Why Our Cities Burn/Text

Views on the Racial Crisis in the United States from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith

[Page 2]REFERENCE NUMBERS

1. From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), ProphetFounder of the Bahá’í Faith.

2. From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), son of Bahá’u’lláh and first interpreter of the Bahá’í Teachings.

3. From the Writings of Shoghi Effendi (1896-1957), greatgrandson of Baha’u llah, appointed Guardian and interpreter of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 to 1957.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

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BAHA’I PUBLISHING TRUST Wilmette, Illinois

[Page 3]CONTENTS

Page 1. America in the Crucible of Change ....... 4 II. The Original Situation—A World View . . . 6

III. The American Situation Strains on the Social Fabric of the Nation . 12 The Most Challenging Issue .......... 15

IV. Toward the Solution of the Racial Crisis Tearing Down the Barriers ........... 17 Laying the Foundation for World Unity . . 20

“Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness.” —Bahá’u’lláh

[Page 4]AMERICA IN THE CRUCIBLE OF CHANGE

Never has America shown more potential for greatness. It has been blessed with inestimable resources, advanced technology, and a high standard of living. Indeed, America has done much to advance mankind toward a better world.

Yet, at the same time, this youthful, materially abundant nation suffers the crippling effects of its most challenging domestic issue, racial prejudice. The train of violence, destruction, and despair gathering momentum in city after city reflects the failure of institutions and individuals to correct this condition.

The nation is forced to wrestle with the dire consequences of neglect, in a state of panic and unreason. Under this circumstance, it is prone to resort to half—measures only to find that frustrations flare up again and impatience grows more Violent.

Why Our Cities Bum is a compilation from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith. It presents an insight into the reasons for our present dilemma and an approach to the solution. That much of what follows in this pamphlet was written decades ago, almost in another era of America’s evolution, attests to the power and vision of the authors.

America, no less than the other societies, has been swept into a vortex Of crises—crises which impel us toward a new understanding of human life.

[Page 5]If ever an age needed Divine guidance, this is that age. Bahá’ís believe that man has again been given the required guidance. By following its direction he can find the means to a harmonious new society in which the races live and work together. This is no dream for tomorrow. Bahá’í communities throughout the world are accomplishing unity from racial, cultural and national diversity, and thus the power behind their beliefs is certified.

One hundred years ago, Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith and bearer of God’s Word for this age, proclaimed to the kings and rulers of mankind that the world had entered a new stage of history, the age of the maturity of man and the beginning of a world civilization. His Messages, which contained warnings and recommendations concerning the need for unity among all peoples, were not heeded. But today the Teachings of this great Educator, some of which are included in these selections, are the basis of a new pattern of life for men of every race on earth. They offer an alternative to our burning cities everywhere.

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[Page 6]THE ORIGINAL SITUATION—A WORLD VIEW

A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome. Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of God invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, . . . (3)

The powerful operations of this titanic upheaval are comprehensible to none except such as have recognized the claims of both Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb.* Their followers know full well whence it comes, and what it will ultimately lead to. Though ignorant of how far it will reach, they clearly recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction, acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its mysterious processes, ardently pray for the mitigation of its severity, intelligently labor to assuage its fury, and

The Báb was the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh.

[Page 7]anticipate, with undimmed vision, the consummation of the fears and the hopes it must necessarily engender. (3)

This judgment of God, as viewed by those who have recognized Bahá’u’lláh as His Mouthpiece and His greatest Messenger on earth, is both a retributory calamity and an act of holy and supreme discipline. It is at once a visitation from God and a cleansing process for all mankind. (3)

God’s purpose is none other than to usher in, in ways He alone can bring about, and the full significance of which He alone can fathom, the Great, the Golden Age of a long-divided, a long-afflicted humanity. Its present state, indeed even its immediate future, is dark, distressingly dark. Its distant future, however, is radiant, gloriously radiant—so radiant that no eye can visualize it. (3)

What we witness at the present time, during “this gravest crisis in the history of civilization,” recalling such times in which “religions have perished and are born,” is the adolescent stage in the slow and painful evolution of humanity, preparatory to the attainment of the stage of manhood, the stage of maturity, the promise of which is embedded in the teachings, and enshrined in the prophecies, of Bahá’u’lláh. The tumult of this age of transition is characteristic of the impetuosity and irrational in [Page 8]stincts of youth, its follies, its prodigality, its pride, its self—assurance, its rebelliousness, and contempt of discipline. (3)

