-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Does the Bahai Faith hope and intend to be a World Theocracy?
- Thread starter oldbadger
- Start date
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Thanks for your post.
I think that have quoted from some of these sites, and also your own, on the thread before this one. I was told by a Baha'i that they were not official sites.
I cannot respond to your post until tomorrow morning. Ok?
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
H
Highly misleading?
Just help me here, ok?
Please just confirm that there is not a set of 12 basic principles in your faith, and that nothing written in the 12 basic principles os true or real. Ok?
Hi....
Highly misleading?
Just help me here, ok?
Please just confirm that there is not a set of 12 basic principles in your faith, and that nothing written in the 12 basic principles os true or real. Ok?
This is the official Bahá'í library in Haifa, Israel at the Bahai World Centre.
http://www.bahai.org/library/
This is the official Bahá'í International Community website at the UN
https://www.bic.org
This is the official presence of the Baha'i Faith on the internet
http://www.bahai.org
From these sites you will get the the authoritative and authentic Baha'i Teachings as taught by Baha'u'llah.
The sites you are obtaining your information from are fake sites and nothing to do with the Baha'i Faith.
The 12th principle you quoted is not authentic. It is an edited, doctored version of that website and does not reflect the authentic Bahá'í Writings from official scripture.
Quote official sources and I can respond as I know what my own religion teaches but I am not familiar with the views of those fake sites.
Sen McGlinn
Member
There are Bahai principles, and you will often find Bahai literature with "12 principles" in it - but never with theocratic ideas or the "Davidic throne" ideas that are put out by uhj.net. That site is entirely unreliable.
Peter Terry's survey of Abdu'l-Baha's lists of principles in 37 sources available in English is your best source for an overview of Abdu'l-Baha's presentations in the West, see http://bahai-library.com/terry_explanation_teachings_bahaullah
Last edited:
Tumah
Veteran Member
Sen McGlinn
Member
That is both vague (what does "spiritual democracy" entail?) and unauthenticated. It's unlikely that Abdu'l-Baha ever said such a thing. The source for this is Bahai Scriptures, which is a mishmash of good and bad texts, no longer printed or distributed in hard copy, but unfortunately given a new lease of life by being digitized. This particular bit probably comes from Ahmad Sohrab, since the same words are found in Sohrab's "I Heard Him Say," page 120,
http://www.h-net.org/.../books/P-T/S/sohrab/IHS120.gif
published in 1937. While Bahai scriptures was published before that, in 1923, it is very likely that Sohrab had communicated the text in a private letter or a letter to be published in a Bahai newsletter before he included it in "I heard Him say."
Sohrab is very free in attributing his own ideas to Abdu'l-Baha, and inserting them in his translations of tablets (although he uses parentheses when he does this in translations; unfortunately editors in books such as Bahai World Faith remove the parentheses and leave the comments in !). So where he is the only known source of words, they must be regarded as doubtful.
There are plenty of readily authenticated quotes in the authenticated works of Abdu'l-Baha for all the major principles and for the tenor and spirit of Abdu'l-Baha's teaching work. For example -- in relation to the OP idea of Bahai theocratic ideas --:
======
“Should they place in the arena the crown of the government of the whole world, and invite each one of us to accept it, undoubtedly we shall not condescend, and shall refuse to accept it.” ( Tablets of the Divine Plan 51)
The signature of that meeting should be the Spiritual Gathering (House of Spirituality) and the wisdom therein is that hereafter the government should not infer from the term “House of Justice” that a court is signified, that it is connected with political affairs, or that at any time it will interfere with governmental affairs. … (Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha Abbas vol. 1, page 5).
During the conference no hint must be entertained regarding political affairs. All conferences must be regarding the matters of benefit, … If any person wishes to speak of government affairs, or to interfere with the order of Governors, the others must not combine with him because the Cause of God is withdrawn entirely from political affairs; the political realm pertains only to the Rulers of those matters: it has nothing to do with the souls who are exerting their utmost energy to harmonizing affairs, helping character and inciting (the people) to strive for perfections. Therefore no soul is allowed to interfere with (political) matters, but only in that which is commanded.
