February 24

In regard to your question concerning the nature and character of Bahá’í marriage:  As you have rightly stated, such a marriage is conditioned upon the full approval of all four parents. Also your statement to the effect that the principle of the oneness of mankind prevents any true Bahá’í from regarding race itself as a bar to union is in complete accord with the Teachings of the Faith on this point. For both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá never disapproved of the idea of interracial marriage, nor discouraged it. The Bahá’í Teachings, indeed, by their very nature transcend all limitations imposed by race, and as such cannot and should never be identified with any particular school of racial philosophy. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 27 January 1935 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to a National Spiritual Assembly; compilation: ‘Family Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, March 2008)