Re: Chicago Tribune Article

Ok, fair enough…no dodge ball here, but hopefully my written explanation will be understood to convey my knowledge as best I can. For one, we’re talking about the Baha’i Faith here. The Revelation of Baha’u’llah is not a simple street-corner religion where you go to for one hour every week. Baha’u’llah says His Revelation is

“Verily Our Word is abstruse, bewilderingly abstruse.” In another instance, it is said: “Our Cause is sorely trying, highly perplexing; none can bear it except a favorite of heaven, or an inspired Prophet, or he whose faith God hath tested.”

(Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 82)

Baha’u’llah also says:

But inasmuch as the divine Purpose hath decreed that the true should be known from the false, and the sun from the shadow, He hath, therefore, in every season sent down upon mankind the showers of tests from His realm of glory.

(Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 51)

To answer your question in this context, Mason continued the test of the Guardianship to see who would go by the criteria of being a son, or who would as it says “turn on their heels, afrighted **** fleeing from a lion.” This has always been the test. Mason wasn’t making an error in appointing these people, in as much as Baha’u’llah wasn’t making an error when, in His Will, He appointed Muhammad-Ali to succeed after Abdu’l-Baha, knowing full well that Muhammad-Ali would break the Covenant. But, also, just as the body (UHJ) cannot live without a head (Guardian) the head cannot live without a body as this is where the true line of infallibility comes from when, as it says in the W&T,

“The legislative body must reinforce the executive, the executive must aid and assist the legislative body so that through the close union and harmony of these two forces, the foundation of fairness and justice may become firm and strong, that all the regions of the world may become even as Paradise itself.”

(Abdu’l-Baha, The Will and Testament, p. 14)

So you see it isn’t until these “two forces” are brought together that there infallibility. The Guardians must function within the confines of being one member of the legislative body with a vote of one and no veto power. The job of the Guardian is to execute the decisions of the body, thus “executive head”. Juctice does not come from one person telling everybody what to do, this is tyranny and dictatorship. Baha’u’llah brought justice.

I hope that answers your question to a degree. If not, just ask me to clarify.
Victor

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