Shoghi Effendi was often surprised at the strange beliefs of Western Bahais, and when speaking in person he could be almost scathing about their foolishness. “The chatter of idle minds” in the example you gave may not be what he actually said however - the report might be spun to support one faction in the American Bahai community against another. But a report with several authors all present with Shoghi Effendi together is less prone to spin than the report of one pilgrim, which might be shaped to wound an “opponent” back home.
The best evidence is the writings of Shoghi Effendi himself. The pilgrim’s notes and the books and essays written by early western Bahais sometimes clarify what Bahai views Shoghi Effendi is arguing against. He is against the elevation of Abdu’l-Baha to the station of a Prophet, against exaggeration of his own station, against the reduction of the Bab to a lesser station, against the idea that the Bahai Administration would replace the national government, against the idea that the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar would be an interfaith common space. He writes:
“The international status which the Religion of God has thus far achieved, moreover, imperatively demands that its root principles be now definitely clarified … “ (The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 98)
and what follows over many pages is largely addressed to the muddle in the minds of so many of the early Western believers at that time.
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