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WORLD ORDER
JANUARY, 1947
THE ANATOMY OF PREJUDICE — Duart Brown
RACIAL AND GROUP PREJUDICE — Joseph Lander, M.D.
BLACK METROPOLIS, Book Review — Eleanor S. Hutchens
TWO FACETS OF ONE GEM — Maye Harvey Gift
THE GUARDIAN, Editorial — William Kenneth Christian
UTOPIA? — Robert Reid
THE PRICE OF PEACE — N. M. Firoozi
PIONEER JOURNEY—PERU — Virginia Orbison
WITH OUR READERS
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
World Order was founded March 21, 1910 as Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahá’ís. In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West. Beginning November, 1922 the magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXVII of the continuous Bahá’í publication.
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing
Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United
States and Canada. EDITORS: Eleanor S. Hutchens, William Kenneth Christian,
Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
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3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1946 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title
registered at U. S. Patent Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XII JANUARY, 1947 NUMBER 10
The Anatomy of Prejudice
DUART BROWN
THE first prejudice of man was
probably against the dark.
Night was an unpleasant time for
early man. He was a day-feeding
creature and as the shadows grew
longer a chilling fear sent him
scurrying to find a bed for the
night in the crotch of some great
tree or to seek the comfort in
numbers of a group of his own
kind. Then in the dark would
come the monsters of that early
world to roar and growl and tear
up the ground in titanic battles
while the little man creature
clung shivering to his branch. In
the dark also came the great
spiders, the scorpions and the
snakes against whom there was
no defense save to hold as still as
death.
No wonder children sometimes wake screaming from a nightmare in which they have been attacked by the creatures of the dark. No wonder most women and many men seem to have an instinctive revulsion for snakes and spiders. Here indeed are prejudices that seem to be inherited from a terror-haunted past.
But what of prejudices of man against man, the most besetting problem of the modern world, are they too inherited? Scientists line up in an almost 100% “no!” Experiences of teachers with very young children of different races show a complete lack of prejudice among the very young.
Prejudice of man against man
is thus almost entirely a result of
the influence of environment.
Parents, relatives, friends, teachers,
condition your outlook on
life by what they say and do.
Gradually you come to believe
that all men of a certain skin
color or nationality or religion
are bad or inferior. That is
prejudice, the dangerous prejudice
that through its starting of
the second World War has almost
ruined the world. Since the overcoming
of such a state of mind is
recognized by most of the leading
statesmen and scientists, and
a large number of the religious
leaders of the earth as the only
certain path to world peace, it
[Page 290]
behooves us to study carefully the
anatomy of man’s distaste for
man. Just understanding prejudice
within ourselves and others
is a good beginning.
We have an excellent statement of ‘Abdul-Bahá on this vexing subject. Speaking of His father, He says: “Bahá’u’lláh has taught that prejudices whether religious, racial, patriotic or political are destructive to the foundations of human development. Prejudices of any kind are the destroyers of human happiness and welfare. Until they are dispelled the advancement of the world of humanity is not possible, yet racial, religious and national bias are observed everywhere. For thousands of years the world of humanity has been agitated and disturbed by prejudices. As long as it prevails, warfare, animosity and hatred will continue. Therefore if we seek to establish peace we must cast aside this obstacle, for otherwise agreement and composure are not to be attained.”
Christ has said to us: “Save you come to me with the hearts of little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” But the hearts of little children are pure of prejudice and other dark thoughts because of ignorance. This, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said, is purity through weakness. The heart of a grown man, He says, reaches purity through strength. This is the difference between a man and a child that was never explained in the Bible but has been explained to the world by the prophets of the New Life.
But how does prejudice come in the shaky period between childhood and true manhood? It comes mostly sugar-coated as do all temptations to evil. The individual sees in himself the center of the universe since naturally, so far as he is concerned, all the world revolves around him. He tends to draw to himself that which is pleasant for his ego and reject that which is unpleasant. The spoiled brat and the spoiled rich man or woman are the result of this tendency carried to extremes. Hence it is part of growing up to learn that what is pleasant is not necessarily good and what is unpleasant is not necessarily bad. Another part of this growing up process is to detect the difference between greater and lesser pleasures, so that you know that a pleasure such as the creation of something useful to others is more satisfying and long lasting than one dedicated solely to gratifying your own senses.
The prejudiced man has decided
to gratify his lust for self-importance.
This is the sugar-coating
[Page 291]
around the idea that he
is superior to man with a colored
skin. To gratify this desire to
feel superior, a desire that may
be fed by his own active feeling
of inferiority to others of his own
race, he will believe every vicious
lie and half truth about colored
people that he hears and
even pass it on in a magnified
form to others. The end result of
such a state of mind we see in
Germany where lies were shouted
so vociferously, that the foolish
believed the noise necessarily
made truth. This infantile
belief in anything that will
strengthen your own ego is the
very opposite of the return to
the pure-heartedness of childhood
advocated by God. One is
the creation of strength through
knowledge, the other the turning
of weakness into evil.
Many of us have prejudices drilled into us for so long that it is difficult to get rid of them. It requires some hard and honest thinking to sweep them from our minds like the dark cobwebs they are. The question we all need to ask ourselves is: “Is my harmonious relationship with God drilled into us for so long that it more important than my personal pleasure of the moment?” If your answer is “yes,” then it must be unequivocal, because, make no mistake about it, the Lord is a jealous taskmasker. From those who have given allegiance He demands the complete sacrifice of self. This we know from the words of all the prophets.
The child in his simplicity asks: “Why does a dark skin make any difference between my friend and me?” The simplicity of the child is a God-like wisdom against which adults strike back with anger or clumsy arguments that are the reflections of their own uneasy consciences. Ask such a man if he believes that God would give him preference over another because of a lighter skin and the balloon of his self-importance is quickly pricked. Fury or injured silence are his only answers.
Nothing worth while comes easily, and so also it is hard to drive all prejudices from the human heart. But God has seen fit to give rewards of the highest order to those who have the courage. “Let no man place himself above his brother, but rather let him be his brother’s keeper.” Glorious indeed is the heart of the man who receives all men equally in the way of the Lord. He is contented when others worry, and satisfied when another man is consumed by envy.
Racial and Group Prejudice
JOSEPH LANDER, M.D.
Condensed and reprinted from the article in the Winter Issue of Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life. Dr. Lander gave this as a speech before the Adult Education Council Workshop, Cincinnati, Ohio.
MY function on the panel is to
present whatever help psychology
and psychiatry have to
offer to the problem of racial
prejudice, which is so important
from so many points of view as
to make it urgently necessary for
all men of good will to make
whatever contribution they can
for its solution.
I don’t believe I overstate the matter when I say that if the problem of racial and group prejudice is not dealt with soundly, rationally, and successfully, the human race will not survive. Unless the people of the earth learn to live peacefully together there will certainly be another war. Living together peacefully is not possible unless we begin to practice the central principle of Democracy, i.e., all men are created equal; all men are entitled to equality of opportunity. If one group or one race can set itself up as superior or can dominate another so-called inferior race, there will inevitably be another war.
By far the greatest amount of
prejudice is what we call culturally
determined; it exists in
the early environment of the
child in every community and
is absorbed almost with his
mother’s milk. For a moving and
a graphic description of this
process, I refer you to Richard
Wright’s book, Black Boy, in
which one sees how Negro children
at five or six are already
learning to chant anti-Semitic
rhymes before they even know
what the words mean. All
through the early and impressionable
years we grow in an atmosphere
in which the air is
thick with feelings against some
group or several groups: white
against black, Christian against
Jew, Protestant against Catholic,
rich against poor, Northerner
against Southerner. We cannot
emphasize too strongly that prejudice
is not instinctive, is not innate.
