These recurrent crises which, with ominous frequency and
resistless force, are afflicting an ever-increasing portion of the human race
must of necessity continue, however impermanently, to exercise, in a certain
measure, their baleful influence upon a world community which has spread its
ramifications to the uttermost ends of the earth. How can the beginnings of a
world upheaval, unleashing forces that are so gravely deranging the social, the
religious, the political, and the economic equilibrium of organized society,
throwing into chaos and confusion political systems, racial doctrines, social
conceptions, cultural standards, religious associations, and trade
relationships—how can such agitations, on a scale so vast, so unprecedented,
fail to produce any repercussions on the institutions of a Faith of such tender
age whose teachings have a direct and vital bearing on each of these spheres of
human life and conduct?
Little wonder, therefore, if they who are holding aloft the
banner of so pervasive a Faith, so challenging a Cause, find themselves
affected by the impact of these world-shaking forces. Little wonder if they
find that in the midst of this whirlpool of contending passions their freedom
has been curtailed, their tenets contemned, their institutions assaulted, their
motives maligned, their authority jeopardized, their claim rejected.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’)
