UHJ will never infringe upon the sacred domain of the Guardian

Shoghi Effendi has given categorical assurances that neither the Guardian nor the Universal House of Justice “can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other.” Therefore, the friends can be sure that the Universal House of Justice will not engage in interpreting the Holy Writings....

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986)

https://bahai.works/MUHJ63-86/412/The_Universal_House_of_Justice’s_Power_of_Elucidation

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The UHJ will inform Baha'is who the next Manifestation is.

One Baha'i claimed:

The Universal House of Justice have indicated that they will let us know who the Manifestation is. Most likely, He would contact them and they could then let us know who He is.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bahai/comments/1x7amgj/comment/ph2oc44/

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the number of members of the Universal House of Justice could be more than nine.

Mr Baghdadi asked if the number of members of the Universal House of Justice could be more than nine. The Guardian responded by saying, 'Not only can that be, but the number of all the Houses of Justice, local and national, will increase afterwards, but not now.

(Shoghi Effendi Through the Pilgrim's Eye, Volume 1 by Earl Redman - GEORGE RONALD, OXFORD)

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Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community by Karen Bacquet

Karen Bacquet’s article, "Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community," outlines several criticisms focusing on the gap between the religion's progressive public image and its internal administrative practices.

Here are some key points:

• Authoritarian Governing Structure: The Baha'i Faith is governed by an elected body, the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), which is believed to be divinely guided and infallible, making its decisions unchallengeable by adherents.
• Lack of Institutional Accountability: Although the governing bodies are elected, they are not held accountable to the electorate but are considered accountable only to God.
• System of Censorship: Adherents are subject to "prepublication review," a policy where any Baha’i writing about the Faith for public consumption must have their work approved by the administration.
• Fear of Internal Enemies: There is a pervasive fear of internal dissent that might disrupt unity; those who challenge the administration are often labeled "covenant-breakers" and described as "spiritually sick".
• Practice of Shunning: Individuals designated as covenant-breakers are subject to mandatory shunning by the rest of the Baha'i community.
• Suppression of Dissent: The administration uses intimidation and investigations by appointed officials (Auxiliary Board Members) to monitor and silence members who express unorthodox views.
• Theocratic Ambitions: The Baha'i administrative order is viewed not just as a church structure, but as an evolving world theocracy that considers Western democratic systems inferior and eventually doomed.
• Inequality in Governance: Despite teachings on gender equality, women are excluded from serving on the supreme governing body, the Universal House of Justice.
• Internet Crackdowns: The leadership has threatened and sanctioned intellectuals for expressing liberal opinions on private email forums and the Internet.
• Summary Expulsions: In recent years, the administration has dropped critics from membership rolls without prior warning or due process for expressing dissenting views publicly.
• Hostility toward Modern Scholarship: The administration often condemns academic methods as "materialistic" and interferes with scholarly projects sometimes by deleting passages from primary sources.
• Pressure for Conformity: Adherents are placed in a psychological bind where they are attracted by liberal ideals but pressured into absolute obedience to an administrative system that does not tolerate public disagreement.

(Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community by Karen Bacquet. Published in Cultic Studies Journal - Psychological Manipulation and Society, Volume 18, 2001)

https://library.internationalculticstudies.org/24n77ga/2

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This institution is under the protecting power of Bahá’u’lláh Himself.

He [Bahá’u’lláh] has ordained and established the House of Justice, which is endowed with a political as well as a religious function, the consummate union and blending of church and state. This institution is under the protecting power of Bahá’u’lláh Himself.

(“The Promulgation of Universal Peace”, 1982 ed., p. 455)

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/compilations/universal-house-of-justice-compilation/5#692131058

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sixty percent of the international funds is used to assist the work of NSAs... and to defend the Cause against attacks in many parts of the world.