One’s prejudices seem so
natural, are so taken for granted,
that we come to look on them
as something with which we were
born. Yet there is not the slightest
evidence that anyone has such
inborn prejudice against others
of a different color or religion,
of a different society or culture.
If the adults leave them alone,
white and black children can and
[Page 293]
do play together naturally and
easily.
Since one of the most important aspects of prejudice is aggression, we shall have to turn our attention for a moment to the matter of aggression in general. We are all born with a certain fund of aggressive drive, a certain urge to mastery, a quantity of competitiveness and activity expressing itself in a need to assert in a positive fashion one’s own individuality. What happens to the normal aggressive drive after one leaves the playgrounds? Some people employ it in business, by mastering their competitors. Others divert their aggressiveness into the field of science and conquer some problem of nature. Others drain it by engaging in sports or beating their wives. When the environment is conducive to racial or group prejudice, many people can drain off their hostilities, their aggressiveness, their drive to mastery in asserting their dominance over some so-called lower race or group.
If an individual feels inferior for any reason, he is only too happy to be able to lord it over someone else, in this way restoring his self-esteem and freeing himself of the unpleasant feeling of personal inferiority. Since the society in which we live provides an atmosphere of racial prejudice, such people find a ready-made avenue for the expression of their hostilities. If an individual feels guilty about something and can find someone onto whom he can shift this feeling of guilt, he himself will feel less guilty and more comfortable.
That brings us to another point: prejudice is a mechanism which grows up to defend oneself against some real or fancied threat. Thus the urban business man feels that his business is threatened by a competing Jew, therefore, he is more than willing to believe the most fantastic falsehoods and malicious stories about Jews, thereby hoping to get rid of the one who threatens his livelihood.
I said that prejudice arises as
a defense against some real or
fancied threat. One might put
that somewhat differently: prejudice
arises in an effort to maintain
the status quo, to prevent
any change in the relationship
between groups or social classes.
If such change is prevented in
other ways, group prejudice as
we know it does not appear. This
is best typified in India where
the class lines are so sharply
drawn that no one even dreams
of trying to leave his particular
level, his class, his caste. We find
the same phenomenon in this
[Page 294]
country: so long as the Negro or
the Mexican or the Oriental or
any other minority group is willing
to stay in the place assigned
him by the dominant group, no
particular hostility is displayed.
That brings us to the question of why it is that prejudice and group and racial hostilities are strongest in a democracy. The relationships between the different classes and groups in our society is theoretically fluid. Theoretically everyone has equal opportunity, and every man can be President. Trouble arises when minority groups act in accordance with these democratic principles and actually try to raise their economic and cultural level, when they are sufficiently dissatisfied with being exploited to try to do something about it. The dominant groups resist any such change because it threatens their position, and they therefore employ every means to suppress those they consider to be “uppity.”
How did all this group prejudice arise in the first place? Probably on the basis of a suspicion, a distrust, of whatever was new or strange. Primitive man had the greatest difficulty is surviving, and inter-tribal wars were a constant menace. The outsider was always someone who might put out the fire without which he could not survive, might kill him without warning, might take away his food or his wife. There arose, therefore, a strong distrust of any and every outsider as a potential enemy. This attitude became so deeply ingrained, this need to band together with one’s own group became so strong that the suspicion of something new and different, although very mild, has been passed on from generation to generation, and to this day there is a certain uneasiness about someone different or foreign. This does not mean that we are born with the uneasiness, we learn it from the environment. Our self-love makes us feel that anything different from ourselves is alien, dangerous, threatening. If, however the different person, the stranger, constitutes no economic threat, or if conscious and deliberate efforts are not made to stimulate hostilities, the initial uneasiness about the stranger quickly disappears.
A democracy is a most difficult
and challenging way of life
because it demands of its members
a degree of intellectual maturity,
emotional maturity, and
intellectual honesty which one
does not need in a feudal system
or an authoritarian state, or in
any other system in which one
does things by command in rigidly
[Page 295]
prescribed fashion. If a man
is to be free, he must accept responsibility
for learning to live
with his fellowman. A democracy
demands a reasonableness, a
live-let-live attitude that runs
against the profound aggression
which most of us today reach
with maturity. Unless and until
human aggression can be channeled
into socially constructive
activity, it will be directed into
anti-social channels, and that
means irrational prejudices and
hostility.
That brings us to a point deserving the greatest emphasis: the cure of group prejudice cannot be carried on without concomitant cure of the other ills from which our society suffers. So long as people are threatened by the loss of livelihood, so long as people are required to live in slums, so long as there is the anxiety of anticipating another war, so long as children are reared in an environment which over-stimulates the competitive spirit, just so long will humanity have within itself an unhealthy degree of frustration and tension leading to abnormal degrees of aggression. And as long as that condition prevails, man will need to find a scapegoat, an inferior onto whom he can spill his hate, his frustration, his hostility.
In psychiatric treatment, the patient works at least as hard as the doctor. The patient undergoes this because he knows the reward is a healthier, a fuller, a richer, and a happier life. The members of a democratic society, if they want to preserve, enrich and make healthy the society in which they live, must work at it. If treatment of our society is to occur, it will have to be carried on by the members of that society themselves.
The unity which is productive of unlimited results is first a unity of mankind which recognizes that all are sheltered beneath the overshadowing glory of the All-Glorious; that all are servants of one God; for all breathe the same atmosphere, live upon the same earth, move beneath the same heavens, receive effulgence from the same sun and are under the protection of one God. This is the most great unity, and its results are lasting if humanity adheres to it; but mankind has hitherto violated it, adhering to sectarian or other limited unities such as racial, patriotic or unity of self-interests; therefore no great results have been forthcoming. Nevertheless it is certain that the radiance and favors of God are encompassing, minds have developed, perceptions have become acute, sciences and arts are widespread and capacity exists for the proclamation and promulgation of the real and ultimate unity of mankind which will bring forth marvelous results.
BLACK METROPOLIS
Book Review
ELEANOR S. HUTCHENS
WARNED as they have been repeatedly,
first by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
and more recently by Shoghi Effendi,
that the solution of the race problem
is the greatest of all tasks facing
America, Bahá’ís welcome any book
which clarifies some of the factors
underlying racial tension. Black Metropolis
by St. Clair Drake and Horace
R. Cayton, published in 1945 by
Harcourt, Brace, and Company, is
an 800 page sociological study of
Chicago’s 330,000 Negroes, based
upon material gathered by twenty sociologists
during four years of research.
It describes greater Chicago,
traces a history of Negroes in Chicago,
and gives a picture of the lives
and aspirations of the people of
“Bronzeville” today. Filled as it is
with statistical data, pictorial graphs,
case histories, interviews, and the
conclusions of trained observers on
the problems of urban Negroes, the
book assumes importance to any student
of American race relations.
The first settler at Chicago (called Eschikagou, “the place of the evil smell” from the wild garlic which was abundant there) was a French speaking Negro, Jean Baptiste Point de Saible, who came in 1790 and established a bakehouse, smokehouse, poultryhouse, dairy, workshop, horse mill, barn and two stables as well as his homestead. He not only presaged by his own activity, the future Chicago as a manufacturing center, but its position as a trading center as well, for he traded with the Pottawatomie Indians, the English, and the French. The further history, as recorded by the authors, follows that of Negroes in other Northern cities. Slaves who had been able to buy their freedom or who had been able to flee from their masters continued to trickle into Chicago. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, Chicago became an important stop on the Underground Railway to Canada. By 1890 there were 15,000 Negroes in Chicago supporting twenty churches, a dozen lodges, several social and cultural clubs, and three newspapers. For the most part, they were employed as coachmen, butlers, cooks, and maids in the homes of the wealthy; servants in hotels, stores and restaurants, and porters on the new Pullman coaches.
