ity; or in their
affiliations with kindred societies and organizations, it is, I am firmly
convinced, their first and sacred obligation to abstain from any word or
deed that might be construed as a violation of this vital principle.
Theirs is the duty to demonstrate, on one hand, the nonpolitical character
of their Faith, and to assert, on the other, their unqualified loyalty and
obedience to whatever is the considered judgment of their respective
governments.

The Divine Polity

Let them refrain from associating themselves, whether by word or by deed,
with the political pursuits of their respective nations, with the policies
of their governments and the schemes and programs of parties and factions.
In such controversies they should assign no blame, take no side, further
no design, and identify themselves with no system prejudicial to the best
interests of that world-wide Fellowship which it is their aim to guard and
foster. Let them beware lest they allow themselves to become the tools of
unscrupulous politicians, or to be entrapped by the treacherous devices of
the plotters and the perfidious among their countrymen. Let them so shape
their lives and regulate their conduct that no charge of secrecy, of
fraud, of bribery or of intimidation may, however ill-founded, be brought
against them. Let them rise above all particularism and partisanship,
above the vain disputes, the petty calculations, the transient passions
that agitate the face, and engage the attention, of a changing world. It
is their duty to strive to distinguish, as clearly as they possibly can,
and if needed with the aid of their elected representatives, such posts
and functions as are either diplomatic or political from those that are
purely administrative in character, and which under no circumstances are
affected by the changes and chances that political activities and party
government, in every land, must necessarily involve. Let them affirm their
unyielding determination to stand, firmly and unreservedly, for the way of
Baha'u'llah, to avoid the entanglements and bickerings inseparable from
the pursuits of the politician, and to become worthy agencies of that
Divine Polity which incarnates God's immutable Purpose for all men.

It should be made unmistakably clear that such an attitude implies neither
the slightest indifference to the cause and interests of their own
country, nor involves any insubordination on their part to the authority
of