Cultural-Entertainment Centers/Halls
Avoiding atmosphere such as sometimes in artistic professions or modern dance halls with smoking, drinking, and promiscuity[edit]
"In the teachings there is nothing against dancing, but the friends should remember that the standard of Bahá'u'lláh is modesty and chastity. The atmosphere of modern dance halls, where so much smoking and drinking and promiscuity goes on, is very bad, but decent dances are not harmful in themselves. There is certainly no harm in classical dancing or learning dancing in school. There is also no harm in taking part in dramas. Likewise in cinema acting. The harmful thing, nowadays, is not the art itself but the unfortunate corruption which often surrounds these arts. As Bahá'ís we need to avoid none of the arts, but acts and the atmosphere that sometimes go with these professions we should avoid."
- (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to the National Spiritual Assembly of India, June 30, 1952: Dawn of a New Day, p. 153, in Lights of Guidance, no. 339)
(Better to make one's home in taverns than to be a mischief-maker)[edit]
"Be thou of the people of hell-fire, but be not a hypocrite.
"Be thou an unbeliever, but be not a plotter.
"Make thy home in taverns, but tread not the path of the mischief-maker.
"Fear thou God, but not the priest.
"Give to the executioner thy head, but not thy heart.
"Let thine abode be under the stone, but seek not the shelter of the cleric.
- (Bahá'u'lláh, from a Tablet - translated from the Persian; Trustworthiness: A Cardinal Bahá'í Virtue, no. 2050)