The “Negro Problem” was spoken
of only after the great migration of
Negroes which took place during the
years of the first World War when
war industries, faced with a labor
shortage, had solicited in the South’s
Black Belt. The area consigned to
Negroes in Chicago by custom became
gravely overcrowded, causing
friction leading to the Riot of 1919
and minor violent incidents from
time to time. Although the return of
veterans meant that many of these
new laborers lost their jobs, Negroes
who had once lived in the North had
no wish to return South. The Depression,
of course, brought even
more acute distress to the citizens of
Black Metropolis who came to claim
that they were the last to be hired
and the first to be fired. Many were
for a time dependent upon government
relief, and the effect of this insecurity
[Page 297]
upon the social and family
life of the city was profound. World
War II brought another large wave
of migrants from the South to the
labor-hungry city. If the post-war
period brings economic discrimination
and widespread unemployment,
Drake and Cayton share the fears of
other trained observers that interracial
conflict may result.
The third of a million citizens of Black Metropolis form a complex and interesting city with 500 churches, newspapers, and in many cases, its own merchants, physicians, lawyers, and educators. It is still largely dependent upon the rest of Chicago for the employment of its members, however. The recent policy of some of the labor unions which have accepted Negroes as members and even protected their rights, and the temporary enforcement of the Fair Employment Practices Act opened to Negroes many occupations which had previously been closed to them. Nevertheless, the Negro is still conscious of a barrier to his economic advance raised by a prejudice which keeps him out of some branches of endeavor and relegates him to the less important and more menial tasks in others. The authors give a careful survey of the types of jobs open to Negroes and of those that still remain closed to him.
A further source of frustration is the housing shortage which has always been more acute in Black Metropolis than elsewhere in Chicago as shown by the fact that there are 90,000 persons crowded into one square mile of Black Metropolis in contrast to the 20,000 persons per square mile in the adjacent white apartment house area. This overcrowding is not self-imposed. Prejudice keeps Negroes within a very restricted zone, enforced by restrictive covenants by which real estate men refuse to sell or rent property unless the owner or lessee signs a contract not to sell or rent to a member of a non-Caucasian race. Within the bounds of Black Metropolis it is not at all unusual for an enterprising landlord to rent a six room apartment, cut it up into six “kitchenettes” [which may or may not have cooking arrangements], and rent these to six families. Such congestion with its inherent peril to health and morality can account for much of the juvenile delinquency, the escape behavior, and the loose family relations in parts of Black Metropolis.
Several chapters deal with the different types of churches varying from high-church Episcopalian to the Holy-roller churches; with the influence of the Negro press in arousing pride in racial achievements at the same time they point out the inequalities that still separate the Negro and white communities; and with the growth of Negro business and politics. Even “Policy”, the numbers racket is discussed.
What many of their co-Americans
fail to realize is that Negro society
is stratified. Drake and Cayton make
it clear that there are many types of
Negroes living in any community,
respectable and non-respectable,
church-going and non-church-going,
upper class, middle class, and lower
class, differing in wealth, education,
type of employment, family tradition,
social aspirations, and morality.
One of the most interesting sections
of the book is that dealing with
[Page 298]
these different classes. Readers are
introduced to the upper class woman
who divides her time between charity
and bridge-playing, to the middle
class family which is giving music
and dancing lessons to its children
and planning a college education for
them, and to Baby Chile, Slick, and
Mr. Ben, pathetic and unstable as
they were.
There is little doubt that for a long time Black Metropolis will be used as a source book for any serious study of the Negro in America. The Negro authors have made every effort to be detached and scientific in their analysis of the factors which have made the urban Negro what he is. They are equally clear in their conclusions as to the necessary conditions for the prevention of future inter-racial conflict: “1. The continuous interpretation of the Negroes’ aspirations and demands to all sections of the white community; 2. The actual progressive relaxation of discrimination and segregation, beginning immediately; 3. The inclusion of Negroes in all postwar plans on an equitable basis; 4. The strengthening of social controls— familial, associational, and governmental —within the Black Belt; 5. The constructive channelizing of the Negroes’ mass resentment into successful action-patterns of non-violent protest.”
Let there he 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 cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. 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 infinitely 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.
Two Facets of One Gem
MAYE HARVEY GIFT
MANY of us have the experience
that scientific studies
disturb our belief in things
spiritual, and confuse our values
generally. One seemingly easy
way out is to relegate religion to
the background. A more drastic
way is to cast belief in God overboard
in favor of the more convincing
science. Or we may resent
the upheaval science brings,
and hug to us in unreasoning
fashion beliefs which deep within
ourselves we distrust. Neither
the spiritual experience nor the
psychological result of these attitudes
is constructive.
There is another and better way. It begins by facing the issue with a determination to understand it, then, by means of reason plus faith to work toward a solution.
In reality, proven science and true religion cannot be contradictory. Both are expressions of underlying laws of the universe. Science refers primarily to the realm of nature; religion, to the realm of the human spirit. Both science and religion are inextricably intertwined in the realm of human relationships and in the institutions of society. We have such sciences as psychology, sociology and political science. And religion teaches us how to deal with our fellowmen, and furnishes some laws regulating society, such as laws of marriage and divorce, of sanitation, and of punishment. Both science and religion stem from the one Power that creates and governs all things. Our difficulty is that we do not as yet understand them aright.
Science, rightly understood, is one of God’s greatest gifts. It opens never-ending vistas of discovery and invention. We uncover mysteries of the past through archeology. We foretell movements of celestial bodies billions of light years distant by means of astronomy. By the help of many other sciences we can make the unimaginable vast resources of this planet our servants in the new civilization we must build. This infinite orderly universe brings us in awe to a final Cause—God, whom we can neither understand nor explain nor dispense with. The possibilities of science can never be exhausted. Our life, at every turn, is in contact with practical evidences of the reality and value of science.
Religion, rightly understood,
is God’s supreme bounty to us.
[Page 300]
By religion we mean man’s acceptance
of God’s laws and his
application of them to all aspects
of his life. We tend to confuse
religion with contending sects
and abstruse theologies. Brotherhood
seems to have failed, in
the face of global war involving,
not only Christian nations, but
adherents of all the World
Faiths.
As a corrective, let us take a survey of history. The historian recognizes that among the great civilizations are the Jewish, the Buddhist, the Christian and the Islamic. Each, in its day, is conceded to have been the high point of world development. Each carried mankind progressively forward. Each gradually lost its original impetus, became corrupt, and was superseded. With the Jewish, captivity followed captivity. With the Buddhist, India lost the most complete unity she had attained. With the Christian, the Dark Ages prevailed. With the Saracen or Islamic, emphasis on world conquest combined with inner decadence, completely corrupted its life. Any renewal of civilization must be upon a spiritual basis if history is not to contradict itself. The sources of past civilizations were not at once apparent, and so it may be today. But the fundamental trend cannot be mistaken: it is the unification of the nations of the world into a common global civilization which the prophets have termed the Kingdom of God. This cannot be a permanent realization until a spirit of brotherhood and unity, based on the acceptance of one God, permeates our hearts as individuals. Religion for the twentieth century must be both individual and social, both scientific and spiritual.
Our personal religious beliefs
and experiences too often do not
have the clear-cut practical value
for us that science has. We cannot
state them as self-evident
laws and principles. Take these
teachings: “Judge not, that ye be
not judged. For with what judgment
ye judge, ye shall be
judged.” “A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can
a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit . . . Therefore by their fruits
shall ye know them.” “A soft answer
turneth away wrath: but
grievous words stir up anger.”
