Personally, I don't think that the concept of not *mutilating* the World Order
of Baha'u'llah is directly connected with the House focusing on Shoghi
Effendi's interpretations. Rather, consulting those interpretations, when
applicable, is one of the *implications* of avoiding such mutilation.
IMHO, it is more accurate to say that the Guardian performed, in his
interpretative magisterium, whatever duties were enjoined upon him by
`Abdu'l-Baha from 1921-1957, and that, beginning in 1963, the Universal House
of Justice, by reading the Baha'i Sacred Texts and the writings, and letters
written on behalf, of the Guardian, is doing something similar for its own
legislative magisterium.
It seems likely that, in numerous respects, aspects of Shoghi Effendi's work
will become less relevant as time goes on. For instance, in the mid-20th
century, he suggested that racism ("racialism") was the most challenging issue
facing Americans. However, in the early 21st century, one might argue that
classism has replaced it. Similarly, I doubt that, if he were writing today, he
would single out "communism" as one of the three false gods.
The importance of the Guardianship, as I see it, can be seen principally in the
services Shoghi Effendi performed for the Baha'i Cause during his own lifetime.
One of those services was further defining the spheres of operation of the
Universal House of Justice.
I think it would be a stretch, however, to say that the Guardianship continues
through the materials which he and his secretaries wrote. Certainly, his
interpretations, etc. are a part of his legacy, and the House of Justice will
presumably continue to rely upon them when appropriate. However, I don't think
that this practice is directly related to avoiding the mutilation discussed by
the Guardian.
In other words, the "non-mutilation" is simply a consequence of the
establishment of those two divine institutions, at different points in time (as
it turned out), and a function of the services each have performed.
"Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of
Baha'u'llah would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary
principle which, as Abdu'l-Baha has written, has been invariably upheld by the
Law of God. 'In all the Divine Dispensations,' He states, in a Tablet
addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, 'the eldest son hath been given
extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his
birthright.' Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be
imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered.
Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an
uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking,
and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of
its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn.
"Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal House of
Justice this same System of the Will of Abdu'l-Baha would be paralyzed in its
action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author of the
Kitab-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative and
administrative ordinances.
-- Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Baha'u'llah, p.148
Mark A. Foster, Ph.D. • http://markfoster.net • [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger." --- Abbie Hoffman
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