God's Plan for Planet Earth and your Neighborhood

J O HN S . HATCH ER , PHD

Bahá’í Publishing, Wilmette, Illinois 401 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette, Illinois 60091 Copyright © 2018 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2018 Printed in the United States of America ∞ 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2018015887

Cover design: Jamie Hanrahan Book design: Patrick Falso Cover photo: Daniel Olah Back photo: Tae In Kim

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..........................................................................xv 1 / GOD’S PLAN FOR CREATION........................................................... 1 The End in the Beginning.......................................................................1 Why Bahá’í?...................................................................................3 A Personal God...............................................................................3 God’s Messengers............................................................................5 Has God’s Intention Gone Awry?...................................................6 Progressive Revelation.....................................................................7 The Major and Minor Plans of God...............................................9 Two Stations for the Two Levels of Planning................................. 10 Human History as Religious History.............................................12 A Milestone in Both Plans...................................................12 Attaining Maturity................................................................................13 Mature People Need a Mature Plan....................................................... 14 2 / THE PLAN FOR THE BAHÁ’Í ERA...................................................17 What is the Bahá’í Faith?....................................................................... 18 The “Time of the End” is the Point of True Beginning.................20 Signs of Global Coherence and Collaboration....................................... 21 Signs of Coalescence..................................................................... 21 Some Obvious Impediments to Progress.......................................22 Life in the “Half-Light”................................................................24 The Choice that is No Choice......................................................25 Is There Virtue in Virtual Reality?.........................................................27 The Inherent Loneliness of Contemporary Society.......................28 Anxiety, Depression, Failure to Thrive..........................................29 ix

Contents

A Utopia that is not a Dystopia.............................................................30 What Will Be Different?...............................................................32 God’s Plan All Along.....................................................................33 The Joy of Process........................................................................35 The Past and the Present as the Foundation for the Future...........35 3 / THE DAY WHICH SHALL NOT BE FOLLOWED BY NIGHT....... 39 The “Day” of God.................................................................................39 The Inviolable Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh in Relation to the Plan of God......................................................42 The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh as Turning Point........................44 The “Ages” of this “Era”........................................................................47 4 / LINKS IN THE COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH............................. 49 The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh.................................................................50 Succession and the Lesser Covenant.............................................50 The Uniqueness of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant.............................................52 Some Useful Metaphors for Understanding Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant..................................................................53 The Usefulness of the Chain Metaphor................................54 The First Link.......................................................................................55 The Second Link...................................................................................56 The Guardianship.........................................................................57 Duties of the Guardian.................................................................59 National Spiritual Assemblies.......................................................60 The Hands of the Cause of God................................................... 61 Twin Institutions—the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.....................................................................62 5 / THE CONTINUITY OF THE COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH...... 65 Two Branches of Administration...........................................................65 Segue to the Future................................................................................67 Where to Begin.............................................................................67 Thirty-Six Years of Ceaseless Labor...............................................69 The Third Link.....................................................................................70 “Custodians” or “Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land”..............71 Chief Stewards..............................................................................72 The Fourth Link....................................................................................72 x

Contents

An Unexpected Test......................................................................73 The Election and the Transfer of Authority.................................. 74 The First World Congress.............................................................76 Some Finishing Touches........................................................................77 The Custodians Relinquish Their Authority.................................77 Bahíyyih Khánum.........................................................................78 6 / THE AUTHORITY AND INFALLIBILITY OF THE “TWIN INSTITUTIONS”.................................................. 81 Elucidating the Covenant...................................................................... 81 The Guardianship and the Future.................................................82 The “Twin Institutions”................................................................83 Infallibility and Divine Assistance.........................................................85 The Bestowal of Infallibility.........................................................85 Infallibility as a Predictable Result of a Human Process................86 Infallibility and the Electoral Process............................................87 The Decision-Making Process Itself..............................................88 No Learning Curve for Infallibility...............................................89 The Sphere of Infallible Authority................................................90 Inevitable Conclusion about Infallibility....................................... 91 The Distinct Scope of Authority for the “Twin Institutions”.................93 Elucidation versus Interpretation..................................................93 The Power to Create New Laws....................................................95 Further Strategic Issues..........................................................................97 Ask and It Shall Be Given.............................................................97 The Status of Women and the Universal House of Justice............98 7 / THE CONTINUITY OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH’S “MINOR” PLAN OF GOD...............................................................103 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Instigates the Planning Process........................................ 103 Tablets of the Divine Plan (1916–1919)...................................... 104 The Plans of the Guardian (1921–1963).............................................. 105 First, Transform Yourself............................................................ 105 Preparation for Plans (1921–1937)............................................... 106 The Three Plans of the Guardian............................................... 107 The Plans of the Universal House of Justice........................................ 110 The Organic Nature of Planning................................................ 110 Milestone Accomplishments....................................................... 111 xi