As laws, these are as unfailing
as any in geometry or chemistry.
But you cannot necessarily isolate
one of them in a test tube
in a two-hour laboratory period.
Perhaps we have not been taught
that equally definite laws govern
prayer and the daily guidance of
our lives. Our spiritual teachers
have hardly been so efficient as
[Page 301]
our professors of science. However,
the former have the unique
privilege of proving by their
daily living the workability of
their spiritual teachings. And
youth has the right to expect this.
In the field of science we have both proven science, such as the law of gravitation, and theoretical science, such as the Einstein theory. Some theories will be proved true; many will be discarded in favor of more workable explanations, since scientific knowledge comes mainly through the process of trial and error. But true science can always be harmonized with true religion.
In the field of religion we have both the Message of God revealed through His prophet, and man’s interpretation and application of the revealed Word. The latter may represent a majority ruling of a church council; it may be the opinion of one man; it may be the basis of a particular sect. The original teachings of Christ and Moses never contradict proven science. But human interpretation along one line can easily contradict human theories along another. Perhaps one is wrong; both may be in error; both cannot be right.
Proven science and true religion are as two facets of one gem; they are as the two wings of one bird. Each enhances and strengthens the other. Science divorced from religion becomes materialistic. Being without moral guidance, it can become, as today, a most powerful instrument of destruction. Religion divorced from science falls into superstition. As such it can become a fanatical instrument of repression, rather than man’s inspiration and guide.
Scientific theory and human interpretation of religion can readily disagree. Materialism and superstition are mutually antagonistic. Science freed from materialistic philosophy, and morally motivated, works inevitably for the true progress of mankind. Religion free from dogma, with its true relation to science made evident, is the most potent factor in bringing confidence to our confused hearts, and peace to the whole body of mankind.
God has endowed man with intelligence and reason whereby he is required to determine the verity of questions and propositions. If religious beliefs and opinions are found contrary to the standards of science they are mere superstitions and imaginations; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition. Unquestionably there must be agreement between true religion and science.
Editorial
The Guardian
IN the city of Haifa, in the
land of Palestine, lives
Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian
of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
From him stretch out into over
seventy countries of the world
those invisible bonds of devotion
and unity which mark the
strength of this World Faith.
Bahá’ís are a world-wide community of many diverse people. They are a religious community which is centered. And this is a fact of tremendous importance. The nature and meaning of this fact spells hope for millions who now live in division, in fear, and in want. . . . Let us look at the origin of this fact that its nature and meaning may be clearer.
In the middle of the nineteenth century a young man in Persia took for Himself the title Báb, which means gate, and preached throughout that land the coming of a great Spiritual Leader who would bring together under the banner of God’s Word the divided peoples of the world. Bigotry struck down the Báb. But thousands of people had their hearts and minds centered on the coming of the Promised One.
When Bahá’u’lláh announced His Mission as the Manifestation of God for this age, the expectation awakened by the Báb was fulfilled. Through successive journeys into exile and years of imprisonment at ‘Akká, Bahá’u’lláh changed the followers of the Báb from people of limited vision into members of a world community. Bahá’u’lláh gave them a higher morality, a greater social vision, and the laws and institutions for the uniting of the world’s peoples in one common faith and one order. Bahá’u’lláh centered His followers in devotion to the principles and institutions for creating a world civilization.
With the passing of Bahá’u’lláh came a new period of growth under the guidance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Whom Bahá’u’lláh appointed as the Exemplar of the Faith and the Interpreter of the teachings. Freed from imprisonment, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá journeyed to the west and labored to raise up in this continent a group of people devoted to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. He encouraged the American believers to form Spiritual Assemblies to prepare for the Houses of Justice which Bahá’u’lláh decreed for the future.
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In 1921 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was
laid to rest upon the aged slopes
of Mount Carmel, the Mountain
of God. He had patiently and
lovingly increased the understanding
of the Bahá’ís the world
over. He led them into the first
forming of the institutions of a
new age. And, too, He had provided
for the future. In a Will
and Testament He completed the
pattern of world order which His
Father had initiated. He created
the institution of the Guardianship
to serve as the point of unity
and guidance in the evolution of
the Faith. He named Shoghi Effendi
as the first Guardian.
For twenty-five years now we have known the steadying, helping, encouraging hand of Shoghi Effendi. Year by year the unity of this growing community of people has deepened. Year by year Shoghi Effendi has clarified our vision and deepened our understanding of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. Step by step he has spoken the encouraging word, reminding us, always, that the unlimited resources of divine power surround and confirm each true believer who serves with purity of heart. And ever he has kept before our eyes the vision of Bahá’u’lláh—the Father Who came to dwell among us.
In truth, history has never seen one hundred years of a religion like the first century of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
Bahá’ís belong to a world community which is centered. Bahá’ís are centered in faith in God. Bahá’ís are centered in devotion to a revelation from God which came through Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’ís are centered in service to social institutions divine in origin, institutions which Bahá’u’lláh created for the order and well-being of mankind. Bahá’ís are centered in a Plan for the unfoldment of world civilization, a Plan formulated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the winning of the world to the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’ís are centered in guidance and inspiration from God. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá promised, in His Will and Testament, that the Guardian of the Faith would be under the protection and guidance of Bahá’u’lláh. Thus, to us is given a unique and unparalled stream of direction.
Is it any wonder then that this month Bahá’ís look back with thankful hearts over the first quarter century of Shoghi Effendi’s labors? In a world divided, distracted, filled with confused, fearful, self-centered people, we can look to the city of Haifa, in the land of Palestine, where lives Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. —W. K. C.
Utopia?
ROBERT REID
WE can build a better social
system: a social system in
which the whole of mankind can
live as brothers; in which there
will be full employment for all
and each individual will be free
to develop his particular talents
and capacities to their fullest extent,
using them for the benefit of
mankind; a social system in
which there will be no misfits
and no “square pegs in round
holes”—for each will be taking
part in the work of society for
which he is fitted. We can build a
social system in which there will
be no more wars, and in which
the resources of the planet will
be organized and distributed in
such a manner that every one
will have full security from want
and all the possible needs which
one can now conceive of will be
satisfied. Such a system can be
built by men, and such a system
must in the fullness of time
come about.
Utopia is a practical possibility. We can build it and we must.
The present world wide unrest, chaos and insecurity have created a desire in the minds of all thinking men and women for a better world order. Nearly everyone is suffering in some way through the confusion of finance and trade, and the dislocation of the machinery of production and distribution brought about by wartime conditions. At present we are going through a very difficult time of conversion from war to peace. We have housing shortages, food shortages and clothing shortages; in fact, all the amenities of life are in short supply.
Not only are the times difficult, but there is a widespread fear of the future. We all dread the possibility of another war. Already it is being discussed in the newspapers and mentioned by commentators as an imminent possibility.
All these conditions demand that we should give our wholehearted attention to anyone who claims to be able to reform the social system and wipe all these evils away. It is the duty of everyone to consider and investigate the matter of a better world; for we must all build it or suffer the evils which are the result of a bad social order.
Although we can build a utopia,
the road to it will be hard.
Only through the united and persistent
efforts of men of goodwill
can the tremendous difficulties
which lie in the way be overcome.
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One of the greatest difficulties
is that of stirring people
into action.
We are sunk in spiritual apathy and are waiting for someone else to pull us out of our troubles.
Then there are other great difficulties which confront those who would build a united world. These are the barriers of racial prejudice, the color question, different money systems, and the polyglot of different languages.
The road to utopia is long; the obstacles are many.
We need a map or a blueprint to show us the way; and we have a map and a blueprint, a practical, detailed guide, with full instructions complete With warning signs to show us the danger spots. We have glorious views of our destination to cheer us on the way when we grow weary.
