Complete 1988 Letter to the Universal House of Justice

the Universal House of Justice

This writing is a copy of the first letter I wrote to the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), sharing my doubts about the rationality and legitimacy of its claims. This is the complete letter .

This is probably more readable than the “selections” , and the most complete in terms of the arguments I make. The other PDF files are more narrow in focus, dealing primarily with the issue surrounding the UHJ and the absence of the Guardianship. This letter addresses the fundamentalist nature of the Baha’i Faith in general (at least the Haifan tradition of that Faith, as I have since learned that there are other Baha’i denominations, though at present I know very little about them).

I had already turned in my Baha’i card and ceased calling myself a Baha’i at the time I wrote the letter, but was still open to the possibility that the UHJ might in fact be able to explain and justify its position. If I were to write that letter today, it would be even more confident and direct and firm in its challenge to the alleged authority of the House, for I am even more certain now that the UHJ is irrational in its arguments and unreasonable in its claims, and utterly fails to provide convincing arguments that it deserves anyone’s allegiance. And, over the years, the arguments I have heard from Baha’i\'s trying to support the UHJ have only strengthened my conviction that the UHJ-directed Baha’i Faith is profoundly fundamentalist, and its claims to merit our respect and allegiance should be firmly rejected.

I do believe that Shoghi Effendi was right about one thing:

“Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Baha’u\'llah would be mutilated…Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn”.

The World Order of Baha’u\'llah is, today, deprived of the Guardianship. And Shoghi was right about the consequences.

“Shoghi”

Among other problems, the UHJ finds itself in a Catch-22: it cannot define the sphere of its legislative action, for it is prohibited from doing so on its own, and the “necessary guidance” is now “totally withdrawn”; but it obviously must define its own sphere of legislative action, in order to function; but it can’t; but it must, but it can’t…..

The House has tried to wriggle out of this Catch-22 by quite obtuse and obscurantist reasoning. I assert that the irrationality of its arguments is one reason that its “prestige” has suffered, and that its claims should be rejected.

The burden of proof is on any organization claiming to be infallible, or to represent the will of God.

The UHJ, as one such religious body, has not only failed to prove its case, it has descended into unreason in its misguided (or, perhaps one should say, its un-Guided) attempts to do so…

But, of course, no matter how sure I feel or how convinced I am, I may, in fact, be wrong…..

For I am not infallible.

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