But there is one point we (Baha'is) must not lose sight of: it is not our duty to tear down the old order which we find unacceptable. Over a hundred years ago, at a time when people thought "We've really come a long way", and when no one could imagine the extent of the present cultural decadence, Baha'u'llah foretold the breaking down of the old social order and the rise of the new one: "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead (Gl)." Today we are realizing the meaning of these words. Our forms of government are being questioned. Young people are rebelling against the existing social order. The entire world is crying out for reforms and-- one cannot help feeling-- the more it is reformed, the more disastrous is the confusion and the more insoluble become our problems and conflicts. (29:3)

Why? Because the foundations of our cultures, the great religions, have lost their power and are breaking up, because the values given to us by the religions and which form the basis of our culture are no longer considered binding; people no longer "believe" in them. Thus, our epoch is no longer an epoch of reforms, nor of reformations. The sick body of mankind can no longer be healed with palliatives but only with a radical cure. Radical means "from the root" and healing from the root implies laying a new foundation for a stable society. This foundation is a new faith inspiring man with a new consciousness, a world consciousness, giving him a new set of values, a goal and a meaning to his life and showing him a way out of his hopelessness. Thus Baha'is are actually the real "radicals" and the Baha'i Faith is the most radical movement today. But Baha'is are not radical in their methods; they are neither subversive nor violent. They are no fermenting-agents in the process of decomposition and no revolutionaries climbing the barricades and throwing bombs. They know that this old, mouldy system will burst apart by itself like rotten fruit without their intervention, and they know what their task is: the building up of the new order (30:1)

This explains why Baha'is do not engage in political activities and may not belong to any political party. For today every political activity must be carried out within a system and must use the methods of that system which is destined to fall. Moreover, the Baha'i Faith would lose its power to unite if its believers were to become involved in political disputes as a "party"-- that is, restricted in a separatist way-- or as members of the different existing parties. Shoghi Effendi has convincingly demonstrated that the Faith of God suffers when believers enter "the arena of party politics". "We Baha'is, his secretary wrote on his behalf, "are one the world over; we are seeking to build up a new World Order, divine in origin. How can we do this if every Baha'i is a member of a different political party... Where is our unity then?... The best way for a Baha'i to serve his country and the world is to work for the establishment of Baha'u'llah's World Order which will gradually unite all men and do away with divisive political systems and religious creeds." (30:2)

The law of strict abstinence from party politics seems surprising in a religion which is directed so much towards altering and transforming this world. To many this attitude seems inconsistent and self-contradictory, and quite often the Baha'is are reproached with holding themselves back from the "real problems" of society and of their fellow human beings, and with passively watching the world hastening to its destruction (31:1)

Is this reproach justified? The question is: what is "reality", what is the "real world"? For someone who only accepts as reality what can be perceived, what can be actually experienced or empirically verified, or who sees the reality of society only in its socio-economic conditions, the political abstinence of the Baha'is may appear as a refusal to cooperate in the building of a humane and just world, and a refusal to eliminate the evils of this world (31:2)

The Baha'is know, however, that the visible world is only a part of reality and "that the working of the material world is merely a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions can be changed there can be no lasting change for the better in material affairs" (Uhj) (31:3)

In this context it should be realized that most of those who expect the world to be saved by political action alone themselves "have no clear concept of the sort of world they wish to build, nor how to go about building it. Even those who are concerned to improve conditions are therefore reduced to combating every apparent evil that takes their attention. Willingness to fight against evils, whether in the form of conditions or embodied in evil men, has thus become for most people the touchstone by which they judge a person's moral worth. Baha'is, on the other hand, know the goal they are working towards and know what they must do, step by step, to attain it. Their whole energy is directed towards the building of the good, a good which has such a positive strength that in the face of it the multitude of evils-- which are in essence negative-- will fade away and be no more. To enter into the quixotic tournament of demolishing one by one the evils in the world is, to a Baha'i, a vain waste of time and effort. His whole life is directed towards proclaiming the Message of Baha'u'llah, reviving the spiritual life of his fellow-men, uniting them in a divinely-created World Order, and then, as that Order grows in strength and influence, he will see the power of that Message transforming the whole of human society and progressively solving the problems and removing the injustices which have so long bedeviled the world." (Uhj) (31:4)

Baha'u'llah clearly states that mankind's political leaders are at a standstill and will not find a way out of the distress which is growing worse day by day; He says that in its present troubles what the world needs is an "All-Knowing Physician" who "hath His finger on the pulse of mankind" and who "in His unerring wisdom" perceives the disease and prescribes the remedy: "We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions. We see it languishing on its bed of sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned. They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the straight to be crooked and have imagined their friend and enemy" (Gl) (32:1)

End of Quote

The Light Shineth in Darkness
Udo Schaefer