God Himself has indeed been dethroned from the hearts of men, and an idolatrous world passionately and clamourously hails and worships the false gods which its own idle fancies have fatuously created, and its misguided hands so impiously exalted. The chief idols in the desecrated temple of mankind are none other than the triple gods of Nationalism, Racialism and Communism, at whose altars governments and peoples, whether democratic or totalitarian, at peace or at war, of the East or of the West, Christian or Islamic, are, in various forms and in different degrees, now worshiping. Their high priests are the politicians and the worldly-wise, the so-called sages of the age; their sacrifice, the flesh and blood of the slaughtered multitudes; their incantations outworn shibboleths and insidious and irreverent formulas; their incense, the smoke of anguish that ascends from the lacerated hearts of the bereaved, the maimed, and the homeless.

The theories and policies, so unsound, so pernicious, which deify the state and exalt the nation above mankind, which seek to subordinate the sister races of the world to one single race, which discriminate between the black and the white, and which tolerate the dominance of one privileged class over all others—these are the dark, the false, and

[Page 9]crooked doctrines for which any man or people who believes in them, or acts upon them, must, sooner or later, incur the wrath and chastisement of God. (3)

As we view the world around us, we are compelled to observe the manifold evidences of that universal fermentation which, in every continent of the globe and in every department of human life, be it religious, social, economic or political, is purging and reshaping humanity in anticipation of the Day when the wholeness of the human race will have been recognized and its unity established. A twofold process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a System which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity’s progress towards its destined goal. The constructive process stands associated with the nascent Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and is the harbinger of the New World Order that Faith must erelong establish. The destructive forces that characterize the other should be identified with a civilization that

[Page 10]has refused to answer to the expectation of a new age, and is consequently falling into chaos and decline.

A titanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its magnitude yet unspeakably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is being waged as a result of these opposing tendencies, in this age of transition through which the organized community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh and mankind as a whole are passing. (3)

Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness Of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening Of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious co'dperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. . . . It implies an organic change in the structure of present—day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and in [Page 11]finitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it. (3)

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[Page 12]THE AMERICAN SITUATION

Strains 0n the Social Fabric of the Nation

THE STEADY AND ALARMING deterioration in the standard of morality as exemplified by the appalling increase of crime, by political corruption in ever widening and ever higher circles, by the loosening of the sacred ties of marriage, by the inordinate craving for pleasure and diversion, and by' the marked and progressive slackening of parental control, is no doubt the most arresting and distressing aspect of the decline that has set in, and can be clearly perceived, in the fortunes of the entire nation.

Parallel with this, and pervading all departments of life—an evil which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system, though to a lesser degree, share with that state and its satellites regarded as the sworn enemies of that system—is the crass materialism, which lays excessive and everincreasing emphasis on material well—being, forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same cancerous materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the North American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations, spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now invading its very heart, which Bahá’u’lláh in unequivocal and

[Page 13]emphatic language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the burning of cities and the spread of terror and consternation in the hearts of men. (3)

Collateral with this ominous laxity in morals, and this progressive stress laid on man’s material pursuits and well-being, is the darkening of the political horizon, as witnessed by the widening of the gulf separating the protagonists of two antagonistic schools of thought which, however divergent in their ideologies, are to be commonly condemned by the upholders of the standard of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh for their materialistic philosophies and their neglect of those spiritual values and eternal verities on which alone a stable and flourishing civilization can be ultimately established. The multiplication, the diversity and the increasing destructive power of armaments to which both sides, in this world contest, caught in a whirlpool of fear, suspicion and hatred, are rapidly contributing; the outbreak of two successive bloody conflicts, entangling still further the American nation in the affairs of a distracted world, entailing a considerable loss in blood and treasure, swelling the national budget and progressively depreciating the currency of the state; the confusion, the vacillation, the suspicions besetting the European and Asiatic nations in their attitude to the American nation; the overwhelming

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[Page 14]accretion of strength to the arch enemy of the system championed by the American Union in consequence of the realignment of the powers in the Asiatic continent and particularly in the Far Eastthese have, moreover, contributed their share, in recent years, to the deterioration of a situation which, if not remedied, is bound to involve the American nation in a catastrophe Of undreamed-of dimensions and of untold consequences to the social structure, the standard and conception of the American people and government.

