summoned to idealism and to altruism. We are people
> creating a new society, a new civilization. We are people who love and
> are concerned about generations yet unborn and we are prepared to
> dedicate our lives that those generations to come, in decades and
> centuries into the future, may have a better life; may have a life of
> peace and unity and harmony and the possibility for the full
> development of their potential.
> 
> This is the idealism to which we are summoned as Bahá'ís. We need to
> overcome the apathy and lethargy of society and stand apart as people
> dedicated to the creation of a new world.
> 
> What does this mean? How do we achieve this? How will it come about? I
> believe that we, as believers, need a far deeper understanding of the
> role of the Faith in the redemption of mankind.
> 
> We are not simply spreading one religion to clutter up a world full of
> religions. We are not simply seeking to elbow our way into the
> community of the faiths of mankind. We are not simply content to make
> the Encyclopedia Britannica Year Book and become known as a religion
> that has spread around the world. We are not simply content to
> assemble an array of national and local assemblies and prestigious
> events and gatherings. Our religion is that of the Promised One of All
> Ages. Our religion is that of the World Redeemer Who has come after
> thousands upon thousands of years of toil and turmoil and suffering
> during the whole of recorded history.
> 
> We stand at a break point in the history of human civilization and we,
> as Bahá'ís, are the vehicle for the implantation of spirit into the
> body of mankind which is now being molded through great difficulty and
> suffering into a unified entity.
> 
> In my present functioning as a member of the Universal House of
> Justice, I find myself at times meditating on a statement which
> appears in the writings of the Guardian and it appears without
> conditionality--I find no conditionality attached to it. It is
> rather a definite statement without any maybes or possiblies or
> perhapses.
> 
> And in that statement, the Guardian refers to the institution of which
> I am a member, the Universal House of Justice. And he says that "this
> House is one which posterity will regard as the last refuge of a
> tottering civilization."
> 
> When I read that passage, I say to myself, "What does it mean about
> the future condition of mankind?" I sometimes sit in the council
> chamber in the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, I look at my
> eight colleagues seated around the table, I realize that we nine are
> no the House of Justice. It is a great, magnificent spiritual entity
> of which we are simply the weak and feeble outward expression.
> 
>  The great changes to come
> 
> But I say to myself, "This institution, this Universal House of
> Justice with which I have to some extent become familiar over these
> years, it, the Guardian tells us definitely, categorically, without
> conditionality, will be such that posterity will look upon it as the
> 'last refuge of a tottering civilization."
> 
> I offer this passage to you simply as an indication of the great
> changes that are coming to humanity.
> 
> When they will come--in which decade, in which century--we
> know not. But we do know that they will come--that the Cause of
> which we are all members is destined to play a major transforming,
> revolutionizing role in the history of humanity on this planet.
> 
> And I think if we can revive in our minds the vision of the magnitude
> of the aims and objectives of the Cause--aims which are far
> beyond human comprehension, which are feasible only because of the
> power of God which we believe animates Bahá'u'lláh and His Revelation
> --if we do this, then we will revive that vision and we will
> become once more committed human beings dedicated to the welfare of
> humanity in this generation and countless generations yet unborn into
> the future.
> 
> Finally, I come to the third of the three mental tests to which I have
> wanted to draw attention tonight. And it is a challenge and a test
> which the Bahá'í friends in many parts of the world are experiencing.
> I address my remarks to you as American Bahá'ís but I have made
> similar remarks in other countries that I have visited recently.
> 
> My concern--and what I see to be a very dangerous and pressing
> mental test to the Bahá'ís in the western countries as well as other
> parts of the world--is that the believers in these countries
> live in a society which has developed certain attitudes about social
> organizations and institutions.
> 
> These attitudes are firstly that people are suspicious and distrustful
> of their government and its bureaucracy. They have found through
> bitter experience that their governmental leaders have become corrupt,
> that the bureaucracy of their social organization suffocates them,
> restricts their freedom and, in many ways, is a source of their
> suffering.
> 
> People today do not have a sense of community. They have learned, at
> bitter cost, not to trust eah other, not to trust those who appear
> honest and upright and of good character because, so often, they have
> been found to be opposite. They have, therefore, developed a sense of
> extreme individualism, of worship of unfettered personal freedom.