(National Bahai Archives (US), unpublished Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha, printed in Baha’i World Faith, 407)
… this sect have no worldly object nor any role in political matters. The fulcrum of their motion and rest and the pivot of their cast and conduct is restricted to spiritual things and confined to the doctrine of the unity of the prophets; it has no role to play in the affairs of the government nor any connection to the seat of sovereignty. Its principles are the proclamation of the praises of God, the investigation of signs, the education of souls, the reformation of characters, the purification of hearts, and illumination with the gleams of enlightenment. … (A Traveler’s Narrative, 86)
=============
“Should they place in the arena the crown of the government of the whole world, and invite each one of us to accept it, undoubtedly we shall not condescend, and shall refuse to accept it.” ( Tablets of the Divine Plan 51)
The signature of that meeting should be the Spiritual Gathering (House of Spirituality) and the wisdom therein is that hereafter the government should not infer from the term “House of Justice” that a court is signified, that it is connected with political affairs, or that at any time it will interfere with governmental affairs. … (Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha Abbas vol. 1, page 5).
During the conference no hint must be entertained regarding political affairs. All conferences must be regarding the matters of benefit, … If any person wishes to speak of government affairs, or to interfere with the order of Governors, the others must not combine with him because the Cause of God is withdrawn entirely from political affairs; the political realm pertains only to the Rulers of those matters: it has nothing to do with the souls who are exerting their utmost energy to harmonizing affairs, helping character and inciting (the people) to strive for perfections. Therefore no soul is allowed to interfere with (political) matters, but only in that which is commanded.
(National Bahai Archives (US), unpublished Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha, printed in Baha’i World Faith, 407)
… this sect have no worldly object nor any role in political matters. The fulcrum of their motion and rest and the pivot of their cast and conduct is restricted to spiritual things and confined to the doctrine of the unity of the prophets; it has no role to play in the affairs of the government nor any connection to the seat of sovereignty. Its principles are the proclamation of the praises of God, the investigation of signs, the education of souls, the reformation of characters, the purification of hearts, and illumination with the gleams of enlightenment. … (A Traveler’s Narrative, 86)
=============
These are all authenticated texts, the criteria being that there is an original written by Abdu'l-Baha, or a record of his spoken words that he corrected and approved.
Last edited:
psychoslice
Veteran Member
What I have sen so far about the faith, it seems they except all religions and they don't seem to be dogmatic and I can't see any fundamentalism within their belief system, over all I feel they leave Christianity as a shadow.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
I will be looking at those sites. Those are the 'real' sites.
I will be looking at another member's 'real' site, different from yours but posted on this thread.
You have already discounted a member's site offered to you on the previous 'Jesus' thread.
And you have discounted the written 12 Principles of Bahai, and not offered any to replace them. They are shown below, you just need to tell me that they are completely not true.
You see? I appear as if surrounded by bahais who tell me that all the others are fakes! Christianity has over 3000 denominations, most of them claiming that they individually are the only true Christians, and I begin to wonder (now) how many Bahai faiths there might be.
But one thing is looking possible; that the biggest bahai faith is publisjing what it wants the world to see, and other smaller bahai factions are publishing what they believe to be the truth. Look at these principles and tell me that you do not believe in any of them. Publish your list!!!
http://www.uhj.net/bahaiprinciples/uhj-with-king.html
"The Oneness of the World of Humanity."
"The Independent Investigation of the Truth."
"The Foundation of all Religions is One." There is only one Religion.
"Religion Must be a Source of Unity."
"Religion must be in accord with Science and Reason."
"The Equality of Men and Women."
"The Removal of all Prejudice, Religious, Racial, Political, etc."
"Universal Peace upheld by a Spiritual World Government."
"Universal Compulsory Education."
"A Spiritual Solution to the Economic Problems of the World.
