Power and the Bahá'í community

by Moojan Momen

Abstract: Bahá’ís frequently claim that the Bahá’í teachings have the ability to create a new social order, a new way of organising human society such that individuals could develop themselves physically, mentally and spiritually to the utmost of their capability. When trying to explain what this new social order is, they present the list of social teachings that was enunciated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during his journeys to the West a hundred years ago: the oneness of humanity, the equality of women and men, the need for harmony and balance between religion and science, the importance of education and so on. While these social teachings may have sounded new and exciting a century ago, that is no longer the case today.

The problem the world faces is not in the principles that would lead to a better society but in the application. In its 1985 statement, The Promise of World Peace, the Universal House of Justice offered up the Bahá’í community as a model for the world to examine.