> 
>  Attitudes of society
> 
> People in our society increasingly feel a sense of powerlessness in
> relation to their authorities. They find themselves insignificant,
> unable to change the system, doomed to suffer its adverse and
> oppressive circumstances and consequences. Therefore, they often
> resort to radical actions outside the system. They become terrorist.
> They become anarchists. They seek the overthrow of the system. They
> seek its destruction. They say, often with a certain justification,
> anything is better than what we've got.
> 
> These are increasingly the attitudes of society around us. They were
> foreshadowed by Bahá'u'lláh in His Tablets to the kings and religious
> leaders. Shoghi Effendi described in detail the evolution of society
> during what he called this "age of critical transition." It is now
> upon us. People in our society have developed those attitudes and, if
> we were to question those people, they would offer us ample
> justification for the attitudes which they display.
> 
> The great mental test we face as believers is test that we may,
> unconsciously and inadvertently, transfer those attitudes from the
> larger society which is manifestly in decline into the Bahá'í
> administrative system.
> 
> That is our test. Because if we bring those attitudes in with us,
> without even realizing it, we will disrupt and damage the
> administrative system ordained by Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi wrote on this theme some years ago. He said, "Our
> present generation, mainly due to the corruptions that have been
> identified with organizations, seems to stand against any institution.
> Religion as an institution is denounced. Government as an institution
> is denounced. Even marriage as an institution is denounced."
> 
> "We Bahá'ís should not be blinded by such prevalent notions. If such
> were the case, all the Divine Manifestations would not have invariably
> appointed someone to succeed Them. Undoubtedly, corruptions did enter
> those institutions but these corruptions were not due to the nature of
> the institutions, but to the lack of proper directions as to their
> powers and the nature of their perpetuation."
> 
> "What"--this is still the Guardian's words--"What
> Bahá'u'lláh has done is not to eliminate all institutions in the
> Cause, but to provide the necessary safeguards that would eliminate
> corruptions that caused the fall of previous institutions." What those
> safeguards are is most interesting to study and find out and most
> essential to know.
> 
>  The challenge of detachment
> 
> In other words, we are challenged to detach ourselves, to emancipate
> ourselves from the prevailing, and indeed, not just prevailing but
> rapidly increasing sense of suspicion, of distrust and disfavor which
> characterizes attitudes of people in our society toward their
> institutions and avoid such attitudes coming into the relationship of
> the believers to the Bahá'í institutions.
> 
> They are not the same. They are radically different. This is a system
> ordained by Bahá'u'lláh, by the Manifestation of God. It has
> characteristics. It has a system to it which enables it to purify
> itself of any adverse attitude and behavior. It stands quite different
> from the way of the world. If we bring the way of the world into the
> Bahá'í Administrative Order, all we will do is temporarily disrupt it.
> All we will do is irreparably damage our own personal spiritual
> development.
> 
> We need to develop new attitudes. We need to develop a far deeper
> understanding of the Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It is
> not enough to sign the card to say, "I believe there is a Covenant.
> There are these people around with a variety of titles. Whatever they
> are I accept them. Fine, that's it." This is not enough, friends.
> 
> We will be swept away because there are dangerous forces in our
> society. There are insidious influences. We have to protect ourselves
> now, and our protection is deepening in the Covenant.
> 
> Let me read to you a very, very difficult and challenging paragraph
> from the Guardian. In this paragraph the Guardian makes statements
> which I would never dare to say. I read them because it is the
> Guardian. I am safe. You can't attack me for reading them. The
> Guardian is writing. I would never had the courage to stand before you
> and make the kind of statements I am going to read to you now.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi says that "the believers need to be deepened in the
> knowledge and appreciation of the Covenants of both Bahá'u'lláh and
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This is the stronghold of the faith of every Bahá'í, and
> that which enables him to withstand every test and the attacks of the
> enemies outside the Faith." So far it's not too bad. I would
> have said that. Now comes the difficult part.
> 
> "This is the stronghold of the Faith of every Bahá'í, and that which
> enables him to withstand every test and the attacks of the enemies
> outside the Faith and the far more dangerous, insidious, lukewarm
> people inside the Faith who have no real attachment to the Covenant,
> and consequently uphold the intellectual aspect of the teachings while
> at the same time undermining the spiritual foundation upon which the
> whole Cause of God rests."