"A Universal Auxiliary Language.
"The Establishment of an International Tribunal, or Parliament of Man, with a descendant of King David as its Executive."
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Hi...
I will look at your proposed site, but it is refuted by another bahai member.... see above.
Also, your website is refuted, along with others, by bahais on this forum!
Now which Bahais are real? There must be several denoominations, but since there are 3000+ Christian denominations I am not surprised to find some factions in your faith.
Here is a post of mine on another thread, and then a response to it by a bahai. I have removed the member's name to avoid contention/confrontation, but if you challenge then I will post it whole. Fair enough?
post 487 (my post)
The Eighth Principle of the Baha'i Faith - Universal Peace upheld by ...
www.uhj.net/bahaiprinciples/peace.html
The second inevitable requirement of stable peace is national disarmament ... of
internal security only, and the establishment of an international police force.
How theocracy happened « Sen McGlinn's blog
https://senmcglinn.wordpress.com/2008/.../how-theocracy-happened/
2 Dec 2008 ... Shoghi Effendi said, "The Baha'i theocracy . . . is both divinely ordained as a
system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet ...
Juan Cole-Fundamentalism in the Contemporary U.S. Baha'i ...
iranscope.ghandchi.com/Anthology/Bahai/fundamentalism.htm
Among Baha'i fundamentalists, this reaction takes the form of a belief in a future
theocracy, in which they expect Baha'i ecclesiastical institutions to take over the ...
Bahai-Faith.com – The Baha'i Faith: A Unitarian Universalist View
www.bahai-faith.com/
6 May 2011 ... By Eric Stetson, former member of the Baha'i Faith community ..... Haifan Baha'
ism includes theocracy as one of it's teachings, but it is far from ...
post 488 (a Bahai members post)
Now it's clear to me. You're quoting sites opposed to the Baha'i Faith not the official Bahai websites.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
On the side of this debate, but a democracy involves the people. The Bahai voting system only involves Bahais.
In a Bahai World non-Bahais would not have a vote. It's not a Democracy.
Of course Bahai will not impose teachings on powers that be, it wants to become the power that is, and then it will impose its policies upon the world.
Why would a spiritual-only organisation found Houses of Justice in every locality, country and indeed over the world?
I begin to think that your Bahai denomination is trying to withold its true objective from the world at this time, possibly to avoid conflict which it seems to have quite enough of at this time?
Have another look at the links on my post 487 on the Jesus thread. There is a Bahai member on this thread who has one of those and mentions a Bahai theocracy. Introduce yourself and then you could discuss it ??
Sen McGlinn
Member
Thanks Old Badger, I don't know how to find your post 487, but I will try to help using what you've posted here.
If you mean the link to Peter Terry's work on Abdu'l-Baha's lists of principles, it is on the Bahai-library site which is jokingly known as the Most Great Web Site. It's a priceless collection of documents in text form. It's not official, it's the individual initiative of Jonah Winters, assisted by volunteers. Peter Terry's paper was first published in Lights of Irfan, one of the leading academic journals in Bahai Studies.
Of the four links you added, the uhj.net is a fraud, pretending to be the real House of Justice site. It's like a site for "Fard Motor Company" in blue with curly letters. It's straight disinformation. It may represent a Bahai denomination, or an individual, or maybe it's been put up in the hope of selling the domain name.
My site, senmcglinn.wordpress.com is my own research and opinions. Post 488 is correct that it is not an official site, but it is certainly not opposed to the Bahai Faith. Many Bahai researchers and translators publish their research on web pages and blogs. These are their own work and do not represent the Bahai institutions. That's why I call it "Sen McGlinn's blog - meditations..." rather than "Bahai Teachings" or "Bahai Studies."
The Unitarian Universalist site is or was a sect of the Bahai Faith. I believe the person who started that may have moved on to other interests.
|
Juan Cole is a critic of the Bahai Administration, notably in the USA around the period 1990-2010, but not someone trying to start his own sect, or differing from the Bahais regarding the teachings. He has mellowed and moved on, but his older critiques are still being used by opponents of the Bahais.
