QUESTIONS COMPOSED BY ROSS CAMPBELL FOR WHICH THE HETERODOX BAHA'IS ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE ANY RATIONAL OR COGENT ANSWER
In view of the fact that the vast majority of Heterodox Baha'is contacted in recent years are constantly expressing their belief/s that the continuing Guardianship means the advice and writings left behind on Earth by Shoghi Effendi when he departed for the next world and/or that Shoghi Effendi continues to act as Guardian over the Baha'is on Earth even though he is now in the next world, are the afore mentionedcontinuous expressions of belief by Baha'is under your oversight a fruitage of your teaching or a fruitage of your negligence?
If, in view of these
Words of the Master quoted from His Will
and Testament: "The guardian of the Cause of God as well as the Universal House of Justice...are both under the
care and protection of the Abha Beauty, under the shelter
and unerring guidance of His Holiness, the
Exalted One. Whatsoever they decide is of God", either or both of the commonly held beliefs of heterodox Baha'is
mentioned in Question 1. above are a result of your
teaching, do you believe and teach that Shoghi Effendi, who is now in the next
world, remains "...under the care and protection of the Abha Beauty, under the shelter and
unerring guidance of His Holiness, the Exalted One"?
If you believe
and teach that Shoghi Effendi, although now in
the next world, remains in need of "protection", what is the nature of the protection which
you believe he needs?
The Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha' contains these instructions:
"Unto this body all things must be
referred. It enacteth
all
ordinances and regulations that are not to be found
in the explicit Holy Text. By this body
all the difficult
problems are to be resolved and the
guardian of the Cause
of God is its sacred head and the
distinguished member for
life of that body. Should he not attend in person its
deliberations, he must appoint one to
represent him".
Are you keeping a record of the names of the
persons whom the
guardian has appointed to "represent him" at each of the
deliberations of your UHJ which he has not attended "in person"?
On November 25th,
1957 the body calling themselves the"Custodians of the Baha'i Faith" made this recorded statement:
"The
Custodians shall be deemed to succeed the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith." Under the Light of
these Words of the
Master
from His Will and Testament: "It is incumbent upon
the
guardian of the Cause of God to appoint ...him that
shall be his successor,...", and in view of the fact that
Shoghi
Effendi included "...loyal and steadfast adherence to
every clause of our Beloved's sacred Will;..." as one of
the
'qualifications' for a new believer, would it not be fair to conclude that the "Custodians"
'disqualified' themselves
as
believers by their failing to demonstrate "loyal and steadfast adherence" to that "clause" in the
sacred Will which so clearly designates the Authority to
choose his successor upon the very guardian himself?
In The Dispensation of Baha'u'llah, Shoghi
Effendi records this statement: "As I have already stated, in the
course of my references to 'Abdu'l-Baha's station, however
great the gulf that separates Him from the Author of a Divine
Revelation it can never measure with the distance that stands
between Him Who is the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and the Guardians who are its chosen
ministers."..."The fact that the
Guardian has been specifically endowed with such power
as he may need to reveal the purport and
disclose the implications
of
the utterances of Baha'u'llah and of 'Abdu'l-Baha' does
not
necessarily confer upon him a station co-equal with those
Whose words he is called upon to interpret. He can exercise
that right and discharge this obligation
and yet remain infinitely
inferior to both of them in rank and different in nature."
"To the integrity of this cardinal principle of our Faith
the
words, the deeds of its present and future Guardians must
abundantly testify. By their conduct and example they must
needs establish its truth upon an unassailable foundation and
transmit to future generations unimpeachable evidences of its
reality."
The above quoted expressions of Shoghi
Effendi, the first of our Guardians, stimulate the emergence of this question: If you no longer believe and accept that the
Guardians are the
"chosen ministers" of the Covenant of
Baha'u'llah, as stated by the first Guardian, whom do you now
believe and teach to be the 'chosen ministers' of His Holy
Covenant?
No declared
Baha'i will disagree with the truth that
the
Guardian is the only Interpreter provided by God for the Holy Writings of the Baha'i Faith.
Since the current Haifa administration has no Guardian, no
Interpreter of Baha'i Holy Writings, is not that
administration breaching the boundaries assigned by Almighty God to
Baha'i believers (not the Guardians) by offering to the
members of the large
body
of Baha'is, interpretations of explicit Holy Text, namely the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha', which interpretations are unreviewed, unexamined by
the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith?
What do you understand the word "divorced" to
mean in the context of the following quotation
from the writing of
Shoghi Effendi: "Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of
Baha'u'llah would be mutilated
and
permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which,
as
'Abdu'l-Baha' has written, has been invariably upheld by
the law of God."? (The World Order of
Baha'u'llah) This question is
asking you to provide a clear picture of what you believe
Shoghi
Effendi is warning us to guard against in the above quotation, not merely a dictionary definition
of the word 'divorced'.)
Writing in His
Will and Testament concerning the members of the Universal House of Justice, the Master
provided this directive: "Should any of the
members commit a sin, injurious
to the common weal, the guardian of the
Cause of God hath at
his own discretion the right to expel him,
whereupon the
people must elect another one in his stead." In view
of
the
fact that it is surely evident to all reasonable Baha'is
that
the writings which Shoghi Effendi left behind when he
passed
cannot exercise the "discretion" necessary to confront
such a
circumstance, would you kindly tell everyone the precise manner by which you would expect
Shoghi Effendi to perform such an 'expulsion' now that he is in the other world.
In the Dispensation of
Baha'u'llah the first of ourGuardians, Shoghi Effendi, instructs us that the institution of
the Guardianship provides:
"...the necessary guidance to
define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected
representatives...".
If you believe that
such "guidance to
define
the sphere of legislative action" of the Universal
House
of Justice must be received from the first of our Guardians although he is now in the other
world, rather than from a living Guardian on Earth, please
explain the detailsof the manner by which you expect to receive such guidance
from
the next world.
In the
Dispensation of Baha'u'llah, Shoghi Effendi explains the capacity of the Guardian of the
Baha'i Faith as a member of the Universal House of
Justice, and concerning
the
legislation by that body, comprised of himself and hisfellow-members, he writes with respect to the Guardian:
"He...is bound to insist upon a reconsideration by them of
any
enactment he conscientiously believes to conflict with
the meaning and to depart from the spirit
of Baha'u'llah's
revealed utterances." Is it not
obvious that this is a function which can only be performed by a
living Guardian in this world?
In his Will and Testament, 'Abdu'l-Baha' writes concerning ‹the Huqúqu'llah‹"the Right of God": "It is to be offered through the guardian of the Cause of God...".
Bringing to mind again that Shoghi Effendi included: "...loyal and steadfast adherence to every clause of our Beloved's sacred Will;..." as one of the qualifications of a new believer, should you not be setting a fine example for all new believers by showing steadfast
adherence to the above clause of the Master's Will, namely: "It is to be offered through the guardian of the Cause of God..."?