> 
>  The Covenant: our protection
> 
> Now do you understand why I said I would not have had the courage to
> make these remarks? It is simply the words of the Guardian telling us
> that only through deepening in the Covenant will we withstand no only
> the attacks of people outside the Faith but what describes as the "far
> more dangerous" attacks, the "insidious" attacks of those he describes
> as 'lukewarm people inside the Faith who have no real attachment" to
> the Cause, who uphold the intellectual aspect of the teachings while
> undermining its spiritual foundation.
> 
> Friends, we do not have the right to judge. As individuals we cannot
> judge. I cannot say this person is one of those lukewarm people who
> upholds the intellectual, undermines the spiritual. I have no right to
> make such a statement. You cannot make that statement about me or
> about anybody else in this room or in this country.
> 
> We are not here to categorize or to judge. But Shoghi Effendi tells us
> that the Bahá'í community includes those elements. We are not here to
> engage in adversarial actions against those we categorize in that way.
> We are here to make ourselves spiritually healthy and strong so that
> whoever they are, wherever they are, we are not to judge, but we will
> be immune to their dangerous, insidious influence.
> 
> So our task is not to engage in witch hunts. Not to go searching and
> to put labels on this one, that one or the other. Our task is to do
> exactly as Shoghi Effendi said--to deepen ourselves in the
> Covenant so we will be spiritually strong and healthy and withstand
> these adverse attitudes toward the institutions of the Faith.
> 
> We need also in dealing with this test, the test of acquiring a new
> attitude toward our social organizations and institutions, we need to
> rethink what is criticism. There is criticism and there is criticism.
> There are passages in the Writings which refer to criticism as being
> an appropriate measure, an appropriate element of Bahá'í consultative
> and community practice, and nobody is disagreeing with that. But what
> we also have in our Writings are references to the extremely dangerous
> character of what the Guardian refers to as "vicious and negative"
> criticism.
> 
> "Criticism and discussions of a negative character, which may result
> in undermining the authority of the Assembly as a body, should be
> strictly avoided." And I think most people are smart enough to know
> what is the difference. They are also smart enough to find ways of
> worming around whatever rule you lay down. Because it is a question of
> attitude rather than a question of mere words of speech.
> 
>  Freedom from negative criticism
> 
> We look toward a constructive, developmental Bahá'í community which
> doesn't pretend it is immune from any means of further development and
> refinement of its practices and conduct but which is free from what
> the Guardian refers to as criticism of a negative nature which has the
> effect of undermining the authority of the Assembly.
> 
> One of the favorite and most wasteful and destructive practices in
> Bahá'í community life in certain quarters is that of speculation about
> calamity. I am sure you've all had experiences at certain times of
> spectacular remarks about the evaporation of skyscrapers and
> submarines off the coast and so on.
> 
> There is a passage--there are many passages in the Bahá'í
> Writings--where Shoghi Effendi says we don't know in what form
> the calamity will occur. Calamity is occurring now and so on and so
> forth. There is one passage and I am going to read it you where the
> Guardian says this is calamity. Finally, we found it.
> 
> The letter, written on behalf of the Guardian, December 18, 1949, was
> published in the Bahá'í News in July 1950--and what does he say?
> He defines a calamity. He says:
> 
> "Vicious criticism is indeed a calamity. But its root is lack of faith
> in the system of Bahá'u'lláh (i.e. the administrative order) and lack
> of obedience to Him--for He has forbidden it. If the Bahá'ís
> would follow the Bahá'í laws in voting, in electing, in serving, and
> in abiding by assembly decisions, all this waste of strength through
> criticizing others could be diverted into cooperation."
> 
> So one of the elements of acquiring the new attitude toward social
> organizations is deepening in the Covenant, a second one is that of
> rethinking the nature of criticism because it is a constructive
> element of Bahá'í consultation, and the third and final element that I
> mention is quite revolutionary. It is a statement where Shoghi Effendi
> was asked to define what were the parameters for the Cause in bringing
> in large numbers of people. And he set out four parameters; three of
> them are obvious and the fourth is very unusual. He said these were
> the requirements without which the Cause can never really bring in
> large numbers of people. He said:
> 
> "Without the spirit of real love for Bahá'u'lláh, for His Faith, and
> its institutions, and the believers for each other." Three of those
> are obvious, the fourth one isn't.
> 
> We would expect the believers to have real love for Bahá'u'lláh. We
> would expect them to love His Faith. We would expect them, in fact,
> hope that the believers would love each other.
