Communism
Conference proceedings on[edit]
Less communism discussed the better these days (1947)[edit]
"You asked his views about your statement on the Bahá'í Faith and Communism: frankly he feels that the less the friends discuss Communism, and the Faith in connection with it, the better these days, as the subject is a burning issue, and no matter how discreet we are we run the risk of being involved in this highly political issue."
- (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 19 February 1947, Messages to Canada, p. 89)
The state of the Baha'i Faith in the Soviet Union (1944)[edit]
"The courage, the fervor and the spiritual vitality evinced by these communities; the highly organized state of their administrative institutions; the facilities provided for the religious education and training of their youth; the conversion of a number of broad-minded Russian citizens, imbued with ideas closely related to the tenets of the Faith; the growing realization of the implications of its principles, with their emphasis on religion, on the sanctity of family life, on the institution of private property, and their repudiation of all discrimination between classes and of the doctrine of the absolute equality of men—these combined to excite the suspicion, and later to arouse the fierce antagonism, of the ruling authorities, and to precipitate one of the gravest crises in the history of the first Bahá’í century."
- (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 360-361)
(Criticism of Hegelian Nationalism)[edit]
“The Hegelian philosophy which, in other countries, has, in the form of an intolerant and militant nationalism, insisted on deifying the state, has inculcated the war-spirit, and incited to racial animosity, has, likewise, led to a marked weakening of the Church and to a grave diminution of its spiritual influence. Unlike the bold offensive which an avowedly atheistic movement had chosen to launch against it, both within the Soviet union and beyond its confines, this nationalistic philosophy, which Christian rulers and governments have upheld, is an attack directed against the Church by those who were previously its professed adherents, a betrayal of its cause by its own kith and kin.”
See also[edit]
To-dos for this page[edit]
- Quotes on Movement of the Left and "party of equality"/"absolute equality", etc. (see also Soviet Union page for links to possibly relevant materials)