God is concerned with the progress of mankind. He means us to live in peace and to develop along the road to a complete civilization. Down through the ages, at long separated periods of time, he has sent His Messengers to lead us on the road and to provide us with a plan, so that we can, if we are obedient to the instructions, build firmly and securely.
The Prophets of God were no dreamy mystics shut away from practical affairs. No! They were social workers and took an active part in leading the people of their day into a better social order. Moses revealed to the children of Israel the ten commandments and a system of ethics, which enabled them to organize a society suitable for the conditions which then existed in the world. He was a practical leader and He organized the Israelites so that from a race of slaves living in the most abject misery they grew into a great and victorious nation.
Muḥammad revealed to the Arabs a teaching and a system of love and justice which enabled them to develop from scattered tribes wandering the sands of Arabia into the mighty Islamic civilization which at one time extended from Cordova in Spain all along the shores of the Mediterranean through Morocco, Algiers and Egypt, on through Mesopotamia and Arabia to the frontiers of India. To this civilization which was built on the revelation of Muḥammad we owe our system of numbers and more of our science than we commonly acknowledge.
The Prophets of God were all practical men of affairs; to them we must go for our road map to utopia.
Jesus took the multitude up
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on a mountain and there He
taught them in simple language.
He told them the way men should
live. We can read these words in
the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
We all know His talk recorded
there as “The Sermon on
the Mount.” If we live according
to His instructions so plainly
given, we should take a long step
toward building our Utopia!
But alas, the pure teachings of Jesus have become overladen with dogmas and false creeds and have been explained away and smothered with elaborate ceremonials to such an extent that it is doubtful whether the orthodox churches can ever rid themselves of the incrustations which the blind following of tradition has deposited over the original teachings of Jesus.
One hundred years ago the time was ripe for a new Prophet to appear to lead us back to the original truths which have been revealed by all the Prophets. We believe that Prophet did appear. He took the name of Bahá’u’lláh and over a period of forty years gave us the writings upon which the Bahá’í Faith is founded. These writings contain our blueprint, our road map to utopia, which is in spiritual essence the same as the Revelations given by all the Prophets of God. It is a revised, complete and up-to-date guide-book and plan containing all instructions necessary to build our utopia under the circumstances which exist today.
The Prophets all agree upon the first step to be taken on the road to social reform. They all teach that a better social order can only be brought about by an improvement in the individual. Therefore, they have all commanded that each individual shall take stock of his moral qualities and shall turn towards the good and forsake evil. For it is indeed true that the nature of the social order is governed by the nature of the men and women who form it. If we have a community of bad men, then the government and organization of that community will be corrupt and evil according to the degree in which those men are evil. The same law applies to all human organizations. If honest, charitable men gather together to form a club, then that club will be honest and charitable.
If we would reform the world,
we must reform, the men in it.
And the individual with whom
we have the most influence is ourself.
We must start with ourselves.
We must realize just how
important it is that we do right.
If one man does an unselfish act,
no matter how small that unselfish
act might be, he makes the
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world so much the better for
everybody in it. Truly it has
been said, “Ye must be born
again.” If we are to build our
utopia, we must start to live our
lives with unselfish motives. A
moral regeneration is necessary
and the Bahá’í Teachings show
how each can reorganize his life
in the paths of service to humanity.
A study of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh will help each one of us to regain a belief in God Who created all things, and it will confirm us in the belief that there is Divine planning behind the vast evolutionary processes which our sciences tell us have been in operation from all eternity. All knowledge which man has attained is his groping endeavor to understand the stupendous plan of God. Surely the hearts of everyone today are yearning for a belief in God and in a Divine Plan for the Universe!
The Bahá’í Teachings will take each one of us thus on the road to Utopia.
After we have put into operation our first step by becoming men and women of goodwill, we must look for some means of handing the people of goodwill together and forming a chain of goodfellows which shall encircle the earth.
The Bahá’í Teachings explain clearly and in detail an organization capable of doing this. The Bahá’í Administrative Order is no less than a system of international administration which is capable of binding all of the different nations of mankind into one organization in which each will have freedom, in which there shall be true proportional representation, in which no section will be able to dictate to another section, in which a man shall not he considered inferior because of his place of birth or the color of his skin, and in which mankind can truly live as brothers. The Administrative Order of the Bahá’í Faith is a pattern for world government which is practical and capable of creating a social order based on justice, love and truth.
So the second step along the
road to utopia is plainly shown
to be that we must live in brotherhood
with our fellow man. We
must develop within our minds a
feeling of unqualified brotherhood
with every other individual
upon the earth. There must be no
exceptions. We must feel brotherly
love for our next door
neighbor, for the poorest member
of our community, for the
drunkard and the social outcast,
for men of a different race, for
strangers, for friends and for
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those who have done that which
is harmful to us: we must if we
are to build our utopia, love them
all. Only through a conscious
cleansing of our minds from hate
and a deliberate development of
a loving attitude can we conquer
the tremendous obstacles of national
pride, insularity, racial
and religious prejudices which
now keep men apart in separate
groups hating one another.
The Prophets of God have all shown clearly in their teachings that to live in loving brotherhood is a necessary condition for building an improved social order. In the Bahá’í Revelation, we have a comprehensive and detailed Plan which we can follow and so build an all-inclusive brotherhood which will be universal and will include every individual upon the earth.
That the Bahá’í Faith is capable of binding many and varied types together is already evident, for in Bahá’í groups we find a cross-section of the community. We find rich and poor, old and young, and people of all stages of intellectual development, all working together to form a better world. We do not have to wait until some distant time to receive our benefits, for as soon as we start to act from unselfish motives we make our own lives happier, and also brighten those of every one about us. Each one of us has the power to make this day a better one, and when we do, we advance the general progress towards a better world.
We all desire to live in an utopia. Therefore, surely it is the duty of every individual to investigate and study very carefull any system which claims to be a means toward that end. Investigate the Bahá’í Teachings; they are freely available to all seekers after Truth.
All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Say: O friends! Drink your fill from this crystal stream that floweth through the heavenly grace of Him Who is the Lord of Names. Let others partake of its waters in My name, that the leaders of men in every land may fully recognize the purpose for which the Eternal Truth hath been revealed, and the reason for which they themselves have been created.
The Price of Peace
N. M. FIROOZI
HAVE you not, in your community,
noticed that here
and there are found some families
that are comparatively calm
and tranquil? Don’t many of us
envy them and wish that we, too,
could be tranquil and peaceful?
Is one not indeed fortunate to
have a peaceful family at least,
at a time when selfishness and
greed, hunger and starvation, pestilence
and disease and many
other seemingly insurmountable
difficulties have enveloped the
entire world?
With but little investigation we find that for every peaceful and tranquil home a great price has been paid—a price perhaps that we in our family have not been willing to pay. For example, in a peaceful family we note that the mother, at the expense of her own rest and ease, with calm and wisdom leads the children towards material and ethical maturity and in turn towards tranquility; while the father, at the price of his own comfort and pleasure, endeavors to bring about the mother’s, nay rather the entire family’s comfort and pleasure. The children, too, we would note, as good beginners in life, led by the examples the parents have set, are willing to do their share in their small way. They cooperate in home affairs; they are more pleasing in the eyes and thoughts of the neighborhood; and to our surprise we even find out that they share the use of the family radio with their parents with almost no coercion.
These are some of the prices that such families have paid and are paying in order to have peace and tranquility, while on the other hand each one of us in our families wants what he wants and tries to get it, even at the expense of others. The result of the one is the establishment of a healthy, happy and peaceful family, which can maintain its unity, and will result in the tranquility of the next generation; while in the case of the other, quarrels and discord, friction and disorder exist, which if continued may result in separation or divorce, the eventual destruction of the family and consequently the unhappiness of the younger generation.
