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The recognition of its National Spiritual Assembly by the Federal authorities as a religious body entitled to hold as trustees properties dedicated to the interests of the Faith; the establishment of Baha'i endowments and the exemption obtained for them from the civil authorities as properties owned by, and administered solely for the benefit of, a purely religious community, were now to be supplemented by decisions and measures designed to give further prominence to the nature of the ties uniting its members. The special stress laid on some of the fundamental laws contained in the Kitab- i- Aqdas regarding daily obligatory prayers; the observance of the fast, the consent of the parents as a prerequisite of marriage; the one- year separation between husband and wife as an indispensable condition of divorce; abstinence from all alcoholic drinks; the emphasis placed on the institution of the Nineteen Day Feast as ordained by Baha'u'llah in that same Book; the discontinuation of membership in, and affiliation with, all ecclesiastical organizations, and the refusal to accept any ecclesiastical post-- these have served to forcibly underline the distinctive character of the Baha'i Fellowship, and to dissociate it, in the eyes of the public, from the rituals, the ceremonials and man- made institutions identified with the religious systems of the past. (373:1) Of particular and historic importance has been the application made by the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Chicago-- the first center established in the North American continent, the first to be incorporated among its sister- Assemblies and the first to take the initiative in paving the way for the erection of a Baha'i Temple in the West-- to the civil authorities in the state of Illinois for civil recognition of the right to conduct legal marriages in accordance with the ordinances of the Kitab- i- Aqdas, and to file marriage certificates that have previously received the official sanction of that Assembly. The acceptance of this petition by the authorities, necessitating an amendment of the by- laws of all local Assemblies to enable them to conduct Baha'i legal marriages, and empowering the Chairman or secretary of the Chicago Assembly to represent that body in the conduct of all Baha'i marriages; the issuance, on September 22, 1939, of the first Baha'i Marriage License by the State of Illinois, authorizing the aforementioned Assembly to solemnize Baha'i marriages and issue Baha'i marriage certificates; the successful measures taken subsequently by Assemblies in other states of the Union, such as New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Ohio, to procure for themselves similar privileges, have, moreover, contributed their share in giving added prominence to the independent religious status of the Faith. To these must be added a similar and no less significant recognition extended, since the outbreak of the present conflict, by the United States War Department -- as evidenced by the communication addressed to the American Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly by the Quartermaster General of that Department, on August 14, 1942-- approving the use of the symbol of the Greatest Name on stones marking the graves of Baha'is killed in the war and buried in military or private cemeteries, distinguishing thereby these graves from those bearing the Latin Cross or the Star of David assigned to those belonging to the Christian and Jewish Faiths respectively.
(373:2)
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