Concerning membership in non-Baha’i religious associations,
the Guardian wishes to re-emphasize the general principle already laid down in
his communications to your Assembly and also to the individual believers that
no Baha’i who wishes to be a wholehearted and sincere upholder of the
distinguishing principles of the Cause can accept full membership in any
non-Baha’i ecclesiastical organization. For such an act would necessarily imply
only a partial acceptance of the Teachings and laws of the Faith, and an
incomplete recognition of its independent status, and would thus be tantamount
to an act of disloyalty to the verities it enshrines. For it is only too
obvious that in most of its fundamental assumptions the Cause of Baha’u’llah is
completely at variance with outworn creeds, ceremonies and institutions. To be
a Baha’i and at the same time accept membership in another religious body is
simply an act of contradiction that no sincere and logically minded person can
possibly accept. To follow Baha’u’llah does not mean accepting some of His
teachings and rejecting the rest. Allegiance to His Cause must be
uncompromising and wholehearted. During the days of the Master the Cause was
still in a stage that made such an open and sharp dissociation between it and
other religious organizations, and particularly the Muslim Faith, not only
inadvisable but practically impossible to establish. But since His passing
events throughout the Baha’i world, and particularly in Egypt where the Muslim
religious courts have formally testified to the independent character of the
Faith, have developed to a point that have made such an assertion of the
independence of the Cause not only highly desirable but absolutely essential.”
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 15 June, 1935, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; Baha’i
News no. 93, July 1935)