There are two ways in which
we may pay the costly price of
peace in a family. One is through
intelligence and enlightened self-interest;
that is to say, for one’s
own ease and happiness one
makes comparatively small sacrifices
to prevent much greater
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ones. And when every individual
does this, it brings about a happy
and useful circle instead of a
vicious one. The other way is
through the spiritual approach.
By this we mean that the family
unit is no less than a training
school for the spiritual development
of its members. In this
school one of the lessons we
learn is to sacrifice our own personal
rest and ease, not on the
basis of enlightened self-interest,
but rather for the love of God.
We have a great advantage in the spiritual approach over that based on enlightened self-interest. When we love our family for God’s sake, this love is purer, its boundaries are greater, its foundation stronger and more lasting. Furthermore, love of family based on enlightened self-interest does not contain the love of God, while loving one’s family for the sake of God is all-inclusive. This is true with all spiritual approaches for the solution of the problems of life. The greater includes the lesser.
To state our subject in a few words let us say that we cannot have peace in a family without paying the price. This price could be called self-sacrifice, or willingness to give in order to be able to take. There are two bases on which sacrifice may be made, namely enlightened self-interest and the love of God. These are laws of social relations. They cannot be ignored without harmful consequences.
If these are laws, they must be applicable on a large scale as well as on a small. That is the nature of a law. For example, the laws and environment applied to obtain one drop of water by combining hydrogen and oxygen are applicable in obtaining a million drops or an ocean.
With but little reflection on the history of the United States we can discover that this great nation became great mainly because it adopted the formula applied in a peaceful family. The thirteen original states having merged into one family, or one nation, though slowly and painfully, had to give up many of their rights, such as the right to issue currency, to have a separate army, to have separate tariff regulations, the right of separate diplomatic representation in other countries of the world, and many similar prerogatives.
Faced with eventual destruction,
these states, though gradually
and with much difficulty,
paid the price of putting their
then slim shoulders under the
heavy load of their federal government.
As a result of these
seeming sacrifices they and their
thirty-five children states established
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this great nation which you
and I enjoy and which other nations
envy.
The sacrifices which the states made were mainly based on enlightened self-interest, though many of the founders of our constitution were well aware of the other approach, which we call in our discussion the love of God.
Keeping in mind the price of peace and tranquility in a family and the sacrifices made by the thirteen original states and later by other states for the establishment of this great republic, let us now move forward and take the next inevitable step, the step at the very threshold of which humanity is longingly standing. This step is toward the peace and tranquility of the whole world. This step is the one foretold and promised by all the divine Revelations. This step has been the plan of God and the destiny and goal of humankind from the beginning of its existence. This step is, when fulfilled, the same that the Zoroastrians of Persia, the long-persecuted Jews, the Christians and the Muḥammadan world have for thousands of years been praying for.
The price of world peace is fundamentally the same as that we have to pay for the peace of a family or a nation. It differs only in scale.
In order to have world peace we must become world-conscious and world-loving instead of self-centered and self-loving. There was much significance in Mr. Willkie’s phrase “One World.” What did he mean by this phrase? Did he not mean that weakness, instability, illness, ignorance or poverty, in any part of this one world affects the other parts? Putting it in positive terms, did he not mean that in order to have peace and security in any given part of this one world we must establish peace and security in all parts? Is this not the same principle we had to use for the peace of a family? Is this not the same formula we used for the founding of this great nation? And finally, is this not, as we termed it, a law of social relations, applicable in a large scale as well as a small?
The price for world peace also must, and will, be paid by sacrifice, or giving in order to be able to take. It is paid in the same two
About a quarter of a century
ago a few far-sighted individuals,
such as Woodrow Wilson and his co-thinkers,
abandoned the pitfalls
of blind nationalism and
climbed to the heights of the conception
that the world is one organism
and that its inhabitants
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can have no peace and security
unless and until each and all harmoniously
work with and for each
other. The result of this, as you
well know, was the League of Nations.
But this League, being the
world’s first infant of its kind and
given to a group of selfish, ignorant
and immature nations,
died a natural death and failed to
prevent a second world war. Now,
out of the ashes of this second
world war and through the forced
and inevitable marriage of great
powers, the world has a second instrument
for world peace, the
United Nations. Let us hope and
pray and help that, unlike the
League of Nations, this new organization
will be properly
nursed and nourished.
If and when this, our newborn instrument of peace, passes its stages of growth and reaches maturity, we will have peace, a peace based on enlightened self-interest. This peace, though decidedly better than what we have now, which is no peace at all, would still be short and inadequate, because our approach would not have been a spiritual one, because it would not have been built upon the impregnable foundation of the love of God.
Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, close to a century ago when very few thought of the need for world peace, proclaimed a new Revelation. Knowing the inevitable destiny of the peoples of the world, diagnosing their ills and foreseeing their needs. He included among His teachings a God-sent formula for a healthy and lasting world peace.
He wrote and warned the kings and rulers of the world that the termites of selfishness, greed and ignorance had eaten into the fibres of society which would soon collapse. He, as a Divine Physician, in clear and unmistakable language informed them that unless they adopted and applied the God-sent formula for peace, the security of their people, together with their own kingdoms and leadership, was doomed.
Bahá’u’lláh’s letters to Queen Victoria, to the Czar of Russia, to Napoleon III, to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh of Persia, to ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz the Sulṭán of Turkey, to the American Republics and to Pope Pius IX, and others, all published and at hand, are outstanding witnesses to His spiritual foresight and divine wisdom conspicuously pointing to the spiritual road leading to a permanent and progressive world peace.
Unfortunately, as has been the
case with all the other divine
Revelations of the past in their
early stages, the rulers and leaders
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of the world ignored Him or
scoffed at His claims and teachings
and some arose to oppose
and destroy Him. He was arraigned,
put into prison and exiled
from city to city from the
time He began His mission until
His death, a period of about
forty years.
What were Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings concerning world peace which today everyone longs for, but is unwilling to pay the price for?
Among Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings for the establishment of a durable peace is the recognition of the oneness of God, the Creator; and of the oneness of man. His creation—His only creation on this earth in His image. He says to mankind, “Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch.”
Bahá’u’lláh prescribed a true understanding and sincere belief that as long as the Founders of all divine religions were sent by God and each confirmed the truth of the others, it would be contrary to the will of God to look down on any one of them or consider one’s own faith superior to the others. Can the peoples of the world estimate other faiths as inferior and yet seek their sincere cooperation for the establishment of world peace?
Bahá’u’lláh teaches that all prejudices, national, racial, class or religious, must be eliminated from the hearts of the individual members of our world society. How can we be prejudiced against others and yet be in harmony with them? How can we, without harmony, hope to create a lasting peace?
Bahá’u’lláh teaches universal compulsory education for men and women alike. Is it not unsound to ignore that it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a highly educated nation or people to work effectively with another nation poorly educated or even illiterate?
Bahá’u’lláh nearly a century ago advocated the adoption of a universal auxiliary language to be taught in all the countries of the world. Is not one of the bulwarks of peace understanding? Is not understanding reached through the medium of speech, or expression? Then how difficult it would be to establish peace without a common language. Haven’t many corrupt leaders in the past taken advantage of the absence of a common language to misrepresent facts, arouse hatreds, and cause wars and strife?
A hundred years ago Bahá’u’lláh
advocated an international
tribunal, the members of
which should be elected by the
peoples of the world rather than
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appointed by the governments.
The function of this tribunal
would be to protect and promote
the interests of all nations, small
or large, on an equal basis.
On this vital matter Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliverations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation.”
