Dear Jeffrey,
We know that there are many, many highly intelligent women and men amongst our separated sans-Guardian Bahá'í sisters and brothers. Why can they not discern the contrast between the true and legitimate authority of `Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi who wrote the following two statements, and the non-existent authority of Hands of the Cause who formed their own International Bahá'í Council to replace the legitimate Body formed by Shoghi Effendi?:
"ERE LONG, THY LORD SHALL MAKE THEE A SIGN OF GUIDANCE AMONG MANKIND" (`Abdu'l-Bahá writing to (Charles Mason Remey)
"most significant milestone in the evolution of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the course of the last thirty years." and "the greatest event shedding lustre upon the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá´í Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order of the Faith on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ascension, ranking second only to the glorious events associated with the Ministries of the Three Central Figures of the Faith . . ." (Shoghi Effendi, writing about his decision to form the embryonic Uiversal House of Justice, January 9th, 1951)
The IBC formed by the Hands after they illegally dismissed the President of the Council formed by the first Guardian was assigned to greet visitors to the Holy Shrines and other relatively insignificant duties,--certainly not "the greatest event shedding lustre upon the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá´í Dispensation", and certainly not "...unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order of the Faith on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ascension, ranking second only to the glorious events associated with the Ministries of the Three Central Figures of the Faith . . .", and definitely not "...ranking second only to the glorious events associated with the Ministries of the Three Central Figures of the Faith . . ."
Cannot our intelligent separated sisters and brothers clearly see that a legitimate Universal House of Justice could not "evolve" out of duties such as greeting visitors to our Holy Shrines? A Universal House of Justice is a Universal Court and a legislative Body, and was officially and infallibly delineated by the first of our Guardians, Shoghi Effendi, to evolve out of an International Bahá'í Court, a stage officially identified by Shoghi Effendi to be "a necessary prelude" to efflorescence as a Universal House of Justice.
Hands of the Cause have no authority in the Bahá'í Faith, unless specifically assigned authority by a living Guardian, and the body of 'greeters' which they established was certainly not a "necessary prelude" to the efflorescence of the highest Legislative Body of the Bahá'í Faith, and the body which they established briefly was certainly not the body delineated by Shoghi Effendi to evolve to become the Legitimate Universal House of Justice complete with a "sacred head" as delineated by the Master in His sacred and immutable Will and Testament in paragraph #25. Hands of the Cause had no authority to form an International Bahá'í Council in the manner that Shoghi Effendi did. Yes, he had that true authority in the Bahá'í Faith. The Hands had none.
The fact is that a legitimate Universal House of Justice could not and did not evolve out of that band of 'greeters' formed by the renegade Hands of the Cause. The sans-Guardian Hands of the Cause even usurped authority to make their rule that Hands of the Cause could no become elected to their sans-Guardian Universal House of Justice. Hands of the Cause have no authority in the Bahá'í Faith to make rules, not to mention rules related to membership in the Highest Legislative body of the Faith.
The fact is that their bogus/headless UHJ did not "evolve" out of anything. The sans-Guardian Hands illegally, without authority to do so, simply called for the election of their illegitimate UHJ. Those elected members of that illegitimate body had no personal experience as members of an International Bahá'í Court, no body of previous legislation and experiences to draw wisdom from, no "sacred head" able to 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." in the manner
that Shoghi Effendi infallibly stated that a Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith who is that "sacred head" "must" do, and no Guardian to provide "...the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action" of the elected representatives of the Faith in the manner that Shoghi Effendi taught to be a necessary feature of the Bahá'í Guardianship, of which the Faith must not be deprived.
Surely, many of our intelligent separated sisters and brothers, as soon as they see those facts articulated for them, as Orthodox Bahá'ís have been doing for decades, will quickly discern that it is obvious why Shoghi Effendi did not take the Presidency of the embryonic
Universal House of Justice for himself, but rather assigned that Station to Charles Mason Remey with the clear intention that the very International Bahá'í Council which he himself formed should, by the same stages that he himself infallibly delineated, evolve to eventually effloresce as the legitimate Universal House of Justice complete with a "sacred head" as delineated by the Master, which "sacred head" can be no other person except a living Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. Surely they will readily understand that Shoghi Effendi neither authorized nor planned nor intended that the Body which he established should be dissolved by mutineers, its President/Head exiled, defamed and denigrated and that a bogus/headless and unguided body should be substituted in its place.
The website of the living Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith:
http://www.Bahai-Guardian.com
By Ross Campbell