Authority, Power, and Initiative

Social change means social conflict. The question is how to manage or direct it.  The last one hundred years has witnessed a growing number of consultative groups and civic agencies appearing in the world, from global United Nations organizations to local non-governmental organizations, that often work together to address shared problems and challenges across the spectrum of humanity.  These experiments in self-directed decision-making display similar models of conflict resolution.

The Bahá’í Order presents a similar, but not identical, model for managing the conflict present in every society.  One striking difference of the Bahá’í system is its separation of authority and power.  In a national Bahá’í community: “Authority is concentrated in the hands of the elected members of the National Assembly. Power and initiative are primarily vested in the entire body of the believers acting through their local representatives.” (Shoghi Effendi, Principles of Bahá’í Administration: 70)  In a smaller fractal, the same relation holds for a Local Assembly and the believers in its jurisdiction.  “The authority to direct the affairs of the Faith locally, nationally and internationally, is divinely conferred on elected institutions.  However, the power to accomplish the tasks of the community resides primarily in the mass of the believers.  The authority of the institutions is an irrevocable necessity for the progress of humanity; its exercise is an art to be mastered.  The power of action in the believers is unlocked at the level of individual initiative and surges at the level of collective action.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Institution of the Counsellors: 1)

The separation of the power to act from the authority, vested in institutions, to guide individual actions into coherent paths of collective development is crucial, for it leaves intact the right of every individual to take initiative, but that initiative is best realized if undertaken within a flexible, coordinated, and evolving plan of community growth.  The potential for a clash is there, of course, but divergent paths are brought into coherence by "the law of consultation" and the unifying power of universal participation.  Thus, the oneness of the law of consultation and the wholeness of universal participation are balanced. 

Because of the Bahá’i Community’s emphasis upon the axial principle of the oneness of humanity, the conception of power within human relations at every level has some unique features in the Bahá’i teachings.  In my view, the nature and exercise of power in the Bahá’i writings is not one of coercion—even for good ends—or domination; neither is it to compel people, by force, law, or reason, to conform to certain patterns of behavior, nor to tyrannically impose one’s will upon others.  The exercise of power is generally more “spiritual”: i.e. in service of mutual or collective advancement.

Power is those thoughts and acts that enable individuals to achieve collective harmony in their aims and purposes, and mutual empowerment in their actions.  The aim of empowerment is to become channels for the flow of the powers, such as the power of unity, of love, of service, of forgiveness, of assistance to others, residing in the human reality.  The goal is for each soul to be a servant, and for those in positions of authority to be servant-leaders.  Thus the most powerful are those that best empower others to release their own individual powers in service, reciprocity, and cooperation to achieve group harmony and collective goals. 

This conception of true power, as that which empowers others, was exemplified by the Person of Bahá’u’lláh Himself.  Though a Manifestation of God and, therefore, according to Bahá’i belief, endowed with all power, the One whose Will is sovereign over all, One in the station of “He doeth as He willeth”, Who’s command is “Be, and it is”, He, in a celebrated passage, declares: “I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.” (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh: 169)    

The same ideal is captured in the very title, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (servant of Bahá), which His Son, Abbas, took upon inheriting the leadership of the Faith from His Father. When some misguided believers tried to ascribe a higher station for Him, He unequivocally asserted: “My name is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. My qualification is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. My reality is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. My praise is 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human race my perpetual religion... No name, no title, no mention, no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This is my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting glory." (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 139)

It is in this light that we can understand guidance from both Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice reminding those serving on any institution of the Faith to “consider themselves as mere channels whereby God protects and guides His Faith”, (Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, August 8, 1933, to a National Spiritual Assembly. Lights of Guidance: 35) because the divine institution is a “sacred entity whose powers they have the privilege to engage and canalize by coming together in harmony and acting according to divinely revealed principles.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1994 May 19, response to United States National Spiritual Assembly)

Service is true power.  This means that the institutions of the Bahá’i Administrative Order have not only regulatory powers and coordinating responsibilities, but also responsibilities to stimulate growth through counsel and service. “In such a community leadership is that expression of service by which the Spiritual Assembly invites and encourages the use of the manifold talents and abilities with which the community is endowed, and stimulates and guides the diverse elements of the community toward goals and strategies by which the effects of a coherent force for progress can be realized.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1994 May 19, response to United States National Spiritual Assembly)

At every level and in every context of interaction, the goal is fellowship and concord for a common end.  It is something of a modern day and universal restatement of a principle articulated by Jesus for the individual: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” (King James Bible. The Gospel of Luke 9:24)   The Bahá’i community seeks to be a community of souls serving each other for a common good articulated through consultation by all involved, guided by authorized institutions, and carried out in a spirit of unity by members of the community.

The interplay of authority, power and initiative leads to a discussion of practical justice.  That is the topic of next post.