God and the Elimination of Prejudice

The Oneness of God and the Elimination of Prejudice

By John Taylor; 2006 May 06

Presuppositions about who we are and what we are worth inform everything. They filter what we think of those around us, and how we evaluate them. This has been compared to eyes that either light up our world-view; their negative form, denial of worth, acts as a cloud blocking out love and understanding among friends and societies. As always, this is territory blazed by Jesus Christ,

"...Take heed therefore that the light that is in thee be not darkness. ...the light of the body is the eye: therefore when the eye is single thy whole body is full of light: but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness." (Luke 11:33-7)

This primal principle of love is known, in intellectual form, as the oneness of God. Groups and societies that gain a grasp of its fundamental truth succeed together, and those who slip fail and fall apart. This has always been the case, from the first of the prophets to the last.

"For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd." (Zechariah 10:2)

The same message of love and forgiveness leading to action, innovation and success is at the heart of the Qu'ran.

"To those who believe in God and His apostles and make no distinction between any of the apostles, we shall soon give their (due) rewards: for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful." (Qur'an 4:152, Yusuf Ali, tr.)

This basic spiritual truth is the basis of each and all of the Baha'i principles. We have been going through them in succession using the spotlight of Oneness of God. Today we will look at the negation of all principle, prejudice, the need to eliminate it.

As we have seen, to understand that God is One is the point of illumination. Jesus predicted that this light can enlighten the entire body of humanity. The next Great Being statement in the Lawh-i-Maqsud seems to me to be eminently suited for the principle of elimination of prejudice, the principle that addresses the problem of the "light that is in thee" becoming "darkness." Baha'u'llah says,

"O my friend! In all circumstances one should seize upon every means which will promote security and tranquillity among the peoples of the world. The Great Being saith: In this glorious Day whatever will purge you from corruption and will lead you towards peace and composure, is indeed the Straight Path." (Tablets, 171)

The twin books that I am working through now by Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs and Steel," and "Collapse," seem written to elaborate, using the latest findings of science and archeology, upon what Baha'u'llah very succinctly is saying here. The first book points out that the great determinant of success is not race or genes but broad physical limitations such as geography, climate, germs and distance.

But that does not mean that all groups are equal. Some generate, some corrupt. He notices that even among tribes in New Guinea some are hidebound and others ambitious and willing to innovate and take up new technology. He was there when a helicopter flew by for the first time and the members of one group only looked up and returned to their field work while their neighbors were fascinated and began enquiring how much it would cost to charter such a vehicle. His second book talks about the corruptive forces that lead societies into extinction, the sort of dead ends that our whole species is facing now. We can either awake, unite and arise to, in Baha'u'llah's words, "seize upon every means which will promote security and tranquillity among the peoples of the world," or we can ignore the signs, go back to business as usual, and collapse.

The key to success is to open up our eyes to the actual situation, not to what we think it is, as individuals and then as groups. The "Great Being" saying says to do just that, to pay attention to whatever leads to heaven or hell, to generation or corruption, and to act upon that immediately. "In this glorious Day whatever will purge you from corruption and will lead you towards peace and composure, is indeed the Straight Path." (Tablets, 171) There is no reconciling tradition with science, the straight path of faith is whatever science determines will lead to success. As well, pollution is not just a sign of waste and inefficiency, it is the result of a state of war, a corruptive, "uncomposed" mind-set. In other words, corruption.

Corruption comes from within, it comes of the prideful belief that I and my people are better, smarter, better endowed than you and your people. Or it is the other side of the coin, the fear that I and mine are inferior to you and yours. Either way, these paralyzing beliefs are just another stage of prejudice, the illness of one's "light becoming darkness." Prejudice, pride and haughtiness are viral, infectious because they deny God's ability to create good in all humans. This denial and bigotry in turn infects the body politic and leads to self-destructive decisions. As Shoghi Effendi puts it, "... a blatent nationalism and racialism have usurped the rights and prerogatives of God Himself." (Promised Day is Come, 15) The blinder of difference keeps us from working and planning together, from bettering ourselves by learning from the many lessons that diverse groups have to teach one another.

Most particularly, prejudice has shut out "primitive" peoples, the hunter-gatherers in marginal territory from contributing to the world forum. Diamond tells one story of an outrigger canoe trade route among the islands around New Guinea that had endured over ten thousand years. It was possibly the oldest living relic of the very distant past. There were two or three fatal canoe accidents in the 1970's, and the Australian government shut the trade route down for safety reasons. The equivalent would be if an alien civilization witnessed some of our traffic accidents and made automobile travel illegal for our own good. Not that this would not be a good thing in the long term, or even in the medium term, but there would be severe dislocation in the short run. Something like one in ten jobs depend directly upon cars. More to the point, the rich elite have heavy investments in automobiles and in the process of political decision making, and not in outrigger trade canoe routes. In a less prejudiced world the most advanced peoples would be jumping over one another to learn from hunter gathering peoples, remembering the mandate of the fundament principle of One God, and the little guys would be similarly eager to learn together with the large and powerful.

"We fain would hope that the people of Baha may be guided by the blessed words: 'Say, all things are of God.' This exalted utterance is like unto water for quenching the fire of hate and enmity which smoldereth within the hearts and breasts of men." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 222)

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John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com