From: RobertArvay@msn.com   
      
   To summarize the Guardian problem:   
      
   1. The station of Guardian was decreed by the Last Will and Testament   
   of Abdul Baha, a document which some have alleged to be a forgery.   
      
   2. If the LW&T is not a forgery, then the Guardian's failure to obey   
   his self-described duties are contrary to what a divinely appointed   
   authority would be expected to do.   
      
   3. These self-described duties include the critical task of   
   appointing a successor guardian, who would take over after the death   
   or incapacitation of the preceding guardian. The successor was to   
   have been appointed in a manner that would leave no room for doubt as   
   to the validity of the successor's appointment.   
      
   4. There is no credible evidence that any successor guardian was ever   
   appointed in such an unambiguous manner, although there were   
   claimants.   
      
   5. No provision had ever been made concerning the contingency of a   
   guardian dying without having appointed a successor. Indeed, such a   
   possibility had never even been mentioned by Shoghi. That is why his   
   death intestate led to the crisis it did.   
      
   6. The combination of these facts decisively refutes the notion that   
   the Guardianship was ever a divine institution. It also demonstrates   
   that Shoghi himself never believed that it was. He never made any   
   attempt, neither to ensure a clear line of succession, nor to   
   anticipate the lack of a succession.   
      
   7. Upon Shoghi's unexpected death, the Hands of the Cause took it   
   upon themselves to resolve the matter by declaring that henceforth,   
   the Baha'i Faith would have no living guardian. But they had no   
   authority to make that declaration. That authority died with Shoghi.   
      
   8. Shoghi's death created an unresolvable discrepancy, a   
   contradiction, that pits the alleged divine authorship of the station   
   against the physical facts. One cannot have it both ways. For the   
   station to be of divine authorship, there must be a succession of   
   guardians, or absent that, some provision to account for a lack of   
   succession.   
      
   9. While the Hands made the best they could of a bad situation, their   
   best was not enough. Nor could it be. It should become apparent that   
   such an irregularity could not be explained in terms of a divinely   
   appointed station. Shoghi had been inexcusably, and inexplicably,   
   derelict in his duties, duties which he himself had repeatedly   
   affirmed in the most emphatic manner.   
      
   10. Claimants to the succession of guardianship make such a weak and   
   flimsy case for their divine authority that their claims make no   
   improvement regarding the failure of Shoghi to be clear and unambiguous   
   in the appointment of a successor.   
      
   11. Attempts by the UHJ to uphold the actions of the Hands are   
   equally flimsy and unjustifiable. Even their most contorted   
   explanations do not suffice to resolve the contradictions.   
      
   12. In all likelihood, the LW&T was a forgery by those who sought   
   power in what they thought would become a powerful world religion.   
   Even if it was not a forgery, it certainly had no divine authorship,   
   as demonstrated by its abject failure to bear the fruit which it had   
   promised.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)