These are some of the prices we will have to pay for world peace if we wish it. If we do not, consciously and conscientiously, begin to pay this price now, we will struggle and suffer until we are ready to do so, because it is God’s ordained destiny for mankind. It is the will of God foretold and envisaged by Christ Himself, when He said, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”
To the kings of the earth, both in the East and in the West, both Christian and Muslim, . . . Bahá’u’lláh, during the darkest days of His confinement in ‘Akká, addressed some of the noblest passages of His Most Holy Book . . .
In a celebrated passage addressed to William I, King of Prussia and newly-acclaimed emperor of a unified Germany, He, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, bids the sovereign hearken to His Voice, the Voice of God Himself; warns him to take heed lest his pride debar him from recognizing “the Day-Spring of Divine Revelation,” and admonishes him to “remember the one (Napoleon III) whose power transcended” his power, and who “went down to dust in great loss.” Furthermore, in that same Book, apostrophizing the “banks of the Rhine,” He predicts that “the swords of retribution” would be drawn against them, and that “the lamentations of Berlin” would be raised, though at that time she was “in conspicuous glory.”
Pioneer Journey—Peru
VIRGINIA ORBISON
IT was January 25th, 1944,
when my passenger plane
sailed down from the eroded
12,000 foot heights of La Paz,
Bolivia, to Lima, Peru, having
paused only a few minutes of
those five hours in the ancient
city of Arequipa, where conical
“Misti”, the beloved mountain,
stands with its companion volcanoes
at a distance in the crystal,
ever-temperate, atmosphere
of that southern portion of Peru,
midway between the Sierra and
the sea.
As I flew over that vast, leafless desert land and then over the sea, I imagined that I saw running far below one of the Inca’s speedy “chaquis” making his swift three-hour relay up from the ocean to Cusco, the mighty and rich capital city of the Inca empire. He would be bearing messages to persons of importance, and perhaps fish caught just before his departure, destined for the table of the King. The fish would still be good by the time these fast runners, relieving each other instantly at stations situated at three hour intervals, would finish their ever-upward three day journey. Throughout all the ages in South America, until only a few years ago, transportation has been mostly on foot or by donkey or llama. Horses came with the Spanish conquistadores, and centuries later motors began to travel on retardingly poor roads. Railways are comparatively few and far from speedy. Boats have been the only means between many ports. But suddenly all of South America is being covered with a droning, mighty, swift network of airplanes carrying cargo as well as passengers, thus beginning the destined complete union of the Americas dreamed of by the great Bolívar and others.
Lima, situated a few miles inland
from its port of Callao, was
lighting up in the misty twilight
as we flew in to Limatambo airport.
Its background was the immediate
slope up to the bare elevations
of the high Andes. All
west coast air passengers must
stop in Lima, as in South America
there is as yet little or no
night travel. They usually go to
the beautiful Hotel Bolívar
which has become the modern
rival of the famous old Maury
a few blocks down the Unión.
Well placed in the great white
Plaza San Martín, it reflects the
wonderful colonial architecture
brought by the virreyes to their
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capital city of the Spanish Colonial
Empire of Peru. Everywhere
are memories of those
lushly romantic times—the great
Cathedral where lie the bones of
Pizarro, the exquisite palaces
and houses with their carved latticed
windows and balconies.
Fortunately for posterity, we can
conjure up the period by seeing
and feeling the vestiges and reading
Ricardo Palma’s matchless
collection of “Tradiciones Peruanas.”
A step out of Lima reveals
many remains of Inca
glory, as never a drop of rain
comes to wash entirely away
these ruins of cities built only of
earth. Any coverings of gold, silver
or tiling have long since disappeared
by pillage and collecting.
A few blocks down the Colmena I found Eve Nicklin in her apartment, which she had acquired not very long before. The wonderful Lima carnations started off our unforgettable association which was based upon true generosity of spirit and complete cooperation in the work of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in Peru.
Living quarters for me were found in the house of Isabel and Alfredo Barreda, where Flora Hottes had stayed during her two months’ visit from La Paz, Bolivia. These, and many other friends of Miss Nicklin’s and also of Miss Hottes had become interested in this Faith. We wondered how we should increase this interest and find the necessary nine for a Spiritual Assembly by April.
Just at this time, Miss Nicklin was asked to renew her teaching of English in the Instituto Cultural Peruano-Americano at a summer session for Peruvian teachers of English from all over Peru. It was the first such session ever held and was attended by one hundred and twenty persons. Therefore, by putting into action the idea of my speaking to all the classes (in slow English) on “Motion Pictures, Their Place in the Future” we were able to invite them in small groups to tea in order to hear more about the ideologies mentioned. In the groups of nine to nineteen persons, they heard in Spanish a direct talk on the Bahá’í World Faith. The result was that we were kept very busy indeed with invitations to tell these ideas of world friendship and harmony to their friends and relatives with whom we met for tea in their houses, which ranged from the very humble to the homes of professors and ministers.
One day in February Isabel
de Barreda became the first believer
to sign in Peru (Other
Peruvians who had signed in the
[Page 317]
States are Octavio Illescas and
Alberto Lovatón Mesa, the latter
joining the Lima Community in
1945.) Soon, Alfreda Barreda
came in, and then on April 9, a
North America Professor on an
educational mission to Peru
signed, and on the same day gave
a radio talk on Pan-America Day
for the Office of the Coordinator
of Inter-American Affairs for the
United States Government in
which was uttered for the first
time on the air in Peru, the
Name of Bahá’u’lláh.
People continued to gather in Miss Nicklin’s apartment to hear of the Faith, and then she undertook the sudden urge to have, at all costs, a large place where many friends could be together! During this time former pupils and also some of the teachers of that summer course became believers. We held special meetings for studying, as well as the gatherings for newly attracted ones.
John Stearns, pioneer for Ecuador, who had come to Lima for medical treatment, recovered for a while, and through his example of living and his teaching, Raymond Betts, a North America business man long a resident in Lima, became a devoted believer. The pioneers were laboring under great tension at this period, as none could predict just how many would become convinced by the appointed day of April twenty-first. We prayed and worried as the individuals were gradually “chosen” for us. (Of course, no pioneer asks a person to sign as a Bahá’í; this matter being strictly something the candidate decides for himself after due consideration and preparation.) A few days before the date, however, the last two needed to make up the nine requisite members of the Spiritual Assembly petitioned to become recognized believers. Even on the day before the formation, a former pupil of Miss Nicklin’s Alejandro Franco, whom she had not seen for a year, appeared and declared himself a Bahá’í! He attended the little but historic ceremony and signed later, after deeper consideration.
So it happened that on the eve
of April 21, 1944, the first Spiritual
Assembly of Lima (and of
Peru) was formed. Loving and
eloquent words were spoken by
each one. The new “Bahá’í family”,
which included John
Stearns, was deeply thankful for
this final acceleration of confirmations
allowed by Bahá’u’lláh
and for the fulfillment of Eve
Nicklin’s long period of selfless
and devoted service under great
handicaps in a difficult land. We
thought of Martha Root, who in
1921 touched briefly at Callao
[Page 318]
and sent her messages into Lima
for the newspapers. She was the
first to answer the Master’s call
to go to South America and other
lands, carrying the remedy for
the healing of the world. Flowers
were abundant on this long-to-be-remembered
occasion, and
while much mutual love was expressed,
it was the Cause of God,
and His Messenger Bahá’u’lláh,
to which their allegiance and devotion
were directed.