No less serious is the stress and strain imposed on the fabric of American society through the fundamental and persistent neglect, by the governed and governors alike, of the supreme, the inescapable and urgent duty—so repeatedly and graphically represented and stressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá* in His arraignment Of the basic weaknesses in the social fabric of the nation—of remedying, while there is yet time, through a revolutionary change in the concept and attitude of the average white American toward his Negro fellow citizen, a situation which, if allowed to drift, will, in the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, cause the streets of American cities to run with blood, . . . (3)

“Abdu’l-Bahá, Son of Bahá’u’lláh and the appointed Interpreter of His writings, visited the United States in 1912 and spoke before large gatherings from coast to coast. Known also as the Center of His Father’s Covenant and Examplar of the Faith, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá repeatedly emphasized the need for unity between white and black as a means toward world peace

[Page 15]THE MOST CHALLENGING ISSUE

This question of the union of the white and the black is very important, for if it is not realized, erelong greater difficulties will arise, and harmful results will follow. (2)

If this matter remaineth without change, enmity will be increased day by day, and the final result will be hardship and may end in bloodshed. (2)

One of the important questions which affect the unity and the solidarity of mankind is the fellowship and equality of the white and colored races. Between these two races certain points of agreement and points of distinction exist which warrant just and mutual consideration. The points of contact are many. . . . In this country, the United States of America, patriotism is common to both races; all have equal rights to citizenship, speak one language, receive the blessings of the same civilization, and follow the precepts of the same religion. In fact numerous points of partnership and agreement exist between the two races; whereas the one point of distinction is that of color. Shall this, the least of all distinctions, be allowed to separate you as races and individuals? (2)

But there is need of a superior power to overcome human prejudices; a power which nothing in the world of mankind can withstand and which will

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[Page 16]overshadow the effect of all other forces at work in human conditions. That irresistible power is the love of God. It is my hope and prayer that it may destroy the prejudice of this one point of distinction (color) between you and unite you all permanently under its hallowed protection. His Holiness Bahá’íu’lláh has proclaimed the oneness of the world of humanity. (2)

It is evident therefore that the foundation of real brotherhood, the cause of loving cooperation and reciprocity and the source of real kindness and unselfish devotion is none other than the breaths of the Holy Spirit. Without this influence and animus it is impossible. We may be able to realize some degrees of fraternity through other motives but these are limited associations and subject to change. (2)

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[Page 17]TOWARD SOLUTION OF THE RACIAL CRISIS

Tearing Down the Barriers

Hearken ye, O Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein, unto that which the Dove is warbling 0n the Branch of Eternity: . . . Adorn ye the temple of dominion with the ornament of justice and of the fear of God, and its head with the crown of the remembrance of your Lord, the Creator of the heavens. . . . Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise. (1)

If you meet those of a different race and color from yourself, do not mistrust them, and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness. (2)

. . . Strive earnestly and put forth your greatest endeavor toward the accomplishment of this fellowship and the cementing of this bond of brotherhood between you [Negro and white]. Such an attainment is not possible without will and effort on the part of each; from one, expressions of gratitude and appreciation; from the other, kindliness and recognition of equality. Each one should endeavor to develop and assist the other toward mutual ad [Page 18]vancement. . . . Love and unity will be fostered between you, thereby bringing about the oneness of mankind. For the accomplishment of unity between the colored and white will be an assurance of the world’s peace. (2)

Fighting and the employment of force, even for the right cause, will not bring about good results. The oppressed, who have right on their side, must not take that right by force; the evil will continue. Hearts must be Changed. . . . People get together and talk but it is God’s Word alone that is powerful in its results. (2)

If it be possible, gather together these two races, black and white, into one Assembly, and put such love into their hearts that they shall not only unite but even intermarry. Be sure that the result of this will abolish differences and disputes between black and white. Moreover, by the Will of God, may it be so! This is a great service to humanity. (2)

A tremendous effort is required by both races if their outlook, their manners, and conduct are to reflect, in this darkened age, the spirit and teachings of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Casting away once and for all the fallacious doctrine of racial superiority, with all its attendant evils, confusion, and miseries, and welcoming and encouraging the intermixture of races, and tearing down the barriers that now divide

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[Page 19]them, they should each endeavor, day and night, to fulfill their particular responsibilities in the common task which so urgently faces them. Let them, while each is attempting to contribute its share to the solution of this perplexing problem, call to mind the warnings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and visualize, while there is yet time, the dire consequences that must follow if this challenging and unhappy situation that faces the entire American nation is not definitely remedied. (3)

Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds. (3)

Let the Negroes, through a corresponding effort on their part, show by every means in their power the warmth of their response, their readiness to forget the past, and their ability to wipe out every

[Page 20]trace of suspicion that may still linger in their hearts and minds. (3)

Let neither think that the solution of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns the other. Let neither think that such a problem can either easily or immediately be resolved. . . . Let neither think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort, can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country. (3)