Contents

Think Globally, Live Locally............................................................... 114 Sample Highlights from the Global Approach............................ 114 Consent of the Governed............................................................ 115 8 / TEACHING THE MASSES............................................................... 117 The Problem with a Top-Down Teaching Paradigm............................ 118 Predictable but Cozy................................................................... 119 Instant Depth of Friendship....................................................... 121 “Teach ye the Cause, O People of Bahá”.............................................122 The Wise Employment of Human Resources.............................123 Systematic Teaching.............................................................................125 Receptive Hearts.........................................................................126 Could this Happen in America?..........................................................127 Teaching and Consolidation Go Hand in Hand..................................129 Waiting Souls in the Rural South........................................................130 Would You Like to Be a Follower of Bahá’u’lláh?........................132 What Do I Do with All these Cards?..........................................135 The “Year of Sunday”*................................................................136 9 / HERE IS THE CHURCH, AND HERE IS THE STEEPLE............. 139 Plans in Our Hands and Our Feet on the Ground............................... 140 Ordinary Folk with Busy Lives Doing God’s Work..................... 142 Meanwhile, in Iran.............................................................................. 143 Why Bahá’ís?..............................................................................144 Waiting for Armageddon............................................................144 Action in the Background.................................................................... 147 Pearl Diving................................................................................ 148 Coming Up for Air..................................................................... 149 10 / ADVANCING THE PROCESS OF ENTRY BY TROOPS............... 151 Meanwhile, in the Background............................................................ 152 Clusters, Study Circles, Reflection Gatherings, and Other Unfamiliar Terms...................................................... 153 A Four Year Plan, a Five Year Plan, and Lots of Letters........................ 154 Promoting Entry by Troops........................................................ 155 Learning to Drive that Brand New Car................................................ 157

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Contents

It Matters Where Change Takes Place................................................. 159 Changing Direction.................................................................... 159 Change as a Sign of Vitality....................................................... 160 Major Change at the Top..................................................................... 161 The Inadequacy of Flow Charts for an Organic System....................... 179 Reality from the Perspective of a Cell in the Body............................... 181 Some Features of Systematic Change—A Framework for Action and the Institute Process...................................................................... 184 The Institution of the Learned................................................... 184 The Cluster................................................................................. 185 The Cluster Agencies.................................................................. 186 The Cycle of Growth.................................................................. 190 11 / THE DYNAMICS OF AN IRREPRESSIBLE MOVEMENT............195 The Dialogical Process and the Guidance from the Universal House of Justice................................................................... 196 Guidance and Change at the Local Level.................................... 198 Initiating Global Change at the Local Level........................................200 The Institute Courses and a Community of Learning.................202 Some Prominent Features of the Ruhi Institute Courses.............204 Completing the Learning Process................................................206 The “Ruhi Style” of Study..........................................................207 “Building Momentum”............................................................... 211 “Arising to Serve”........................................................................ 212 “Frontiers of Learning”............................................................... 213 A Fundamental Paradigm of Community Building............................. 214 Beginning at the Beginning......................................................... 215 The Unfoldment of the Process of Growth in a Cluster.............. 216 What if We Stumble?.................................................................. 219 CONCLUSION...................................................................................... 223 NOTES....................................................................................................231 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................... 239 INDEX...................................................................................................243

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1 / GOD’S PLAN FOR CREATION O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words, Arabic no. 3 One sign of knowledge is the ability to foresee and appreciate, at the outset, the end result of a process. For example, the knowledgeable gardeners can envision the blossoms of the flowers even as they plant the seeds in the soil, and the wise athletes can already feel energized anticipating their advancement in strength and skills as they begin their training.

This capacity was demonstrated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912 when he placed the foundation stone for the Bahá’í temple in Wilmette, Illinois, and proclaimed, “The temple is already built!”* The physical edifice would not be completed until some forty years later, in 1953, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá knew that all the necessary ingredients—the vision, the plan, and the resources—were in place to accomplish the task at hand.

