Re-post: The Guardian Problem
Bob
1. The station of Guardian was decreed by the Last Will and Testament
of Abdul Baha, a document which some have alleged to be a forgery.
2. If the LW&T is not a forgery, then the Guardian's failure to obey
his self-described duties are contrary to what a divinely appointed
authority would be expected to do.
3. These self-described duties include the critical task of
appointing a successor guardian, who would take over after the death
or incapacitation of the preceding guardian. The successor was to
have been appointed in a manner that would leave no room for doubt as
to the validity of the successor’s appointment.
4. There is no credible evidence that any successor guardian was ever
appointed in such an unambiguous manner, although there were
claimants.
5. No provision had ever been made concerning the contingency of a
guardian dying without having appointed a successor. Indeed, such a
possibility had never even been mentioned by Shoghi. That is why his
death intestate led to the crisis it did.
6. The combination of these facts decisively refutes the notion that
the Guardianship was ever a divine institution. It also demonstrates
that Shoghi himself never believed that it was. He never made any
attempt, neither to ensure a clear line of succession, nor to
anticipate the lack of a succession.
7. Upon Shoghi’s unexpected death, the Hands of the Cause took it
upon themselves to resolve the matter by declaring that henceforth,
the Baha'i Faith would have no living guardian. But they had no
authority to make that declaration.
8. Shoghi’s death created an unresolvable discrepancy, a
contradiction, that pits the alleged divine authorship of the station
against the physical facts. One cannot have it both ways. For the
station to be of divine authorship, there must be a succession of
guardians, or absent that, some provision to account for a lack of
succession.
9. While the Hands made the best they could of a bad situation, their
best was not enough. Nor could it be. It should become apparent that
such an irregularity could not be explained in terms of a divinely
appointed station. Shoghi Effendi had been inexcusably, and
inexplicably, derelict in his duties, duties which he himself had
repeatedly affirmed in the most emphatic manner.
10. Claimants to the succession of guardianship make such a weak and
flimsy case for their divine authority that their claims make no
improvement regarding the failure of Shoghi Effendi to be clear and
unambiguous in the appointment of a successor.
11. Attempts by the UHJ to uphold the actions of the Hands are
equally flimsy and unjustifiable. Even their most contorted
explanations do not suffice to resolve the contradictions.
12. In all likelihood, the LW&T was a forgery by those who sought
power in what they thought would become a powerful world religion.
Even if it was not a forgery, it certainly had no divine authorship,
as demonstrated by its abject failure to bear the fruit which it had
promised.
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