Excommunication is a spiritual thing and up until now the
Guardian has always been the one who exerted this power, and he feels for the
present he must continue to be. Only actual enemies of the Cause are
excommunicated. On the other hand, those who conspicuously disgrace the Faith
or refuse to abide by its laws can be deprived, as a punishment, of their
voting rights; this in itself is a severe action, and he therefore always urges
all National Assemblies (who can take such action) to first warn and repeatedly
warn the evil-doer before taking the step of depriving him of his voting
rights. He feels your Assembly must act with the greatest wisdom in such
matters, and only impose this sanction if a believer is seriously injuring the
Faith in the eyes of the public through his conduct or flagrantly breaking the
laws of God. If such a sanction were lightly used the friends would come to
attach no importance to it, or to feel the N.S.A. used it every time they got
angry with some individual's disobedience to them. We must always remember
that, sad and often childish as it seems, some of those who make the worst
nuisances of themselves to their National Bodies are often very loyal
believers, who think they are protecting the true interests of their Faith by
attacking N.S.A. decisions!
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 8 May 1948 written on behalf
of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of India, Pakistan and
Burma; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, National Spiritual Assembly)
