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1935-06-15 membership in non-Baha'i religious associations/teaching
USBN #93 July 1935 p1-2
"Concerning membership in non-Baha'i religious associations. The Guardian wishes to re-emphasize the general principle already laid down in his communications to your Assembly and also to the individual believers that no Baha'i who wishes to be a wholehearted and sincere upholder of the distinguishing principles of the Cause can accept full membership in any non-Baha'i ecclesiastical organization. For such an act would necessarily imply only a partial acceptance of the Teachings and laws of the Faith, and an incomplete recognition of its independent status, and would thus be tantamount to an act of disloyalty to the verities it enshrines. For it is only too obvious that in most of its fundamental assumptions the Cause of Baha'u'llah is completely at variance with outworn creeds, ceremonies and institutions. To be a Baha'i and at the same time accept membership in another religious body is simply an act of contradiction that no sincere and logically-minded person can possibly accept. To follow Baha'u'llah does not mean accepting some of His teachings and rejecting the rest. Allegiance to His Cause must be uncompromising and whole-hearted. During the days of the Master the Cause was still in a stage that made such an open and sharp dissociation between it and other religious organizations, and particularly the Muslim Faith, not only inadvisable but practically impossible to establish. But since His passing events throughout the Baha'i world, and particularly in Egypt where the Muslim religious courts have formally testified to the independent character of the Faith, have developed to a point that have made such an assertion of the independence of the Cause not only highly desirable but absolutely essential."
There is one more point to which the Guardian wishes to draw again your Assembly's attention. It is the question of teaching, and its paramount importance in these days of rapid administrative development of the Cause in America. He has already, through Miss Edna True, conveyed this same message to your Assembly, and is gratified to witness the wide and deep response it has awakened among the friends. He hopes and prays that whatever means the N. S. A. in collaboration with the National Teaching Committee may adopt for the furtherance of this most vital objective may meet with complete success.
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