Shoghi Effendi, in various statements, celebrated the
remarkable achievements and potential glories of that specially blessed
community, but was moved to issue, in “The Advent of Divine Justice”, a
profound warning which is essential to a proper understanding of the relation
of that Baha?’i? community to the nation from which it has sprung. “The glowing
tributes,” he solemnly wrote, “so repeatedly and deservedly paid to the
capacity, the spirit, the conduct, and the high rank, of the American
believers, both individually and as an organic community, must, under no
circumstances, be confounded with the characteristics and nature of the people
from which God has raised them up. A sharp distinction between that community
and that people must be made, and resolutely and fearlessly upheld, if we wish
to give due recognition to the transmuting power of the Faith of Baha?’u’lla?h,
in its impact on the lives and standards of those who have chosen to enlist
under His banner. Otherwise, the supreme and distinguishing function of His
Revelation, which is none other than the calling into being of a new race of
men, will remain wholly unrecognized and completely obscured.” It is the far-
reaching, transformative implications of this distinction which we especially
invite you to contemplate.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 29
December 1988 to the Baha?’i?s of the United States included in
a compilation on ‘A New Race of Men’ prepared by the Research
Department of the Universal House of Justice and attached to a letter dated 15
September 2013 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an
individual believer)
