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Deterioration of Christian Institutions

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So much for Islám and the crippling blows its leaders and institutions have received—and may yet receive—in this, the first century of the Bahá’í Era. If I have dwelt too long on this theme, if I have, to a disproportionate degree, quoted from the sacred writings in support of my argument, it is solely because of my firm conviction that these retributive calamities that have rained down upon the foremost oppressor of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh should rank not only among the stirring occurrences of this Age of Transition, but 180 as some of the most startling and significant events of contemporary history.
Both Sunní and Shí’ih Islám had, through the convulsions that had seized them, contributed to the acceleration of the disruptive process to which I have previously referred—a process which, by its very nature, is to pave the way for that complete reorganization and unification which the world, in every aspect of its life, must achieve. What of Christianity and of the denominations with which it stands identified? Can it be said that this process of deterioration that has attacked the fabric of the Religion of Muḥammad has failed to exert its baneful influence on the institutions associated with the Faith of Jesus Christ? Have these institutions already experienced the impact of these menacing forces? Are their foundations so secure and their vitality so great as to enable them to resist this onslaught? Will they, as the confusion of a chaotic world spreads and deepens, fall in turn a prey to their violence? Have the more orthodox among them already arisen, and, if not, will they arise, to repel the onset of a Cause which, having pulled down the barriers of Muslim orthodoxy, is now advancing into the heart of Christendom, in both the European and American continents? Would such a resistance sow the seeds of further dissension and confusion, and consequently serve indirectly to hasten the advent of the promised Day?

To these queries we can but partly answer. Time alone can reveal the nature of the rôle which the institutions directly associated with the Christian Faith are destined to assume in this, the Formative Period of the Bahá’í Era, this dark age of transition through which humanity as a whole is passing. Such events as have already transpired, however, are of such a nature as can indicate the direction in which these institutions are moving. We can, in some degree, appraise the probable effect which the forces operating both within the Bahá’í Faith and outside it will exert upon them.
That the forces of irreligion, of a purely materialistic philosophy, of unconcealed paganism have been unloosed, are now spreading, and, by consolidating themselves, are beginning to invade some of the most powerful Christian institutions of the western world, no unbiased observer can fail to admit. That these institutions are becoming increasingly restive, that a few among them are already dimly aware of the pervasive influence of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, that they will, as their inherent strength deteriorates and their discipline relaxes, regard with deepening dismay the rise of His New 181 World Order, and will gradually determine to assail it, that such an opposition will in turn accelerate their decline, few, if any, among those who are attentively watching the progress of His Faith would be inclined to question.

n cleanse and revive it?” “The world is in travail,” He has further written, “and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly.”
This menace of secularism that has attacked Islám and is undermining its remaining institutions, that has invaded Persia, has penetrated into India, and raised its triumphant head in Turkey, has already manifested itself in both Europe and America, and is, in varying degrees, and under various forms and designations, challenging the basis of every established religion, and in particular the institutions and communities identified with the Faith of Jesus Christ. It would be no exaggeration to say that we are moving into a period which the future historian will regard as one of the most critical in the history of Christianity.

Already a few among the protagonists of the Christian Religion admit the gravity of the situation that confronts them. “A wave of materialism is sweeping round the world”; is the testimony of its missionaries, as witnessed by the text of their official reports, “the drive and pressure of modern industrialism, which are penetrating even the forests of Central Africa and the plains of Central Asia, make men everywhere dependent on, and preoccupied with, material things. At home the Church has talked, perhaps too glibly, in pulpit or on platform of the menace of secularism; though even in England we can catch more than a glimpse of its meaning. But to the Church overseas these things are grim realities, enemies with which it is at grips… The Church has a new danger to face in land after land—determined and hostile attack. From Soviet Russia a definitely anti-religious Communism is pushing west into Europe and America, East into Persia, India, China and Japan. It is an economic theory, definitely harnessed to disbelief in God. It is a religious irreligion… It has a passionate sense of mission, and is carrying on its anti-God campaign at the Church’s base at home, as well as launching its offensive against its front-line in non-Christian 182 lands. Such a conscious, avowed, organized attack against religion in general and Christianity in particular is something new in history. Equally deliberate in some lands in its determined hostility to Christianity is another form of social and political faith—nationalism. But the nationalist attack on Christianity, unlike Communism, is often bound up with some form of national religion—with Islám in Persia and Egypt, with Buddhism in Ceylon, while the struggle for communal rights in India is allied with a revival both of Hinduism and Islám.”

