The Guardian has read very carefully the letters your
Assembly has received from the Spiritual Assemblies of Urbana and Chicago,
reporting the criticisms that have been advanced by Rev. John Elder, a
missionary from Iran. While he is certain that such attacks from church
missionaries are destined to increase in number and force in the future, he feels
that for the present they do not constitute a challenge so grave and widespread
as to justify any strong action by your Assembly. Later on, when the very
progress of the Cause on the one hand, and the corresponding decline in
ecclesiastical organizations on the other, will inevitably incite Christian
ecclesiastical leaders to vehemently oppose and undermine the Faith, the
believers will then have a real chance to defend and vindicate the Cause. Under
present conditions it would be inadvisable for the American community to give
such issues too much prominence. - Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi; ‘Directives from the Guardian’)