The End in the Beginning It is in accord with this same concept of knowledge that the Bahá’í teachings describe this brief and uncertain physical part of our lives as the preparatory stage for the eternal journey we will experience after our second birth into the spiritual

* A detailed rendition of this story can be found in Bruce W. Whitmore’s The Dawning Place: The Building of a Temple, the Forging of the North American Bahá’í Community, pp.

64–65.

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God’s Plan for Planet Earth and Your Neighborhood

realm. Bahá’u’lláh compares our physical life to the gestation of a child in the womb of the mother; He explains that everything we do on this plane of existence is geared to preparing us for the continuation and fulfillment of our development as human souls after we leave this foundational portion of our eternal existence.

From such a perspective, death is our true birth into a reality we can only partially understand while in this life. Our continuation is purposefully veiled so that we might be challenged to discern our purpose through effort and thereby become willful participants in our own education rather than clueless wayfarers on a seemingly arbitrary journey. In short, true education necessarily requires that the students be active collaborators in their own enlightenment.

If we accept these axioms about our reality, we will approach every day of our brief and uncertain experience in this physical realm with anticipation and enthusiasm, but only if we can glimpse the end result of our efforts in the beginning of our education and training. Only then will we bend all our efforts toward developing those spiritual powers and capacities that will stand us in good stead for the next stage of our lives. Only then will we begin to appreciate that while our physical powers attain the peak of potential around the second decade of our lives, our mental and spiritual powers are just beginning to develop and thrive. Of course, since spiritual development is inherently quite enjoyable and fulfilling, we need not be constantly focused on the “end” in order to be eager about the “beginning.” We can be quite existential and cheerful about the entire experience of all stages of life.

What I wish to examine in this book is one of the weightiest collective processes we can contemplate—the future of our planet. In particular, I wish to discuss the fruition of Earth as a social enterprise and our part in that project because, according to the Bahá’í teachings, our objectives as individuals and as a body politic are inextricably linked together.

Happily, the “end” of this beginning of our collective destiny is, at least according to the Bahá’í authoritative texts, a felicitous outcome; the inevitable destiny ascribed to human society on our planet is nothing less than the creation of a just and peaceful global community capable of continuous refinement—what Bahá’u’lláh calls succinctly an “ever-advancing civilization.”1 Indeed, according to the Bahá’í writings, there is ample evidence that this process of community building and global collaboration is well underway, and there is equally significant proof that the plan for bringing about that future is presently available to every member of the global community.

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God’s Plan for Creation

Why Bahá’í?

I choose the Bahá’í writings and teachings as a touchstone for this study because the Bahá’í authoritative texts possess one of the few predictions about our collective future that is optimistic yet thoroughly logical. The teachings of the Bahá’í Faith are very explicit about what changes will occur, and they delineate in some detail the organic stages of the process by which these changes will take place. In fact, from a Bahá’í perspective, we can glimpse the end result of our collective destiny in all our present efforts to create a sane and just society on our blue marble in space.

Of course, being aware of the end result latent in our endeavors does not, by itself, ensure that we know exactly how to participate in that process at a given point in time. But the Bahá’í teachings also set forth a fairly precise plan in which we can collectively become ever more creatively involved—a plan that, the Bahá’í writings state, will in time bring about the establishment of a world commonwealth firmly grounded in justice and secured by a global peace upheld by the willing participation of every government. This vision of our collective future, the Bahá’í writings further explain, is not a pious hope for some distant period of time but a collective process already well under way. However, to understand this assertion fully—this vision of the end in the beginning—and, more to the point, to assess its efficacy, we need first to examine the foundational perspective from which these claims are derived.

A Personal God The Bahá’í Faith asserts that there is but one God and that this God is the Creator of everything that exists, whether in physical or metaphysical realms of reality. The Bahá’í Faith also teaches that God as Creator is a cognitive Being, a “personal” God, and that He* is benign, forgiving, and purposeful in His design for the totality of creation—for individuals, for the human family on our planet, and for the universe as a whole.

Similar to Christ’s portrayal of God, the Bahá’í writings describe the Creator as a perfect and loving parent. He possesses unconditional love for us, His most exquisite piece of work. We are His most masterful creation because He fashioned

* The masculine pronoun in reference to God simply follows traditional usage. God is, in reality, above physical distinctions such as gender.

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