I said:
In which case, if we were to presume that the Baha'i faith grows larger and more influential, are there any practical safeguards in place to ensure that outwardly-devout but selfishly motivated individuals cannot take the reigns of the Baha'i movement and exploit it for themselves?
I believe the issue was raised a long time ago and some measure of barriers were in place so that such a measure of corruption would have to be more communal than individual - but as a general point of discussion, how would Baha'is here see their faith as standing against the same political corruption that seems to infect any powerful social group? Or is it more a case of having the best structures you believe you can use, and simply letting the momentum of faith and expansion test them?
Safeguards...
First, the system was designed by the Founder. If the Founder was good enough to outline the moral imperitives and model of life and chose to establish the outline and details of the administrative structures Baha'is have then that is the basis of the matter. Additionally, having our scripture pass the highest standards of accuracy will preserve them from biased translations.
In terms of issues that apply to "communal corruption" - one is the difference between cultural norms and spiritual values. Having substantial populations of Baha'is in literally thousands of cultures, and invested in authentic development of those cultures rather than in paving them over with norms from another culture, sure counts as a big issue?
Being nonpartison is in fact crucial to that very process of cultural development - it causes Baha'is to weigh the issues themselves, and participate authentically, rather than move with the crowd one way or the other. Baha'is lived in apartheid South Africa - obeying the law, and yet compromising the spiritual bankruptsy of the standards. Baha'is lived in apartied America and at the very first State dinner hosted for Baha'is, the example was set by putting an African American not only into the party but at the head table on the right hand of the guest of honor and was elaborated by a process of Race Amity conferences in the 20's to 50's when the Baha'i population accounted perhaps only a few thousand.
Challenging Baha'is of dominant or obscure cultures is part-and-parcel of being a Baha'i. We have something called the "Double Crucade". Speaking to the American community Shoghi Effendi said:
"
Great as is my love and admiration for you, convinced as I am of the paramount share which you can, and will, undoubtedly have in both the continental and international spheres of future Bahá'í activity and service, I feel it nevertheless incumbent upon me to utter, at this juncture, a word of warning....
How often have the Prophets of God, not excepting Bahá'u'lláh Himself, chosen to appear, and deliver their Message in countries and amidst peoples and races, at a time when they were either fast declining, or had already touched the lowest depths of moral and spiritual degradation....
To contend that the innate worthiness, the high moral standard, the political aptitude, and social attainments of any race or nation is the reason for the appearance in its midst of any of these Divine Luminaries would be an absolute perversion of historical facts, and would amount to a complete repudiation of the undoubted interpretation placed upon them, so clearly and emphatically, by both Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá....
In the light of this fundamental principle it should always be borne in mind, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized, that the primary reason why the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh chose to appear in Persia, and to make it the first repository of their Revelation, was because, of all the peoples and nations of the civilized world, that race and nation had, as so often depicted by `Abdu'l-Bahá, sunk to such ignominious depths, and manifested so great a perversity, as to find no parallel among its contemporaries....
To a lesser degree this principle must of necessity apply to the country which has vindicated its right to be regarded as the cradle of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh(America, see below). So great a function, so noble a role, can be regarded as no less inferior to the part played by those immortal souls who, through their sublime renunciation and unparalleled deeds, have been responsible for the birth of the Faith itself. Let not, therefore, those who are to participate so predominantly in the birth of that world civilization, which is the direct offspring of their Faith, imagine for a moment that for some mysterious purpose or by any reason of inherent excellence or special merit Bahá'u'lláh has chosen to confer upon their country and people so great and lasting a distinction. It is precisely by reason of the patent evils which, notwithstanding its other admittedly great characteristics and achievements, an excessive and binding materialism has unfortunately engendered within it that the Author of their Faith and the Center of His Covenant have singled it out to become the standard-bearer of the New World Order envisaged in their writings....
Dearly beloved friends! A rectitude of conduct which, in all its manifestations, offers a striking contrast to the deceitfulness and corruption that characterize the political life of the nation and of the parties and factions that compose it; a holiness and chastity that are diametrically opposed to the moral laxity and licentiousness which defile the character of a not inconsiderable proportion of its citizens; an interracial fellowship completely purged from the curse of racial prejudice which stigmatizes the vast majority of its people--these are the weapons which the American believers can and must wield in their double crusade, first to regenerate the inward life of their own community, and next to assail the long-standing evils that have entrenched themselves in the life of their nation...."
Of course the whole quote, indeed the whole of the Guardian's guidance, is far more sweeping and detailed than this summary.