The vast increase in the financial resources of the Faith called for under the Plan has evoked a heartwarming response from the entire Bahá’í community. Not only the Bahá’í International Fund but the local, national and continental Funds of the Faith have been sacrificially supported. This practical proof of the love which the friends bear for the Faith has enabled all the work to go forward—the support of pioneers and travelling teachers, the raising of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs and acquisition of Bahá’í properties, the purchase of Holy Places in the Cradle of the Faith and at the World Center, the development of educational institutions and all the multifarious activities of a vigorous, onward-marching, constructive world community. It is of interest that sixty percent of the international funds of the Faith is used to assist the work of National Spiritual Assemblies, to promote the teaching work and to defend the Cause against attacks in many parts of the world. Without such help from the Bahá’í world community many National Assemblies would be paralyzed in their efforts of expansion and deepening. The administration of Ḥuqúqu’lláh has been strengthened in preparation for its extension to other parts of the world. An International Deputization Fund was established at the World Center to assist pioneers and travelling teachers who were ready to serve but unable to provide their own expenses, and this Fund was later extended to the support of projects on national homefronts. Contribution to the Fund is a service which will never cease to be open to all believers; the growth of the Faith and the rise of its Administrative Order require an ever-increasing outpouring of our substance, commensurate in however small a measure with the bounty and liberality of the outpouring confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh.

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986, Riḍván Message 1973)

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To refuse to imbue oneself with the spirit of the Administrative Order, to disassociate oneself from its institutions or to withdraw from active collaboration with its agencies constitutes the greatest privation.

To refuse to imbue oneself with the spirit of the Administrative Order, to disassociate oneself from its institutions or to withdraw from active collaboration with its agencies constitutes the greatest privation. The new sap mounts through the majestic trunk of the Divine Order of Bahá’u’lláh, flows through all its branches and reaches the smallest leaves, ourselves, who live from the life of the tree. On the other hand, the institutions find themselves paralyzed wherever the believers fail to recognize their essential responsibility which is to live in accordance with the precepts and regulations and to teach, individually and collectively.

“Without his (the individual believer’s) continual support, at once whole-hearted, continuous and generous, every measure adopted and every plan formulated, by the Body which acts as the national representative of the community to which he belongs, is foredoomed to failure. The World Center of the Faith itself is paralyzed if such a support on the part of the rank and file of the community is denied to it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself is impeded in His purpose if the proper instruments for the execution of His design are lacking. The sustaining strength of Bahá’u’lláh Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from each and every individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part.”5

The Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh is, thus, animated by the same spirit as His Revelation.

(Bahá’í News, Issue 383)

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_News/Issue_383/Text

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Problems with the infallibility of the UHJ

• In the current age of "fallibilism," any claim to infallibility is obsolete and untenable. Critics, including some Christian theologians like Hans Küng, argue that "No one is infallible save God" and point to historically erroneous decisions in other faiths (like the Catholic Church) as evidence against the concept.
• Because the Universal House of Justice relies on potentially fragmentary or misreported information from fallible subordinates, its decisions cannot claim absolute correctness. 'Conditional infallibility' is a contradiction in terms: a judgment built on faulty facts is simply an error, and the very need for later correction concedes that it was never infallible to begin with.
• An extensive interpretation that claims everything the House decides is infallible is extremely risky. Critics and zealous observers need only find a single evident error to falsify and empirically disprove the entire claim to divine guidance.
• Applying the "august concept of infallibility" to trivial matters - administrative appointments or building décor - reduces it to absurdity and trivializes the will of God. Worse, an uncritical, quasi-magical view of guidance recasts the institution as a Delphic Oracle, encouraging believers to evade personal responsibility and surrender their own reason.

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an administration they must obey

"Those who declare themselves as Bahá’ís should become enchanted with the beauty of the Teachings; and touched by the love of Bahá’u’lláh. The declarants need not know all the proofs, history, laws, and principles of the Faith, but in the process of declaring themselves they must, in addition to catching the spark of faith, become basically informed about the Central Figures of the Faith, as well as the existence of laws they must follow and an administration they must obey."

(Universal House of Justice, 13 July 1964)

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UHJ has no right at all to change any law that Bahá’u’lláh has specifically revealed.

Although the Universal House of Justice has to apply and supplement the laws of the Aqdas it has no right at all to change any law that Bahá’u’lláh has specifically revealed. As clearly stated by the Guardian, the provisions of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas “remain inviolate” during the entire Dispensation.