I need not attempt in this connection an exposition of the origin and character of those economic theories and political philosophies of the post-war period, that have directly and indirectly exerted, and are still exerting, their pernicious influence on the institutions and beliefs connected with one of the most widely-spread and best organized religious systems of the world. It is with their influence rather than with their origin that I am chiefly concerned. The excessive growth of industrialism and its attendant evils—as the aforementioned quotation bears witness—the aggressive policies initiated and the persistent efforts exerted by the inspirers and organizers of the Communist movement; the intensification of a militant nationalism, associated in certain countries with a systematized work of defamation against all forms of ecclesiastical influence, have no doubt contributed to the de-Christianization of the masses, and been responsible for a notable decline in the authority, the prestige and power of the Church. “The whole conception of God,” the persecutors of the Christian Religion have insistently proclaimed, “is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men.” “Religion,” one of their leaders has asserted, “is an opiate of the people.” “Religion,” declares the text of their official publications, “is a brutalization of the people. Education must be so directed as to efface from the people’s minds this humiliation and this idiocy.”

The Hegelian philosophy which, in other countries, has, in the form of an intolerant and militant nationalism, insisted on deifying the state, has inculcated the war-spirit, and incited to racial animosity, has, likewise, led to a marked weakening of the Church and to a grave diminution of its spiritual influence. Unlike the bold offensive which an avowedly atheistic movement had chosen to launch against it, both within the Soviet union and beyond its confines, this nationalistic philosophy, which Christian rulers and governments have upheld, is an attack directed against the Church by 183 those who were previously its professed adherents, a betrayal of its cause by its own kith and kin. It was being stabbed by an alien and militant atheism from without, and by the preachers of a heretical doctrine from within. Both of these forces, each operating in its own sphere and using its own weapons and methods, have moreover been greatly assisted and encouraged by the prevailing spirit of modernism, with its emphasis on a purely materialistic philosophy, which, as it diffuses itself, tends increasingly to divorce religion from man’s daily life.

ANYONE WANNA READ AND DEBATE ANY ONE OF THESE 3 TOPICS AND THE ASSERTIONS MADE WITHIN?

no

@Weaboo Kempeitai Read

@Angry. ofc not you, you aren't interested in this stuff.

<:dab:395562678153904128>

i have a great debate topic

iq

is it the absolute all? what is it meant to be for? etc

do you have a position on the question?

@Eternal Entropy tldr

@Weaboo Kempeitai yea that's your problem, anything that requires effort is not of your interest.
You don't give 2 shits about changing yourself or fixing your problems, yet have no problem making them the problem of others.

That makes you a real piece of shit

you know that?

whenever someone debates you and you start to lose you say they are infected with a jewish mind virus and change the subject 🤣

@Boniface
The outcome of our exchange doesn't matter in that context.
What matters is the lack of import you put on the use of terminology and your lack of care for it shows you still have much understanding to gain.
Once you understand that we operate in a social world of established terminology created by a people that create, design, and manipulate the minds of
people with their twisted narratives will you come to understand my point I was making and how fundamentally one cannot engage the world with a hope to
change it in any way if not perceived, understood, and worked around.

so you were making a point of how bad it is to manipulate words by playing word games 👏

Yes and my refusal to allow my words to be too inaccurate so as to be open to false interpretation or to accept the use of certain words in conversation with others.
We are rebuilding the world narrative right now more importantly than just making a point about word manipulation. That's just surface level importance of what
I am getting at here.

@Boniface Listen very carefully https://youtu.be/3CAv9mTTH_w?t=5452

It's time stamped for you

horseshoe tactics lol

@Eternal Entropy Yeah I mean, the issue is you just posted a lot of text about a subject I may or may not care about and it's just a lot to read with no guarantee of any payoff.

And discord isn't a very good format to read all that

You couldn't just post a PDF?

@Weaboo Kempeitai
Exactly, anything that requires effort.
You would spend your whole damn loser life complaining about how everything sucks until your tongue rotted out before you lifted a rock to fix any of your so called "problems"
that you make no effort to change. People have been very kind defending you and offering you advice (they didn't have too) and spending their time typing info to help you and all you
do is combat it, them, and complain some more.

You deserve every lousy situation you find yourself in for as long as you are a loser about it and do nothing to make it better.
You deserve crowley, may he be your guiding shadow into the abyss of a hell that you are creating for yourself.
You are not wise, you know nothing about life. All you know are stories from the safety and comfort of your grandma's house.
The challenge of life you cower away from because you are an infant who needs a bottle.

@Boniface Huh? Can you atleast try to be coherent?

@Eternal Entropy >anything that requires effort

No, just reading a ton of stuff about a religion I don't follow.

"read x book and your life will immediately become better" is corporatist nonsense.

@Weaboo Kempeitai Oh and endless excuses you are abundant in.
Typical of the loser.

So how will you huge text block help me?

nothing can help you weabs. You have all the answers.

This is literally what I have to do in school 6 hours a day. Read some massive tome about a subject that I don't care about and repeat it almost verbatim.

I'm not a Christian, and I'm not spiritual, really. I'm agnostic about the existence of anything metaphysical. I don't think we have the ability to perceive any of that.

@Weaboo Kempeitai read something interesting like Norwhichs Byzantium or Grimm's fairy tales or dostoevsky