In a recent posting on the newsgroup talk.religion.bahai, a lost and confused sans-Guardian Bahai spoke out as follows:
"For six millions and half baha'is, the covenant is under the guardianship of the universal house of justice in mount Carmel in Haifa"
In a rare admission, this Bahai has stated publicly and openly that the so-called UHJ presently sitting in Haifa has assumed the "guardianship" of the Bahai Faith. I already knew this to be true, but was waiting for one of them to admit it.
Although they will rarely admit it, the sans-Guardian Baha'is long ago adopted the notion of a collective guardianship to be assumed by a body of believers. Shortly after the death of Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian, the Hands of the Cause made the decision that the Guardianship was "badah", that God had changed His mind and that there would no longer be living Guardians in office. They then vested in an Institution of their own making (the "Custodian" Hands) "all such functions, rights and powers in succession to the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith." In other words, a group of Hands that would serve as a collective Guardianship. This coup or usurpation of power and authority in the Faith occurred on November 25, 1957.
Make no mistake about it, they knew they were taking over the authority of the Guardian. They went on to take actions that only a Guardian had been empowered to do: to demand loyalty oaths from all of the National Spiritual Assemblies, to dissolve the French NSA after it recognized the claim by Charles Mason Remey to be the second Guardian, and to ex-communicate the second Guardian and those who were obedient to him. They threatened and cajoled and led the Bahai community until they could create their own Hand-made and headless so-called Universal House of Justice. After creation of their UHJ, on June 7, 1963, they then expressly released in writing those same functions, rights and powers:
"[W]e hereby release all the said functions, rights and powers which were conferred upon us under the said Declaration of November 25th, 1957 as determined by the Universal House of Justice in its communication of June 7th, 1963, and we declare that all the said functions, rights and powers now devolve rightfully and in full accordance with the Sacred Writings of the Bahá'í Faith upon the Universal House of Justice. We make this statement for the full body of the Hands of the Cause of God in accordance with the powers conferred upon us by the Declaration of November 25th, 1957, and the office of Custodians of the Bahá'í World Faith has thus ceased to exist."
From then on and to this day, the collective Guardianship usurped by the Hands was assumed by the UHJ. The fact that nothing in the Writings of the Faith calls for a collective Guardianship, or that devolves the rights and powers of the Guardian to the UHJ under any circumstances, is completely ignored by our confused sans-Guardian believer. He has the audacity, through the cloud of ignorance and confusion that surrounds him, to condemn the Orthodox Baha'is because of their belief that the Guardianship is occupied by a living man.
This is VIOLATION: the irrational belief that he is following the true teachings notwithstanding the fact that the teachings clearly state otherwise.
This is VIOLATION: to oppose and to disobey the Guardian of the Cause.
The Guardian today is Joel B. Marangella. His website is at the following address:
http://www.bahai-guardian.com/
Jeffrey
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