(From a letter dated 28 April 1974 written by the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/compilations/universal-house-of-justice-compilation/5#692131014

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The translation of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh is not a priority for the Universal House of Justice

If translating and making available the writings of Bahá'u'lláh were in fact any sort of priority of the Universal House of Justice, they have enormous resources with which to do so. (Anyone who can spend $250 million on building works has the money for other projects, as well). They have simply decided to expend their resources on other things. I once saw in a library a big set of books, The Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo in Bengali with English translations. Aurobindo was a 20th century Indian holy man. But his followers managed to get his *complete* collected works not only published but also translated, not long after his death. Aurobindo's following is tiny and poor compared to that of the Bahá'ís. That only about 5% of Bahá'u'lláh's works have been translated is not an unfortunate side effect of lack of resources in the Bahá'í community. It is a deliberate decision to invest the money in things like monumental architecture instead.

Moreover, the Universal House of Justice's own translations, as represented in Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and some of the compilations, are riddled with errors and mistranslations that give an extremely misleading impression of the intent of the original on a number of occasions. So it is not as if the UHJ's own record in translation work is spotless. Unfortunately, it is precisely the attitude of suspicion toward qualified academics and the rigidity of their preconceived opinions, evident in their letter on the Tablet of the Houri, that has caused them to so discount solid expertise and resulted in these many errors in their publications.

-Juan Cole

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_lawh_huriyyih_cole

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Why some influential Iranian believers turned against Shoghi Effendi?

Resistance against Shoghi Effendi came not only from the grouping around Muhammad-'Ali, however. In the early years of his Guardianship, Shoghi Effendi did indeed encounter tangible resistance from within the community, emanating from a small but certainly influential minority and including some members of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s own family. This resistance was directed against Shoghi Effendi personally, against his youth, against his style of leadership, which was so different from that of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, against the universalism that he promulgated, and against what his critics perceived as the resultant "westernization" of the Baha’i Faith, which was increasingly drawing away from the Islamic forms and structures that had dominated the early community. It had generally been expected that the Universal House of Justice would be established immediately after the death of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. The believers rightly supposed that his Will and Testament would include precise instructions as to how this institution was to be elected. In the event, however, these instructions were set out only as principles and there was no prescribed time-scale. It was therefore the responsibility of the Guardian to determine the appropriate time for the establishment of the Universal House of Justice.

In Shoghi Effendi’s opinion, two essential conditions should, if possible, be fulfilled prior to the election of the first Universal House of Justice. The first of these was that the Baha’i community—and hence the National Spiritual Assemblies from whom the members of the Universal House were to be elected—should become multinational in character, at least to a certain extent. The second was that the local and national institutions should be consolidated, and that they should have effectively taken over the functions assigned to them. The development and strengthening of these foundations was to be a major focus of Shoghi Effendi’s work.

Nevertheless, some influential Iranian believers insisted on the immediate election of the Universal House of Justice? and turned against Shoghi Effendi when he did not comply with their demands.

(Making the Crooked Straight: A Contribution to Bahá'í Apologetics, by Udo Schaefer, p. 721-722)

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‘Abdu’l-Baha had already considered establishing the Universal House of Justice when Shoghi Effendi was still a child

‘Abdu’l-Baha had already considered establishing the Universal House of Justice when Shoghi Effendi was still a child in case he, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, should be separated from the community through death or imprisonment in solitary confinement. As a precaution, he therefore gave instructions for the election of the Universal House of Justice to Haji Mirza Taqi Afnan, the architect of the House of Worship in ‘Ishqabad (letter from the Universal House of Justice dated 9 March 1965, in Wellspring of Guidance, pp. 48f.).

