Number one, Mason did not authorize the council to take any such action and when he found out that this is what they had done, he told them to “cease and disist”, to not do anything more with the lawsuit, and thus the lawsuit that was instigated by the members of Mason’s sIBC was never persued and it went into default and the Baha’is of Wilmette counter sued and had an injunction placed in 1966.
As far as Mason’s appointments, Mason knew all along that the only candidate for his successor was his son, and if there is only one son left at the Guardian’s passing, the Guardianship passes to them. In the Will & Testament, Abdu’l-Baha never says that the succeeding Guardian has to accept his position, but that he can appoint someone to sit in his place. This is exactly what Pepe did. Pepe wrote letters where he states very emphatically that if the multitude of the Baha’is were to come to him and ask him to be their Guardian, he would do it and ackowledged that the Aghsan lineage continued through him. Pepe then, in the same style and manner that Abdu’l-Baha adopted Mason, Pepe adopted Neal Chase in letters written to him and other beleivers to be his successor. This is the “Mystery of the Kingdom” that is spoken of both in the bible and in the Baha’i Writings. The “Mystery of the Kingdom” the bible explains, is that the “Gentiles will inherit the kingdom” and this would be called the “times of the Gentiles” when the lineage of David would be grafted into by the Gentiles, i.e. a non-physical descendant of David.(Read Romans Chp. 11 as well as Abdu’l-Baha’s last Tablet to America where he mentions this same grafting in of the tree from “another branch”.) Baha’u’llah called Abdu’l-Baha “The Mystery of God” because Abdu’l-Baha chose a gentile to inherit the kingdom by adopting him as his son and appointing him. It is then prophesied in both the bible and the Baha’i writings that another “natural branch” would be grafted back into the tree which is another natural, blood-line descendant of David and collateral descendant through the male line of Baha’u’llah. This is Neal Chase ben Joseph Aghsan who is a Jew who is descended from the male line through the collateral descendants of Baha’u’llah who moved from Tabaristan to Russia. The natural blood-line of Baha’u’llah and the Aghsan lineage has been grafted back once again and thus the “times fo the Gentiles” is over. Read in the bible about what happens after this, it is very, very interesting.
AS far as the “sane” “insane” aspect of people feeling as if they are the ones who can decide of another’s mental capacity, it doesn’t nake any difference. Pepe wrote in a letter that even if the Guardian goes “gaga” that is no reason to abandon him and deny him and even more, try to usurp from him. The Guadianship issue is very simple; two criteria: he has to be a son “Aghsan” and he has to be appointed. Any other criteria that others try to add like he has to be young or old or knowledgeable or handsome or he has to accept it and proclaim his acceptance or anything, is not the identifying criteria. By this simple two-part criteria, the lineage of David has continued unbroken for over three thousand years.
Neal Chase is the only survivng natural branch who was appointed by the previous Guardian and who has compiled the Genealogy of Baha’u’llah as well as written inumerable tablets and epistles enumerating the history of the Baha’i Faith and how this history relates to the history of the ancients and the proofs contained therein as well as his research into the mathematical evidence contained throughout the world and its verying cultures and beliefs and continuous contact with the BUPC throughout the world. To see the first Fireside given by the Guardian Neal Chase Ben Joseph Aghsan and hear some of these explanations by him youself, go here:
www.bahaifireside.org
Victor