Dear Susan, > If you run down the list of those Shoghi Effendi consulted with prior > to making his decision (the list can be found in Priceless Pearl) one realizes > just how poor the quality of Baha'is we had at this time!
I disagree. 1. There was a large number of very deepened believers in the East, people that had come into the Faith from the rank of trained theologians and great depth of knowledge. 2. Many of these had become believers during the ministry of Baha'u'llah or Abdu'l-Baha, and as such were very much experienced and well-versed in the Baha'i Writings. 3. "Quality" is a relative term. For their age, their were perfectly suitable. For a later age, anyone can be considered "poor quality". A couple of generations from now, people will look back to us and could say "What a bunch of poor quality Baha'is in 2004!". I don't know what the reasons were for Shoghi Effendi to have delayed the election of the House of Justice. I've heard one reason was that he worried if the House was elected in 1920's, then most of membership would come from the eastern believers. But if that was a reason, it sure didn't seem to have bothered Abdu'l-Baha Who was more than willing to have the House elected, if needed be, in 1904-8 or thereabouts, which had much fewer western believers. I suspect this will be something that we'll continue to speculate about for some time and we'll never know for sure. Regards, ahang. This communication is for use by the intended recipient and contains information that may be privileged, confidential or copyrighted under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby formally notified that any use, copying or distribution of this e-mail, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this e-mail from your system. Unless explicitly and conspicuously designated as "E-Contract Intended", this e-mail does not constitute a contract offer, a contract amendment, or an acceptance of a contract offer. This e-mail does not constitute a consent to the use of sender's contact information for direct marketing purposes or for transfers of data to third parties. Francais Deutsch Italiano Espanol Portugues Japanese Chinese Korean www.invista.com/email_disclaimer.shtml __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
