governmental organizations was the fact that
Baha'i delegations were repeatedly selected by their peers for inclusion
among the handful of member groups to be accorded the much prized
opportunity to address the conferences from the podium, rather than merely
distributing printed copies of presentations.

* * * * *

During the century's concluding years, many National Spiritual Assemblies
won impressive victories of their own in the field of external affairs.
Two outstanding examples suggest the character and importance of these
advances. The first was achieved by the National Spiritual Assembly of
Germany, where the nature of Baha'i elected bodies had been challenged by
local authorities as being technically incompatible with the requirements
of German civil law. In upholding the appeal of the Local Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Tuebingen against this ruling, Germany's
constitutional High Court concluded that the Baha'i Administrative Order
is an integral feature of the Faith and as such is inseparable from Baha'i
belief. The High Court justified its taking jurisdiction in the case by
adducing evidence that the Baha'i Faith itself is a religion, a judgement
with far-reaching implications in a society where church opponents have
long sought to misrepresent the Cause as a "cult" or "sect". The
definitive language of the judgement merits repetition:

...the character of the Baha'i Faith as a religion and of the Baha'i
Community as a religious community is evident, in actual every day life,
in cultural tradition, and in the understanding of the general public as
well as of the science of comparative religion.(142)

It was left to the Brazilian Baha'i community to win a victory in the
field of external affairs that is so far unique in Baha'i history. On 28
May 1992, its country's highest legislative body, the Chamber of Deputies,
held a special session to pay tribute to Baha'u'llah on the centenary of
His ascension. The Speaker read a message from the Universal House of
Justice and representatives of all of the parties rose, one by one, to
acknowledge the contribution to human betterment of the Faith and its
Founder. A moving address by one prominent deputy described the Baha'i
teachings as "the most colossal religious work ever written by the pen of
a single Man".(143)

Such appreciations of the nature of the Cause and of the work it is trying
to accomplish--coming as they did from