Laying the F oundation for World Unity

May this American Democracy be the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it be the first to unfurl the Standard of the Most Great Peace. (2)

The American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people. . . . The American continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its future is even more promising, for its

[Page 21]influence and illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually. (2)

Many and divers are the setbacks and reverses which this nation, extolled so highly by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and occupying at present so unique a position among its fellow nations, must, alas, suffer. The road leading to its destiny is long, thorny and tortuous. The impact of various forces upon the structure and polity of that nation will be tremendous. Tribulations, on a scale unprecedented in its history, and calculated to purge its institutions, to purify the hearts of its people, to fuse its constituent elements, and to weld it into one entity with its sister nations in both hemispheres, are inevitable. (3)

The American nation . . . stands, indeed, from whichever angle one observes its immediate fortunes, in grave peril. The woes and tribulations which threaten it are partly avoidable, but mostly inevitable and God—sent, for by reason of them a government and people clinging tenaciously t0 the obsolescent doctrine of absolute sovereignty and upholding a political system. manifestly at variance with the needs of a world already contracted into a neighborhood and crying out for unity, will find itself purged of its anachronistic conceptions, and prepared to play a preponderating role, as foretold by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in the hoisting of the standard of the Lesser Peace, in the unification of mankind, and

[Page 22]in the establishment of a world federal government on this planet. These same fiery tribulations will not only firmly weld the American nation to its sister nations in both hemispheres, but will through their cleansing effect, purge it thoroughly of the accumulated dross which ingrained racial prejudice, rampant materialism, widespread ungodliness and moral laxity have combined, in the course of successive generations, to produce, and which have prevented her thus far from assuming the role of world spiritual leadership forecast by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s unerring pen—a role which she is bound to fulfill through travail and sorrow. (3)

Let not . . . those who are to participate so predominantly in the birth of that world civilization, which is the direct offspring of their Faith, imagine for a moment that for some mysterious purpose or by any reason of inherent excellence or special merit Bahá’u’lláh has Chosen to confer upon their country and people so great and lasting a distinction. It is precisely by reason of the patent evils which, notwithstanding its other admittedly great characteristics and achievements, an excessive and binding materialism has unfortunately engendered within it that the Author of their Faith and the Center of His Covenant have singled it out to become the standard-bearer of the New World Order envisaged in their writings. It is by such means as this that Baha’u’lah can best demonstrate to a heedless generation His almighty power to raise

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[Page 23]up from the very midst of a people, immersed in a sea of materialism, a prey to one of the most virulent and long-standing forms of racial prejudice, and notorious for its political corruption, lawlessness and laxity in moral standards, men and women who, as time goes by, will increasingly exemplify those essential virtues of self—renunciation, of moral rectitude, of chastity, of indiscriminating fellowship, of holy discipline, and of spiritual insight that will fit them for the preponderating share they will have in calling into being that World Order and that World Civilization of which their country, no less than the entire human race, stands in desperate need. (3)

Materials from the following Bahá’í books, available from the Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, 111., were included in this pamphlet:

The Proclamation of Balzti’u’llti/I

Foundations of World Unity by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The Promised Day 1.; Come by Shoghi Effendi The World Order of Bahri'u’lla’h by Shoghi Effendi

To learn more about the Bahá’í Faith contact the Bahá’í Center in your city. If not listed, write National Bahá’í Center, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, Illinois 60091.

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THE FAITH of Bahá’u’lláh has assimilated, by Virtue of its creative, its regulative and ennobling energies, the varied races, nationalities, creeds and classes that have sought its shadow, and have pledged unswerving fealty to its cause. It has changed the hearts of its adherents, burned away their prejudices, stilled their passions. exalted their conceptions, ennobled their motives, cobrdinated their efforts, and transformed their outlook. While preserving their patriotism and safeguarding their lesser loyalties, it has made them lovers of mankind, and the determined upholders of its best and truest interests. While maintaining intact their belief in the Divine origin of their respective religions, it has enabled them to visualize the underlying purpose of these religions, to discover their merits, to recognize their sequence, their interdependence, their wholeness and unity, and to acknowledge the bond that vitally links them to itself. This universal, this transcending love which the followers Of the Bahá’í Faith feel for their fellow—men, of whatever race, creed, class or nation, is neither mysterious nor can it be said to have been artificially stimulated. It is both spontaneous and genuine. They whose hearts are warmed by the energizing influence of God’s creative love Cherish His creatures for His sake, and recognize in every human face a sign of His reflected glory. (3)