(Making the Crooked Straight: A Contribution to Bahá'í Apologetics, by Udo Schaefer, p. 721)

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Infallibility of Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice

Nowhere in the Writings, does it say that Shoghi Effendi was inspired, infallible and in receipt of divine guidance only when he was interpreting. The contrary is true. Referring to the House of Justice and the Guardian, it is written that ‘Whatsoever they decide is of God’ (WTA 11). This is the opposite of limiting his divine guidance to interpretation alone. He himself has written, in ‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’, that he has been given the power to view developments over several generations. The idea that Shoghi Effendi was only guided when he was interpreting, or that the Universal House of Justice is only guided when it is legislating, is wrong. We have to be 100 per cent sure that both Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice are under the protection of the Bab and Baha’u’llah. This is the reason why this Faith is so well founded and firmly established.

(SHOGHI EFFENDI: THE RANGE AND POWER OF HIS PEN by ‘Ali Nakhjavani, 2006)

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The policies of the Universal House of Justice, unless viewed in a spiritual perspective will at times appear irrational.

The policies of the Universal House of Justice, unless viewed in a spiritual perspective will at times appear irrational. Upon what rational basis did the Universal House of Justice decide to embark upon the vast constructional project we call the Arc project? In the state of Israel, on an exposed position overlooking an oil refinery in a major port of that country in a time of such turmoil and danger and upset and the prospect of destructive warfare in that country. Where was the rationality in such a decision? Why now? Why not fifty years later when maybe the country has settled down somewhat? Why at this time?

The answer can only come through the cognizance of the operation of powerful great mysterious spiritual forces.

(1995: Four Year Plan, Peter J. Khan, 1996-09-29)

https://bahai-library.com/khan_1995_four-year_plan

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How Baha'i elections were conducted in the past, before 1995?

...in a message of December 1995 to the Councilors, the House of Justice envisaged that this could lead to a substantial loss in the number of Local Assemblies. What does this mean? It means that henceforth the primary responsibility for the formation of Local Spiritual Assemblies will rest with the individual members of that community. Not in somebody sent from a distant location to round up relatively passive members of the community and say "Today is Ridvan, you haven't heard of Ridvan? Well never mind. It is Ridvan. We're going to go through this election and these nine people, not all of whom may be present, are the members of the Local Assembly and I'll be back next Ridvan and we'll go through the whole thing again." From now on self motivation is going to be central to the life of Bahá'í communities, and this hard decision, if I may call it that, will quite likely lead to a substantial loss in the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies next Ridvan.

(1995: Four Year Plan, Peter J. Khan, 1996-09-29)

https://bahai-library.com/khan_1995_four-year_plan

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Needs of the Bahá’í World Centre at the Current Time

Finally I’m going to say a few words to you to indicate some of the pressing needs at the Bahá'í World Centre (BWC). This is not a recruiting meeting. I don’t expect any of you to come to serve there. None of you seem qualified for any of these positions, but I want you to know so you can talk to others about some of the things we need.

One of the pressing needs at the BWC, is for people with expertise in the science of conservation. How best to conserve documents and artefacts? For example the shoes of Bahá'u'lláh. What happens to them after 500 years? Conservation is a science that is concerned with things like slow-rate chemical processes that can occur over hundreds of years.

How do we conserve the texts, the ink and the paper upon which the original texts are written? This is the science of conservation. Bahá’ís who have done a degree in chemistry and don’t know what to do with it, can go on and do a graduate program in conservation. For example, the University of Canberra has a good program. They can then serve at the Bahá’í World Centre, we need them there and in a number of other places as time goes by.

One of our greatest needs is for archivists, experts in archival science. We have a pressing need for more Bahá’ís who have archival experience to help us in running our own archives at the World Centre, and in future the archives in major places such as Wilmette, here in Sydney, and in Frankfurt. If you want to have nightmares, start thinking about the records of the National Assemblies in the Pacific Islands. Because the National Spiritual Assemblies (NSAs) in the Pacific Islands don’t have the facilities to maintain their minute books and basic correspondence of what happened. For example, how was the NSA of Fiji formed and what happened over the years? So we have pressing needs for archival skills, and as there are good programs in Australia so you might encourage people going in that direction to think about it.

We need Bahá’ís with library science skills. We are scouring the world for qualified librarians. Our BWC library has a number of authorised positions and it’s about half filled at the moment because we cannot find qualified Bahá’í librarians.