There's an easy objective way to confirm that the uhj.net site is pretending to be the Universal House of Justice speaking for the Bahai community, and is actually some small group or an individual. Run a Google search on "Baha'i Faith" == 426,000 results (with this spelling). Now add "davidic" to the search: 83 results. That tells you that it is a tiny minority who are talking about this "davidic king" leading the House of Justice. Statistics don't tell you who is theologically right or wrong, but if your question is "Does the Bahai Faith intend to establish a Theocracy" this search helps you to distinguish the mainstream from the fringe/opponents/black ops.
If you mean the link to Peter Terry's work on Abdu'l-Baha's lists of principles, it is on the Bahai-library site which is jokingly known as the Most Great Web Site. It's a priceless collection of documents in text form. It's not official, it's the individual initiative of Jonah Winters, assisted by volunteers. Peter Terry's paper was first published in Lights of Irfan, one of the leading academic journals in Bahai Studies.
Of the four links you added, the uhj.net is a fraud, pretending to be the real House of Justice site. It's like a site for "Fard Motor Company" in blue with curly letters. It's straight disinformation. It may represent a Bahai denomination, or an individual, or maybe it's been put up in the hope of selling the domain name.
My site, senmcglinn.wordpress.com is my own research and opinions. Post 488 is correct that it is not an official site, but it is certainly not opposed to the Bahai Faith. Many Bahai researchers and translators publish their research on web pages and blogs. These are their own work and do not represent the Bahai institutions. That's why I call it "Sen McGlinn's blog - meditations..." rather than "Bahai Teachings" or "Bahai Studies."
The Unitarian Universalist site is or was a sect of the Bahai Faith. I believe the person who started that may have moved on to other interests.
|
Juan Cole is a critic of the Bahai Administration, notably in the USA around the period 1990-2010, but not someone trying to start his own sect, or differing from the Bahais regarding the teachings. He has mellowed and moved on, but his older critiques are still being used by opponents of the Bahais.
There's an easy objective way to confirm that the uhj.net site is pretending to be the Universal House of Justice speaking for the Bahai community, and is actually some small group or an individual. Run a Google search on "Baha'i Faith" == 426,000 results (with this spelling). Now add "davidic" to the search: 83 results. That tells you that it is a tiny minority who are talking about this "davidic king" leading the House of Justice. Statistics don't tell you who is theologically right or wrong, but if your question is "Does the Bahai Faith intend to establish a Theocracy" this search helps you to distinguish the mainstream from the fringe/opponents/black ops.
arthra
Baha'i
I agree with Sen above...
There is an "official" site for the Universal House of Justice" namely:
http://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/
This is the House of Justice that's elected by the representatives of the some hundred and eighty two elected National spiritual Assemblies every five years in Haifa.
The "old Badger" wrote above:
On the side of this debate, but a democracy involves the people. The Bahai voting system only involves Bahais.
In a Bahai World non-Bahais would not have a vote. It's not a Democracy.
Baha'i institutions only deal with Baha'is.. They are not Civil institutions. Baha'i institutions are elected annually from the Local level to the National Level and as above the elected National Spiritual Assemblies send representatives every five years to elect our Universal House of Justice.
Baha'u'llah around 1867 urged the rulers of His time to set up a representative world parliament and an international court of arbitration to resolve the problems and issues facing the world... these are civil institutions that were urged...not theocratic bodies. The closest we've come to achieving these type of bodies are probably the League of Nations started after WWI and United Nations which was established after WWII.. there is an international court of arbitration. Baha'is hope that some day a representative world body will deal with the issues such as war and various unjust practices.
As far as politics goes... Baha'is are non-partisan. We are not registered in political parties or hold any partisan political offices. We are encouraged to vote in elections. So Baha'is are not interested in setting up a theocratic rule of the planet.
