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No Professional Priesthood |
One other feature of the Bahá’í organization must be specially
mentioned, and that is the absence of a professional
priesthood. Voluntary contributions toward the expenses of
teachers are permitted and many devote their whole time to
work for the Cause, but all Bahá’ís are expected to share in the
work of teaching, et cetera, according to their opportunity and
ability, and there is no special class distinguished from their
fellow believers by the exclusive exercise of priestly functions
and prerogatives.
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In former ages priesthoods were necessary, because people
were illiterate and uneducated and were dependent on priests
for their religious instruction, for the conduct of religious rites
and ceremonies, for the administration of justice, et cetera.
Now, however, times have changed. Education is fast becoming
universal, and if the commands of Bahá’u’lláh are carried
out, every boy and girl in the world will receive a sound education.
Each individual will then be able to study the Scriptures
for himself, to draw the Water of Life for himself, direct from
the Fountainhead. Elaborate rites and ceremonies, requiring
the services of a special profession or caste, have no place in the
Bahá’í system; and the administration of justice is entrusted to
the authorities instituted for that purpose.
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For a child a teacher is necessary, but the aim of the true
teacher is to fit his pupil to do without a teacher; to see things
with his own eyes, hear with his own ears, and understand with
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his own mind. Just so, in the childhood of the race, the priest is
necessary, but his real work is to enable men to do without
him: to see things divine with their own eyes, hear them with
their own ears and understand them with their own minds.
Now the priest’s work is all but accomplished, and the aim of
the Bahá’í teaching is to complete that work, to make men
independent of all save God, so that they can turn directly to
Him, that is, to His Manifestation. When all turn to one Center,
then there can be no cross-purposes or confusion and the
nearer all draw to the Center, the nearer they will draw to each
other.
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