I draw much strength and optimism from the Baha’i Writings, which give clear guidance on the disease, as well as the remedy, which afflicts humanity.  “The Promise of World Peace”, written by the Universal House of Justice in October 1985, provides an excellent overview on this topic. In this post, as in the last, I would like to share passages which explain the Baha’i perspective on our planet’s future. 

There are some issues which the House of Justice highlights as having immediate relevance to establishing world peace:

Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext.

The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. … The solution calls for the combined application of spiritual, moral and practical approaches.

Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole…. The advantage of the part in a world society is best served by promoting the advantage of the whole.

Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innumerable wars and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is increasingly abhorrent to the people of all faiths and no faith.

The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. … Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge.

The cause of universal education, … deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice.

A fundamental lack of communication between peoples seriously undermines efforts towards world peace. Adopting an international auxiliary language would go far to resolving this problem and necessitates the most urgent attention.

So, what are the practical mechanisms which will move us towards global peace?  Firstly, “world order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm”. The House of Justice points out that the acceptance of this truth is a prerequisite if we are to reorganize the world to achieve universal peace.  Shoghi Effendi is quoted, explaining that the principle of the oneness of mankind, far ”from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. … It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity“.

One of the major issues which needs to be addressed is that of collective security, and “the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world… Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved, in whose favour all the nations of the world will have

• willingly ceded every claim to make war,
• certain rights to impose taxation and
• all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions.

Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgement will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration”.

A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of capital and labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgement of the world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.

A few weeks ago, an agnostic, a Christian, and two Baha’is headed to Kampala, Uganda together to visit the only Bahá’í House of Worship in all of Africa.  Our first visit involved spending time both within the house of worship and exploring the surrounding gardens.  As I walked around the incredibly serene and beautiful grounds overlooking the rest of Kampala, my mind was quiet, my body relaxed, and my heart open.  When I looked at the faces of my fellow travel companions, I saw a similar mood.

I wondered to myself: why can’t this simply be the norm?  To have people of different faiths or no faith come to a common place of peace intended for meditation or prayer or simply to breathe.

In The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Abdu’l-Bahá beautifully summarizes the purpose of the Baha’i houses of worship:

In brief, the original purpose of temples and houses of worship is simply that of unity — places of meeting where various peoples, different races and souls of every capacity may come together in order that love and agreement should be manifest between them.

We attended the morning Sunday devotionals at the House of Worship and heard writings from the Koran, the Bible, and the Baha’i Writings recited and chanted in multiple languages by people of various faiths and backgrounds.  In between the readings, there was an awe-inspiring choir singing songs of peace and unity, their fantastic voices echoing from the high reaching inner dome as cool breezes flowed in and out of the nine gigantic doors displaying a panoramic view of Kampala.  It was one of those magical moments you want to permanently freeze.

With the current state of the world and the seemingly endless growing tensions between people of varying ideologies, it was powerful, if only for a brief moment on a hilltop in Kampala, to actually EXPERIENCE how peace looks and sounds and feels.

The call of the Kingdom has been sounded, and the annunciation of the world’s need for Universal Peace has enlightened the world’s conscience.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 37)

In October 1985, the Universal House of Justice released a statement, addressed to the peoples of the world, entitled “The Promise of World Peace”. It was written “out of a deep sense of spiritual and moral duty”, to bring to the attention of the world “the penetrating insights first communicated to the rulers of mankind more than a century ago by Baha’u’llah, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith”. I recently re-read the 14-page statement, to try and get some perspective on what’s happening around me. It is a succinct, visionary document which gives a clear analysis of the historical forces that have led us here and I would like to share with you some of the passages I found particularly illuminating.

The House of Justice first sets the scene with this description of the world (of the world in 1985, but equally applicable to today):

“The winds of despair”, Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective.” This prophetic judgement has been amply confirmed by the common experience of humanity. Flaws in the prevailing order are conspicuous in the inability of sovereign states organized as United Nations to exorcize the spectre of war, the threatened collapse of the international economic order, the spread of anarchy and terrorism, and the intense suffering which these and other afflictions are causing to increasing millions.”

The discussion then takes on the effects of various ideologies and dogmas, and religion, on the state of the world:

No serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace, can ignore religion. … Writing of religion as a social force, Bahá’u'lláh said: “Religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.” Referring to the eclipse or corruption of religion, he wrote: “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” In an enumeration of such consequences the Bahá’í writings point out that the “perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human character is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured, conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished.

However vital a force religion has been in the history of mankind, and however dramatic the current resurgence of militant religious fanaticism, religion and religious institutions have, for many decades, been viewed by increasing numbers of people as irrelevant to the major concerns of the modern world. In its place they have turned either to the hedonistic pursuit of material satisfactions or to the following of man-made ideologies designed to rescue society from the evident evils under which it groans. All too many of these ideologies, alas, instead of embracing the concept of the oneness of mankind and promoting the increase of concord among different peoples, have tended to deify the state, to subordinate the rest of mankind to one nation, race or class, to attempt to suppress all discussion and interchange of ideas, or to callously abandon starving millions to the operations of a market system that all too clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority of mankind, while enabling small sections to live in a condition of affluence scarcely dreamed of by our forebears.

Finally, the House of Justice asks some penetrating questions of those who defend materialism:

The time has come when those who preach the dogmas of materialism, whether of the east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism, must give account of the moral stewardship they have presumed to exercise. Where is the “new world” promised by these ideologies? Where is the international peace to whose ideals they proclaim their devotion? Where are the breakthroughs into new realms of cultural achievement produced by the aggrandizement of this race, of that nation or of a particular class? Why is the vast majority of the world’s peoples sinking ever deeper into hunger and wretchedness when wealth on a scale undreamed of by the Pharaohs, the Caesars, or even the imperialist powers of the nineteenth century is at the disposal of the present arbiters of human affairs?

That materialistic ideals have, in the light of experience, failed to satisfy the needs of mankind calls for an honest acknowledgement that a fresh effort must now be made to find the solutions to the agonizing problems of the planet. The intolerable conditions pervading society bespeak a common failure of all, a circumstance which tends to incite rather than relieve the entrenchment on every side. Clearly, a common remedial effort is urgently required. It is primarily a matter of attitude. Will humanity continue in its waywardness, holding to outworn concepts and unworkable assumptions? Or will its leaders, regardless of ideology, step forth and, with a resolute will, consult together in a united search for appropriate solutions?

In Part Two of this blog series, I will highlight the solutions offered by the House of Justice towards a lasting world peace, which they assure us “is not only possible, but inevitable”.