Soon, the idea of starting an English conversation class for young people was put into action. Energetic Alejandro Franco and others invited young friends to come for tea and to talk in English. Miss Nicklin’s special training with young people which was to have been her life work with one of the Christian denominations was now to be exercised in full measure, in the Bahá’í World Faith, after a long period of comparative disuse. Her courageous stand with the consequent sacrifice of her career was now to have its rich reward, as this resourceful handling of a group of young people developed into a flourishing club from which has been gleaned a spectacular and steadily increasing membership in the Bahá’í Community. Added also, have been persons of more years and much capacity—educators, scientists, and others.
Miss Nicklin has also made another contribution of great interest. Her small book of stories for pre-school children in collaboration with one of the most distinguished women writers and educators of Peru, Señora Doña Irene de Santolalla who made the Spanish translations, has attracted wide attention. The stories are a new idea, being published both in Spanish and in English. The moral carried by each one impresses itself in an attractive way rather than by means of the horror and witchcraft designed to terrify the child into obedience.
Miss Nicklin’s lovely apartment gained through three years of steady perseverance, teaching of English to adults and organizing children’s schools for the purpose of self-support and the making of contacts, now overflows with Bahá’í activity. There every day of the week sees a meeting or small party—never forgetting the purpose and animating impulse behind this harmonious and steady Community of the Bahá’ís of Lima, Peru, where can effectively be seen put into action Bahá’u’lláh’s great injunction: “Consort with all people in love and fragrance, for fellowship is the cause of unity and unity is the source of order in the world.”
WITH OUR READERS
MANY groups of thoughtful people
are keenly aware that the
various forms of racial and class
prejudices existing today are a real
danger threatening social and economic
life. In his article “Racial and
Group Prejudice” Dr. Joseph Lander
gives us a careful analysis of the
causes and effects of this disease
which must be understood before applying
a remedy. Dr. Lander is a
practicing physician in Cincinnati,
Ohio. This article is reprinted from
Opportunity—Journal of Negro Life,
with the permission of the author and
the publishers.
Duart Brown attacks this problem
of prejudice from a somewhat different
angle but with equal emphasis
on its dangers in his article, “The
Anatomy of Prejudice”. Mr. Brown
has contributed both prose and verse
to World Order during the last two
years. In the September issue we
printed his “Parable of the Nine
Springs”. This contribution comes
from Palo Alto, California.
More about race prejudice and
some of its fruits is given in the
review of Black Metropolis by Eleanor
S. Hutchens. In the February,
1946, number of World Order was a
review of Bahá’í World Faith by Mrs.
Hutchens. She has recently been appointed
by the National Spiritual Assembly
as one of the editors of
World Order. Her home is in Palos
Heights, Illinois.
Maye Harvey Gift, who contributes
“Two Facets of One Gem,”
is known among Bahá’ís and others
who use the valuable compilation
Race and Man as one who with Alice
Cox compiled and edited that book.
Mrs. Gift has also made many contributions
to World Order. “Unchallengeable
Victory” which was printed
in our May, 1942, issue is excellent
reading for today. Mrs. Gift’s
home is in Peoria, Illinois.
This month’s editorial, “The Guardian”,
is contributed by Kenneth
Christian. It is a loving tribute to
the Guardian of our Faith whose
guardianship marks its twenty-fifth
anniversary this year.
Is a world wherein justice, plenty
and opportunity for all reign simply
an idle dream? Robert Reid in his
“Utopia?” gives the Bahá’í answer to
this question. There are others who
realize that the vision of the goal
must precede action. For example,
Arthur E. Morgan in his book entitled
Nowhere Is Somewhere says
“When men cease to build utopias it
will be either because they are all
dead, in spirit if not in body—or
else because life is so good that they
cannot imagine it to be better.” And
he adds, “The trouble with human
society has not been too much attention
to utopias, but too little.”
Those who read Robert Reid’s
article thoughtfully and study further
the plan of Bahá’u’lláh’s New
World Order will realize that this
plan differs from all others in that
[Page 320]
it comes from a higher source than
man’s mind. A previous contribution
from Mr. Reid entitled “The
New Age” appeared in our March,
1946, number. His home is in Melbourne,
Australia.
Another new contributor to World
Order is N. M. Firoozi of Geneva,
New York. “The Price of Peace”, he
tells us, was first presented as a public
talk in Rochester, New York. Mr.
Firoozi’s letterhead tells us that he
is an interior decorator. He has given
courses about Muḥammad and Islám
at the Green Acre and Louhelen
Bahá’í Schools.
“Pioneer Journey—Peru” is Virginia
Orbison’s third contribution
telling of her pioneer work in South
America. “Pioneer Journey—Paraguay”
appeared in the June, 1945,
World Order and “Pioneer Journey
—Bolivia” in December, 1945.
* * *
On the subject of racism to which three articles in this number are devoted we have received from one of our readers an interesting column clipped from the St. Paul Recorder, the Negro weekly newspaper published in St. Paul, Minnesota. The column was dated Birmingham, Alabama and written by Robert Durr. He tells of a recent visit of Miss Lillian Smith to Birmingham and of her lectures there and discusses the question of segregation. We quote his closing paragraphs:
“Working to build the kind of man we must have when we have done away with race segregation and the discrimination, I recommend the pattern for a future society as outlined and promulgated by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. I find that the Bahá’í, even in the deep South, are the only group which includes persons of all races with various religious backgrounds who are building the type of men and women to live, love, worship and work on the basis of total equality. These people seem to know where they are going—what the world tomorrow must be like, if we are to live, grow and be happy.”
* * *
The spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s New Age makes an appeal to those of all ages, children, youth, adults and the aged, all whose minds are open and spirits awake. An eleven year old, Patsy George of Moncton, New Brunswick, composed the following verses when she had learned about the Bahá’í Faith:
- The night was dark,
- The Light appeared,
- The gate was opened wide.
- The Báb proclaimed His Message true,
- That all the world abide.
- Chorus. Come, come, all creeds and races,
- Justice will be ours today.
- No longer will our brothers suffer,
- In poverty and shame.
- The world now has a guardian
- To save the Faith from schism,
- So unity will be our aim,
- When truth is realism.
Bahá’í Literature
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by
Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion, the soul,
the basis of civilization and the oneness of mankind. Bound in fabrikoid.
360 pages. $2.00.
The Kitáb-i-Íqán, translated by Shoghi Effendi. This work (The Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purposes of Revelation. Bound in cloth. 262 pages. $2.50.
Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi. The supreme expression of devotion to God; a spiritual flame which enkindles the heart and illumines the mind. 348 pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2.00.
Bahá’í Prayers, a selection of Prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, each Prayer translated by Shoghi Effendi. 72 pages. Bound in fabrikoid, $0.75. Paper cover, $0.35.
Some Answered Questions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's explanation of questions concerning the relation of man to God, the nature of the Manifestation, human capacities, fulfillment of prophecy, etc. Bound in cloth. 350 pages. $1.50.
The Promulgation of Universal Peace. In this collection of His American talks, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the basis for a firm understanding of the attitudes, principles and spiritual laws which enter into the establishment of true Peace. 492 pages. Bound in cloth. $2.50.
The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, by Shoghi Effendi. On the nature of the new social pattern revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for the attainment of divine justice in civilization. Bound in fabrikoid. 234 pages. $1.50.
God Passes By, by Shoghi Effendi. The authoritative documented historical survey of the Bahá’í Faith through the four periods of its first century. The Ministry of the Báb, the Ministry of Bahá’u’lláh, the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the Inception of the Formative Age (1921-1944). In these pages the world’s supreme spiritual drama unfolds. xxiii plus 412 pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2.50
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the
House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois
- The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
- The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me.
- My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure.
- Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.
- Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent.
- I have made death a messenger of joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?
- Make mention of Me on My earth that in My heaven I may remember thee.
- O rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust.
- The source of all learnings is the knowledge of God, exalted be His glory.