• Re-Post: The Guardian problem:

    From Bob@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 10 15:54:10 2020
    To summarize the Guardian problem:

    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 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 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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