10 April 2011
Dear Bahá’í Friend,
The Universal House of Justice appreciates your thoughtful
inquiry concerning the relationship between eliminating racial prejudice and
participating in activities of the Five Year Plan, which was presented in your
email letter dated 13 October 2009. The delay in responding was unavoidable in
order to allow the time necessary for consideration of the issues raised in
light of the progress of the Plan. No doubt, you have by now carefully studied
the message of the House of Justice dated 28 December 2010 to the Conference of
the Continental Boards of Counsellors, which has a direct bearing on many of
your questions.
In your letter, you observe that the many activities carried
out in the past by the American Bahá’í community to address racial concerns,
despite their obvious merit and the results achieved to date, have been limited
in their effect and have not been systematic in nature. Your review of such
efforts suggests a cyclical pattern, with fits and starts, in which a certain
course of action is presented with fanfare by the institutions, many believers
take part although others remain on the sidelines, activities reach a peak, and
then, after months or perhaps years, attention wanes, and the community is
drawn to other areas until some incident occurs or a new heartfelt appeal is
uttered, thus beginning the cycle anew. Simply to repeat the approaches
implemented in the past, then, will surely not produce a satisfactory result.
The House of Justice notes that the pattern you describe was a characteristic
common to many facets of community life, leading it, in 1996, to set the Bahá’í
world on a new course. During the Four Year Plan, it wrote:
Our hopes, our goals, our possibilities of moving forward
can all be realized through concentrating our endeavors on the major aim of the
Divine Plan at its current stage—that is, to effect a significant advance in
the process of entry by troops. This challenge can be met through persistent
effort patiently pursued…. But also of vital importance to bringing about entry
by troops is a realistic approach, systematic action. There are no shortcuts.
Systematization ensures consistency of lines of action based on well-conceived
plans. In a general sense, it implies an orderliness of approach in all that
pertains to Bahá’í service, whether in teaching or administration, in
individual or collective endeavor. While allowing for individual initiative and
spontaneity, it suggests the need to be clear-headed, methodical, efficient,
constant, balanced and harmonious. Systematization is a necessary mode of
functioning animated by the urgency to act.