There is an on going need for accountants and financial analysts and, in some cases, people with investment skills.

There is a great need at the BWC for executive secretaries, better described as Executive Aides. Typically, the direction in which we are going is that each member of the House of Justice and each member of the International Teaching Centre has and will have an Executive Aide who will, in turn, direct 1 or 2 more staff. At present I have a Secretary Aide who is a high level person and she has an Assistant Secretary. And I can see that expanding a little bit in the future. So we need people who are executive secretaries, somewhat like a company secretary. Someone who has a level of maturity in decision-making and good understanding and that’s probably something we will need more and more.

We need people in property management because we have over 100 apartments where we keep our staff, because it is cheaper for us to own these properties than rent them. Also we will have property acquisitions as the BWC expands and develops in time to come.

Lawyers are always a need. We have a small legal office of 2 lawyers, both of whom happen to be from Australia. We will need to expand that. It defends us when we are sued, which is reasonably common because everyone has the idea that we must be incredibly rich from having beautiful marble buildings. In addition, occasionally someone says something in the newspaper that they shouldn’t say, and we need to do something about it.

We also have very complex legal issues to negotiate with the State of Israel with our Status Agreement which gives us various rights in terms of taxation and importation and visas and the like. More and more, our legal office at the BWC is called upon to give advice to the House of Justice in response to National Assemblies. The NSAs write to us about Privacy Acts and matters like that and we have to respond to various issues that they raise. So our legal office has a range of things to deal with and that will require lawyers. Particularly lawyers who are not only smart but also are devoted believers with the degree of discipline to work with the House of Justice.

I have pretty much finished what I wanted to say and if you’re still alive I’m willing to take any questions or any discussion you may want to raise.

(The Need for Bahá'ís of Capacity and Expertise by Peter J. Khan, 2002)

https://bahai-library.com/khan_bahais_capacity_expertise

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Clearly, all of the National Assemblies are going to have to get involved more and more in External Affairs.

Clearly, all of the National Assemblies are going to have to get involved more and more in External Affairs. There are a small group of 7 or 8, of which Australia is one, which are leading, so we would characterise Australia in that group which are really doing well in External Affairs. It’s really the calibre of the people more than the amount of resources.

In Germany we have one sole individual who is involved in the external affairs work. And the German National Assembly has far less resources than the Australian National Assembly but they do a very good job because he is smart and he gets around and he talks to people in the Bundestadt and the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the like and they trust him and they like him and he’s a reliable figure. So it is the calibre of the people more than the resources at this point. In the future it won’t necessarily be that way but certainly at the moment it is. We are drawing more and more National Assemblies into having to take part in major activities.

New Zealand is becoming more involved because it has a very crucial role in relation to Iran with trade. So there are a number of things that are expanding.

We bring together a number of representatives of National Assemblies in a place called Acuto, Italy in September/October. They discuss the issues that are before them and they network with each other. So nowadays we’ve reached a point that whenever there is an outbreak of opposition to the Faith in Iran, the National Assemblies, the 7 or 8 key ones pick up the ball immediately, share information using the Internet and the defence occurs within the first 2 or 3 days which is about all the time you’ve got. It has happened with minimal intervention by the House of Justice, which makes us feel real good. Because in the past we had to come and manage the whole thing, telling them what to do, whereas now the network is so good that we can just watch it all happen and get copies of emails back and forth and then fine tune it as we will. We also bring together a number of representatives at a meeting at New Year in the Holy Land where we interact with them and define what we think are the needs and the pressures. We are in that sense actively involved.

(The Need for Bahá'ís of Capacity and Expertise by Peter J. Khan, 2002)

https://bahai-library.com/khan_bahais_capacity_expertise

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Preparing for Opposition to the Faith

The third point that I wanted to make is about opposition to the Faith. We need to be anticipating present-day and future opposition. And we need Bahá’ís of expertise and capacity to help us in doing that.