There is an "official" site for the Universal House of Justice" namely:
http://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/
This is the House of Justice that's elected by the representatives of the some hundred and eighty two elected National spiritual Assemblies every five years in Haifa.
The "old Badger" wrote above:
On the side of this debate, but a democracy involves the people. The Bahai voting system only involves Bahais.
In a Bahai World non-Bahais would not have a vote. It's not a Democracy.
Baha'i institutions only deal with Baha'is.. They are not Civil institutions. Baha'i institutions are elected annually from the Local level to the National Level and as above the elected National Spiritual Assemblies send representatives every five years to elect our Universal House of Justice.
Baha'u'llah around 1867 urged the rulers of His time to set up a representative world parliament and an international court of arbitration to resolve the problems and issues facing the world... these are civil institutions that were urged...not theocratic bodies. The closest we've come to achieving these type of bodies are probably the League of Nations started after WWI and United Nations which was established after WWII.. there is an international court of arbitration. Baha'is hope that some day a representative world body will deal with the issues such as war and various unjust practices.
As far as politics goes... Baha'is are non-partisan. We are not registered in political parties or hold any partisan political offices. We are encouraged to vote in elections. So Baha'is are not interested in setting up a theocratic rule of the planet.
But that is the choice of the people. Are you saying people have no right to choose to believe in the Baha'i Faith even if they love it's teachings and it's administration?
You seem to be trying to make us out as conquerors forgetting one basic principle and that is anyone has freedom to join and freedom to leave.
If for instance all of California chose to become Baha'i they would come under the House of Justice but then the next day they could all choose to leave the Baha'i Faith and Bahá'í laws would no longer apply.
It is choice nothing else.
I was simply pointing out we believe in democratic principles that's all. But thank you for all those quotes you posted. It was very late and I was too tired to check the source but now you've posted other sources I deleted the post. Many thanks.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Sen, thankyou for all that info. I will research into as much as I can relative/relevant to this thread.
Obviously this thread is about future hopes and objectives, thus:-
Does the Bahai Faith hope and intend to be a World Theocracy?
Now on your site you included comments from Shogi Effendi, thus:-
How theocracy happened « Sen McGlinn's blog
https://senmcglinn.wordpress.com/2008/.../how-theocracy-happened/
2 Dec 2008 ... Shoghi Effendi said, "The Baha'i theocracy . . . is both divinely ordained as a
system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet ...
Would you like to enlarge upon that?
One thing that I am finding really very odd, is that when I have mentioned that Bahauallah set up an organisation which could, with a large enough % of Bahais, rule the world, intending to make it a better place, I have been redirected by bahais who want to list every country with bahais in, or long quotations from your prophets about other matters, or claims that any findings don't count............ everything is veiled, probably because bahai doesn't trust the world about its real message.
So, please, publish your list of the Bahai objectives, all of them.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
OK.... I will look to see if it publishes a full list of its principles and objectives.
No Sir.... they don't. They communicate with bodies and institutions all around. They used to communicate with Kings and Queens. Is this true?
Not at this time, they are not. They are nowhere big enough....... but the thread question reads:-
Does the Bahai Faith hope and intend to be a World Theocracy?
Look.... you could end this now, in one post. All you have to do is tell us clearly, simply, precisely, that the Bahai Universal House of Justice and the (one day) National and Local Houses of Justice will never be equipped to govern any communities at Local, National or World Levels, and that the Bahai Organisation never wants to run or control any local councils, county councils, national councils or world council.
But you cannot.
So, like most countries, you hold elections.
.... so he would never have needed to write laws, sentences, policies about armies and weapons, taxation and all the rest? I mean, all that stuff is outside of the remit of a spiritual religion, eh? So why did he lay all that down, and why are your councils going to be called Houses of Justice? Houses of Justice??!! Why not Houses of Prayer?
... be clear, you didn't achieve these bodies........ and Bahai don't think that they are as good as a Baha World House of Justice would be, do they?
....... now what would that be called? The Universal House of Justice, possibly.... or a subsidiary body reporting to it?
