In Pursuit of a More Superb Mission

Exploring a framework for the elimination of racial prejudice in America

Paul Lample

In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi explained to the Bahá’í community of North America that, following the close of the international mission placed upon them for the execution of the Divine Plan, “a greater, a still more superb mission, incomparable in its splendor, and foreordained for them by Bahá’u’lláh” may be thrust upon them. It would require their involvement in eradicating, from the generality of the people to which they belong, the three evil tendencies he addressed in detail in that book. “Suffice it to say,” he explained, “that out of the turmoil and tribulations of these ‘latter years’ opportunities undreamt of will be born, and circumstances unpredictable created, that will enable, nay impel, the victorious prosecutors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan, to add, through the part they will play in the unrolling of the New World Order, fresh laurels to the crown of their servitude to the threshold of Bahá’u’lláh.”

Each stage of the Bahá’í Faith’s development has unfolded according to the needs of the time, building upon what has come before and laying the groundwork for the next phase of its evolution. Each has challenged the Bahá’ís to attain a more profound understanding of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation and the practical steps required for the eventual transformation of the world. And each has yielded a more united community, possessed of greater clarity of thought about the means to achieve His vision for humanity, and greater capacity to act accordingly. In this essay based on his keynote address at the 48th annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, Paul Lample proposes a means for applying that same process to the eradication of racism from the fabric of American society—a goal given to the Bahá’ís of that country as an urgent and inescapable responsibility.