There are 3 elements to that. One area is the present day, where we have several miniscule Covenant-breaking groups which have access to Internet. Groups which are a handful of people. One group is 4 or 5 people, but it has several Web sites and spreads a lot of views about future and present Guardians and all the rest. We need Bahá’ís to know what the logical flaw is in what they say. It does not mean that you have to read that material; you’ll get yourself spiritually contaminated if you do so, and you don’t need that. But you need to be very familiar with the subtleties of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, to be fully aware of it, to have studied closely the letter called “Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh” in the book “World Order of Bahá'u'lláh”, to be very familiar with the arguments of the Covenant for defence against that.

The spread of Internet means that these obscure Covenant-breaking groups that no one has ever heard of, and people have ignored for decades, suddenly are revived. Now all they need is an attractive Web site and they’re back in business. Deepening in the Covenant has become a survival need which it wasn’t before to the same extent, and we need Bahá’ís of expertise in the deepening process.

The second area is that of Bahá’ís who’ve become turned off from the Faith, who’ve either resigned from the Faith or they are totally disaffected. They are also on Internet and there are some things we need to know about them. One thing we need to know is that it is not forbidden to read their material. They’re not declared Covenant-breakers. We are enjoined not to read Covenant-breaking literature, it is not forbidden but we are told it’s dangerous.

The House of Justice has described some of the material written by these disaffected people as “spiritually corrosive”. And so one needs to be aware of that. Every so often I travel around, and I meet some Bahá’í who is very anxious to prove something or other and they say “you know I’ve studied whatever (name one of these disaffected ex-Bahá’ís) writings on the Internet”. And I can see they are challenging me to read a disapproving lecture to them; of course one doesn’t do that but one tries to politely point out to them: “It’s your funeral, baby.” That is spiritually corrosive material. You want to have spiritually corrosive things, go for it. You want to rot your teeth with Coca-Cola, go for it. It’s up to you.

The third area is given this kind of movement outside the Bahá’í community, how do we avoid the creation of a counter-reaction which would give us some kind of a police state? How do we avoid reacting to these kind of nasty statements and criticism from these ex-Bahá’ís or turned off Bahá’ís or whatever, by becoming so tough and so tight that nobody dares say a word because of fear that they will get their head chopped off?

You find that that has occurred in history. You may find it interesting to study the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the 17th century. From what I understand, free settlers came over from England and settled in Massachusetts and they were very liberal and full of ideas. They got away from the constriction of the church in England. And then, lo and behold, their extreme ideas and creativity led to a counter reaction, and that counter reaction led to a puritanical tone in Massachusetts in those days: the scarlet letter and the Salem witch trials of 1692 and all the rest of it. I found the study of that period fascinating as an indication of how a vibrant dynamic society which aims to foster creativity finds that the creativity can get so far out of control that the only thing to do is to slam on the brakes hard, and you end up with the Salem witch trials and the scarlet letter and all the rest of it, a very rigid puritanical, tightly controlled society. How do we avoid that happening in the Bahá’í community, in reaction to the nasty things said by some of these so-called dissidents outside the Bahá’í community?

What is freedom within a Covenantal framework? What kind of freedom does the Covenant allow us? Janet wrote an article in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies in North America in March 2000, in which she relates the principles of the Covenant to the equality of the sexes. She makes an interesting point that the Covenant has a liberating effect upon creativity of thought, which is the very opposite from what you’d expect. You’d expect the Covenant to be intrinsically inhibiting to creativity of thought because of its “restrictions”.

Her argument, if I understand it correctly, was towards the fact that the Covenant is liberating because it allows us to be as creative as we want to be, knowing that one of the functions of the House of Justice is to clarify matters which are causing difference. So we can feel free to say all these ideas knowing that there is a safety net right there, so we don’t fall off and break our neck. I think that’s an idea that merits further development and further thought, the creativity - fostering dimension of the Covenant rather than its creativity-inhibiting element.

