At Ridván 2002, we addressed an open letter to the world’s
religious leaders. Our action arose out of awareness that the disease of
sectarian hatreds, if not decisively checked, threatens harrowing consequences
that will leave few areas of the world unaffected. The letter acknowledged with
appreciation the achievements of the interfaith movement, to which Bahá’ís have
sought to contribute since an early point in the movement’s emergence.
Nevertheless, we felt we must be forthright in saying that, if the religious
crisis is to be addressed as seriously as is occurring with respect to other
prejudices afflicting humankind, organized religion must find within itself a
comparable courage to rise above fixed conceptions inherited from a distant
past.
Above
all, we expressed our conviction that the time has come when religious
leadership must face honestly and without further evasion the implications of
the truth that God is one and that, beyond all diversity of cultural expression
and human interpretation, religion is likewise one. It was intimations of this
truth that originally inspired the interfaith movement and that have sustained
it through the vicissitudes of the past one hundred years. Far from challenging
the validity of any of the great revealed faiths, the principle has the capacity
to ensure their continuing relevance. In order to exert its influence, however,
recognition of this reality must operate at the heart of religious discourse,
and it was with this in mind that we felt that our letter should be explicit in
articulating it. (The Universal House of Justice, Naw-Ruz 2005, preface to ‘One
Common Faith’, a document prepared under the supervision of the Universal House
of Justice)