> 
> But Shoghi Effendi defines as one of the four requirements for
> bringing in large numbers of people that we develop a sense of love, a
> sense of real love for the institutions of the Faith. This is
> radically new in the Bahá'í Dispensation.
> 
> Where do you find individuals who, since we are in the state of
> Illinois, who will come to you and say, "I love the Illinois state
> legislature." Where do you find somebody who says, "I love the House
> of Representatives," or "I love the Senate." Maybe you'll find a few
> who say "I am in love with the Supreme Court," particularly if it has
> gone their way. Where do you find people who say, "I love the
> executive branch of government; I love the city council; I love our
> district administration." This is foreign to western thought. This is
> inimical. This is radical.
> 
> The prevailing thought is that less government is better. The more
> government, we should get these rascals out of our hair, and so on. We
> go off in an entirely different direction.
> 
> We are not just 60 degrees away. We are not 90 degrees or 150 degrees
> away. We are 180 degrees away. We are in entirely the opposite
> direction, because our religion tells us that without the spirit of
> real love for the institutions of the Cause, we cannot bring in large
> numbers of people.
> 
> I have almost reached the end of my remarks but not quite because it
> is easy to love institutions which one perceives as functioning
> marvelously well. It is easy to love institutions that function
> marvelously. If you are in a community and your local Spiritual
> Assembly is doing magnificent, wonderful things, sure you can love it.
> I love them also.
> 
> But can you love an institution which is functioning in an incomplete
> developmental way, which is making mistakes, which is having trouble
> with its unity, with its activity, with its executive action, which
> forgets to advise you of important events and the like? This is our
> challenge. How can we do it without hypocrisy?
> 
> We can do it the same way a parent loves a child. When the child is
> stumbling, is behaving badly, is filled with some illness, or is
> grappling with some social grace, the parent loves the child because
> the parent sees in that child the potential for development. Through
> love and nurturance, the child will develop and fulfill its potential.
> Through criticism and a lack of love the child's growth will be
> stunted; its development will never be realized.
> 
> So it is we are called upon to love our institutions, not in a sense
> of artificiality, not in a sense of hypocrisy, but in a sense of
> perfect faith that these are institutions ordained by Bahá'u'lláh with
> a glorious, magnificent future ahead of them. Through our love, our
> nurturance, our support, our compassion, our understanding, they will
> develop. They will evolve. It is this kind of love we seek--radically different from the attitude of criticism, suspicion,
> disorder, corruption which informs the attitude of people in the
> society around us toward institutions which are in decline and
> dissolution.
> 
>  The Plan's triple theme
> 
> As you know, the Three Year Plan, now hastening to its conclusion,
> revolves around a triple them--enhancing the vitality of the
> faith of individual believers, greatly developing the human resources
> of the Cause, and fostering the proper functioning of the local and
> national Bahá'í institutions. It is in striving to overcome the three
> mental tests that I have called attention to tonight that I believe we
> can best fulfill the responsibilities laid upon us in pursuit of the
> Three Year Plan in our role as Bahá'ís.
> 
> I bring my remarks to conclusion. It is well known that the American
> Bahá'í community is a community endowed with great potential.
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá blessed these shores with His footsteps. He lavished love
> and care on this country.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi wrote his major messages to the American Bahá'ís. He
> called upon the American believers as the chief executors of the
> Tablets of the Divine Plan. And I can assure you that the Universal
> House of Justice loves the American Bahá'í community and its
> institutions in no less a way than the love that was showered upon the
> friends in this country by the Master and the Guardian.
> 
> We turn to the American Bahá'í community with a great deal of trust
> and confidence and, if you will allow it, with pride at the potential
> and the greatness of what this community can achieve.
> 
> There is no doubt in my mind that all the promises in the Writings
> about the future glory and destiny of the American Bahá'í community
> will be fully and completely realized. Everything that 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> says about it will come true. It will occur. It is inevitable. There
> is no doubt about it.
> 
> But what there is doubt about is, where will you and I be? Will we be
> part of this great development? Will we be part of these victories?
> Will we survive these dangerous and challenging mental tests to which
> I see we are subjected now? Will it be our lot to ride on the crest of
> this wave of victories or will we be swept aside? Will we, in fact,
> join those in Bahá'í history who failed the tests when the tests came
> upon them? The choice is ours. The choice is ours, friends. The choice
> is ours.
>
> — *Nature and Challenge of Tests, The (Used by permission of the curator)*