The followers of most potential theocracies don't get involved in any party politics. They have their own..... the embryos of their own faiths and religions.
Arthra..... just tell us straight that the Bahai Organisation has no intention of ever controlling any civil, government or military functions, even when/if it has an overwhelming majority of Bahais in the world...... you don't even mind if non-bahais run all of that.
Sen, thankyou for all that info. I will research into as much as I can relative/relevant to this thread.
Obviously this thread is about future hopes and objectives, thus:-
Does the Bahai Faith hope and intend to be a World Theocracy?
Now on your site you included comments from Shogi Effendi, thus:-
How theocracy happened « Sen McGlinn's blog
https://senmcglinn.wordpress.com/2008/.../how-theocracy-happened/
2 Dec 2008 ... Shoghi Effendi said, "The Baha'i theocracy . . . is both divinely ordained as a
system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet ...
Would you like to enlarge upon that?
One thing that I am finding really very odd, is that when I have mentioned that Bahauallah set up an organisation which could, with a large enough % of Bahais, rule the world, intending to make it a better place, I have been redirected by bahais who want to list every country with bahais in, or long quotations from your prophets about other matters, or claims that any findings don't count............ everything is veiled, probably because bahai doesn't trust the world about its real message.
So, please, publish your list of the Bahai objectives, all of them.
I think you misunderstood my post. When you pointed to that fake Baha'i site I was trying to impress on you that they do not represent the Baha'i Community and as an example I listed all the countries.
They are only a very few people probably in the USA.
If you have any other things I haven't cleared up I can definitely clear it up.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
From what I have seen it seeks to bring all religions under an monotheist umbrella, including the non-theist traditions. For me that is sufficient reason to reject it.
Sen McGlinn
Member
As I've said in the blog posting you've referenced, Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha endorsed "render unto Caesar" and the separation of church and state often and emphatically, but most of the early Bahais in the West had the opposite view. In part this was due to a simple mistake. Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha had advocated a Supreme Tribunal to be composed by the nations of the world, and a Universal House of Justice to be elected by the members of the Bahai National Spiritual Assemblies. When the French translation of Some Answered Questions was made (by Hippolyte Dreyfus, no relation of the famous Dreyfus in the Dreyfus Affair), he added footnotes where these terms were used, explaining that the Tribunal was the UHJ, and the UHJ the Tribunal. His French translation was then translated in English and German, along with the footnotes, and the book became very influential. His footnotes were corrected in later editions, but the idea was already established by then.
Shoghi Effendi then argued robustly against these already established ideas (among Bahais in the West, not among Persian Bahais). He writes for example that
"Theirs is not the purpose, while endeavoring to conduct and perfect the administrative affairs of their Faith, to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country’s constitution, much less to allow the machinery of their administration to supersede the government of their respective countries,"
and he selected a number of Baha'u'llah's anti-theocratic statements to include in Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, which became a very influential book. So there's no doubt that Shoghi Effendi was fully in line with Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha on this one.
However, this question of the separation of church and state was overshadowed by a much bigger issue that plagued the Bahai communities in the West, and especially in the United States: in Abdu'l-Baha's time a considerable portion of the Bahai communities there envisioned the Bahais Faith as a vague spiritual community or awareness, additional to one's other religious identities. They were critical of organized religion and thought that the world needed another organized religion like a fish needs a submarine. These words, attributed to Abdu'l-Baha in a magazine called "The North Shore Review" (May 16, 1914), pretty much sums up the anti-establishment current in the American Bahai community:
The Bahai Movement is not an organisation. You can never organise the Bahai Cause. The Bahai Movement is the spirit of this age. It is the essence of all the highest ideals of this century.
The Bahai Cause is an inclusive Movement: The teachings of all the religions and societies are found here; the Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Zoroastrians, Theosophists, Freemasons, Spiritualists, et. al., find their highest aims in this Cause. Even the Socialists and philosophers find their theories fully developed in this Movement.”
