He was grieved to hear of some of the things you describe.
It shows great spiritual immaturity on the part of some of the Bahá'ís and an
astonishing lack of understanding and study of the teachings. To live up to our
Faith's moral teachings is a task far harder than to live up to those noble
principles the Moral Re-Armament inculcates, fine and encompassing as they are!
Every other word of Bahá'u'lláh's and 'Abdu'l-Bahá's writings is a preachment
on moral and ethical conduct; all else is the form, the chalice, into which the
pure spirit must be poured; without the spirit and the action which must
demonstrate it, it is a lifeless form.
He judges, from what you say, that the friends have not or
at least many of them have not, been properly taught in the beginning. There is
certainly no objection to stressing the "four standards" of the Moral
Re-Armament--though any teaching of our precious Faith would go much more
deeply into these subjects and add more to them. When we realize that
Bahá'u'lláh says adultery retards the progress of the soul in the afterlife--so
grievous is it--and that drinking destroys the mind, and not to so much as
approach it, we see how clear are our teachings on these subjects. You must not
make the great mistake of judging our Faith by one community which obviously
needs to study and obey the Bahá'í teachings.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 30 September
1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The
Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Living the Life)