We need more discussion amongst Bahá’ís of what are legitimate forms of disagreement in a Bahá’í community? How do you disagree without creating disaster, contention, disorder? What does it mean? What can you say at the Feast? What can you say about the National Assembly? What can you say about the Institutions of the Faith without getting into hot water. What is the legitimate limit on disagreement? If you say there is none, then I’ll say you have conceptualised a police state. There has to be disagreement, there has to be creativity of thought, there has to be the legitimacy of the expression of a diversity of views for there to be growth and development. How do you have this without creating havoc and factions and tensions and people throwing chairs at each other and the like?

Finally on this point, how do you politely but legitimately disagree with a figure of eminence in the Bahá’í community? The only Hands of the Cause remaining are Dr. Varqá and Mr. Furutan who are both very elderly, but say a Counsellor comes here and makes a presentation to us and he or she speaks from their own perspective. We all know that they’re not infallible, authoritative and the like, but how do you disagree with what he or she said? What are the legitimate forms, given the fact that we should show respect for rank in the Bahá’í community. How do you express a different point of view within the limits of Bahá’í courtesy? If you say you can’t do it, then I say you’ve got a big problem. Because we’ve got to distinguish between the authoritative statements of the Universal House of Justice and the views of individuals – including House of Justice members – who are no more than individuals in their degree of authority in the expression of views.

How can we create a Bahá’í community in which respect does not inhibit creativity of thought and diversity of viewpoint? I submit to you that this is a difficult question. It’s great in theory. On this point also, I think one needs to anticipate and have more work going on by Bahá’ís such as yourself and others on what are the future opposition to the Faith. Let me give you a few examples.

One example concerns possible false accusations of homophobia, because of our stand on homosexuality. This is minor at this stage. At present some people get hot and bothered when they see what it says in the writings about homosexuality and they don’t like it. It may well become a more controversial issue when the Bahá’ís are highly ridiculed or condemned on the principles of human rights because of our teachings about homosexuality and the lack of appropriateness of homosexual conduct within a Bahá’í community. We’ll be accused of homophobia, we’ll be falsely accused of violating the human rights we keep calling for in Iran and elsewhere.

What about the death penalty? We all know that it’s in the Aqdás and it’s one of a range of penalties. But how do we respond when Amnesty International gets onto our case? When the Bahá’ís are condemned for the fact that we are one of the few populations in the world who still believe in the legitimacy of the death penalty under certain circumstances?

What do we do about accusations of restrictions on freedom of speech in the Administrative Order? What do we do about restrictions on getting up and saying that a particular individual should not be on the National Spiritual Assembly and that we should chase him out of town? This kind of statement is not permissible in the Administrative Order. We do not allow it. Are we not restricting freedom of speech? Are not the Bahá’ís people who, on the one hand, appeal for freedom, human rights, liberation, yet, on the other hand, restrict what you can say? These are very good answers to such questions, and we need to identify and discuss them.

These are the kind of things we need to be thinking about and developing thoughts about this. Of course the question of the composition of the Universal House of Justice. We do need further thought on this subject, Janet and I devoted about 20 pages to that in our book on Advancement of Women, but we need more people to develop other ideas and to think further how can we can present our teachings on the subject of the male membership of the Universal House of Justice.

We need also to prepare to respond to the future when people will accuse us of using psychological pressure to raise money. It’ll be no use trying to avoid it by saying contributions are confidential and you can give whatever you like and there is a box for contributions. They’ll say you require 19% of whatever’s left over and you specify it mathematically in the Law of Huqúqu'lláh, and you induce spiritual guilt in those who don’t do it. So you rely on spiritual pressures to get the 19% out of people in the Huqúqu'lláh. It is an erroneous line of thinking, and we need to be clear about it.

These are all very interesting issues and there are very good answers to them all in the Bahá’í Writings. We should welcome such questions, since they provide a wonderful opportunity to show the distinction and consistency of our teachings and their contrast to the deficient systems of thought now prevalent in the world.

(The Need for Bahá'ís of Capacity and Expertise by Peter J. Khan, 2002)

https://bahai-library.com/khan_bahais_capacity_expertise

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the foremost thought in the mind of each and every believer should be teaching

...the foremost thought in the mind of each and every believer should be teaching.

(The Universal House of Justice, Riḍván 2007)

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20070421_001/1#734934417

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