The Bahai Cause is an inclusive Movement: The teachings of all the religions and societies are found here; the Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Zoroastrians, Theosophists, Freemasons, Spiritualists, et. al., find their highest aims in this Cause. Even the Socialists and philosophers find their theories fully developed in this Movement.”
These early Bahais had enough of the Bahai Writings to know that Baha'u'llah had written about the "House of Justice" being elected and having authority, but they thought he was talking about a civil government, and the international tribunal, that is, about a body that would rule the secular world and NOT rule religion, because religion needed no organisation. So you see how anti-establishment sentiment and the church&state issue were intertwined. Then Abdu'l-Baha died, and left a Will appointing his grandson Shoghi Effendi as Guardian, meaning head of the Bahai community, and Shoghi Effendi started to roll out the elected Bahai administrative institutions -- already existing in the Middle East -- in the Bahai communities of the West. The anti-establishment Bahais were perplexed, and not a few withdrew from the community, and there were law suits. This was the big issue in the Bahai community in the West: whether and how the community should be organized. Shoghi Effendi was not an American, and never visited America; he did not immediately recognize what the beliefs of Bahais were, but he heard about them through pilgrims who came to Palestine and through letters. In a couple of places he referred to the Bahai Administrative Order (the religious order, not a government system) as theocratic, and a Bahai wrote to him about that term, and the term theophany. A secretary answers on his behalf on 30 September 1949:
He thinks your question is well put: what the Guardian was referring to was the theocratic systems, such as the Catholic Church and the Caliphate, which are not divinely given as systems, but man-made, and yet, being partly derived from the teachings of Christ and Muhammad are in a sense theocracies. The Baha'i theocracy, on the contrary, is both divinely ordained as a system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet Himself.
So the answer refers to the nature not of a Bahai civil government but to the Bahai Administrative Order, which governs the internal affairs of the Bahai community. Shoghi Effendi says that this system of government of the religious community is unlike other “recognized types of theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various Christian ecclesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in Islam.” (World Order of Baha’u’llah 152, see also God Passes By 326-7). He is comparing the institutions that govern religious communities in various religions, and the issue is whether and how the Bahai community can be organized. To the Bahais of the time, that was not a rhetorical question. In addition to the "cannot organize" current in the Bahai community, there was a group that accepted organization providing it was a flat organization: a "pure spiritual democracy" without any officers. That idea was completely incompatible with having a hereditary Guardianship, and people called "aghsan" who were descendants of Baha'u'llah. Shoghi Effendi tries to relate the Bahai Administrative Order to systems the Bahais were familiar with, such as aristocracy, democracy and monarchy, and he also uses this term Bahai theocracy, but in none of this discourse is the question "how to organise the state?" It is always about how to organise the Bahai community.
A large enough group of cat lovers (say 99% of the population) could rule the world, working via cute kittens on facebook. What stops the Bahai organisation ruling the world is that its charter, the Bahai scriptures, forbid this. I've already quoted plenty on this issue: see "much less to allow the machinery of their administration to supersede the government" above. Abdu'l-Baha changed the name of the Houses of Justice to "Spiritual Assemblies" precisely to make it clear that these bodies were not courts or governments. He writes:
The signature of that meeting should be the Spiritual Gathering (House of Spirituality) and the wisdom therein is that hereafter the government should not infer from the term “House of Justice” that a court is signified, that it is connected with political affairs, or that at any time it will interfere with governmental affairs. … (Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha Abbas vol. 1 p. 5)
So, please, publish your list of the Bahai objectives, all of them.
Peace, unity, equality, prosperity and progress -- and primarily, to establish the awarness of the oneness of humanity in the minds of the masses, and transform their hearts (and our own hearts) to feel it. For the detailed programme, I can refer you again to Peter Terry's overview of the lists of Bahai principles, but for me the essential thing is that no programme at the level of superstructure can have a lasting effect unless it is built on a deeply felt conviction that all humanity is one, the planet is one homeland, and we are all in this together -- so help us God.