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THE LAKE SHORE NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1921 Reserved to Our Readers as a Medium for the Expression of Opinion on Matters of Interest in Wilmette and Kenilworth Chicago, January 26> 1921. To the Editor, Lake Shore News: Mr. Stafford, in your issue of Jan- uary 14th writes entertainingly, if not convincingly, of the Bahai House of Worship in Wilmette. His evident purpose to advise the Village Board „as to its responsibilities in.the mat- ter of application "by the Bahai Tem- ple Unity for a permit to build, is left without comment, as the matter is now before that Board which has full power and capacity to make a decision. It is a pity that Mr. Stafford should not, however, before publishing his article, have inquired at least in an elementary manner into the history of comparative religion. Since his main thesis is addressed to the dan- ger of allowing a structure to be erected in Wilmette, which stands for tolerance in religion, and particur Iarly that it should represent, in its symbolism, nine great religions, it would seem only fair that he first familiarize himself with the names of these religious, rather than to as- sume them to be the various sects he in part mentions. â€"While Buddhism is categoried by sound historical writers as one of the great religions of the World, this is not true of what Mr. Stafford calls "Hindus". The religion of Mo- thou hammed is properly included by him ; pies wh0 are as precious in the sight JiLthe list; likewise that of Con- j 0f God as we? Did Christ permit the fucius. The religion of Christ siaughfeT and torture of those who (whom Mr. Stafford calls "the disagreed with Him, and if not, on world's greatest teacher' although j what ground of Christian civiliza- the Bahais call him the Son of God, • tjon do you justify the persecution and the Spirit of God and other di- vine and excellent names), is un- questionably one of the great re- ligions. Similarly, that of Judaism, which we may infer from his use of Thus far we mies of these religions, or persons ignorant of their original foundation, and is consequently misinformed. If he wishes to prove the .validity of ^His^ Holiness Christ would he con- sult an embittered fanatical Jew of the first century? No, he would naturally seek out one-who knew the facts about Christ, and, today, hap- pily, he might readily find such a just one among the Jews of our own time, as well as among our own Christian people. This is because brotherhood is a reality even outside the Christ- ian fold, much as yoor^ esteemed cor- respondent may qnestion it. If it is said that these mentioned religions may have been good and pure in their time, but have now be- come oppressors of men, let Mr. Stafford fairly answer whether or not our own Christianity has not lost its pristine purity. Upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility of countless negro lynchtngsâ€"in the United States; is this condition in conformity wtith, the teiajchings of Christ? Can you name, in-any part of the worlds a similar condition where co-relig|onists, as negroes ad- mittedly are, are massacred without recourse to the law of the land? Is the present crime-wave in this coun- try an indication of a sound civiliza^ tion and doe's it justify a "holier than attitude towards other peo of the Jews in Poland, Russia, Rou mania and other lands, for long Cen- turies? What of poison gas, the bombing of defenseless non-combat- -ants-,-4heâ€"secret-plantingâ€"among a the woro~"J-iebrews".Thus far we helpless population of the germs of have five. At this point, however, j deadly diseases, in the late war? Did Mr. Stafford becomes somewhat con- , these things make Christ happy? fused. He no longer differentiates ^adlwhat is the supposed religion between religions and sects, but in serts two great divisions of Christ- ianity, namely the Roman and Greek Catholics, evidently unmindful that a religion is neither sect nor denomi- nation, but rather the outpouring of the Will and Word Of God through the holy mouth of His Mani- festation, or Prophet. It is the Word j)f God, in Christ, for example, that constitutes the Christian Religion. Urol in any one of the hundreds of uects. or even in the main divisions of Christianity, is the Religion of Christ solely included, but in those, in whichever sect or division they may be found, who do His Will, and obey His Word. It,is the Word of ., , . ., . God. as uttered by the Sanctified the beam out of thine own e*e and of the country or countries which perpetrated these awful and hellish deeds ? What of Spanish rule in Cuba and the Philippines? What of the Bolshevistic philosophy, and what of the aggrandizement of new dominions, wealth and power by nearly every great nation in Christ- endom in the past anil present cen- turies, at the expense of the weak nations? Let us not be blind to truth, nor cOver ourselves with the tattered veil of superstition and race preju- dice ! Remember that other injunc- tion of His Holiness Christ_when He said "Thou hypocrite! first cast out Reality of Christ, that we are deal- ing with when we speak of the Re- ligion of Christ. Mr. Stafford., I am sure, in the last analysis, will agree with us in this. Likewise in the" other great relig- ions. It would encroach too. much upon the space of the editor to go into too much detail. We can, there- fore, summarily dismiss as ineligible to the true category o? a great re then shalt thou see clarly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Matthew 7-5. Your correspondent betrays anxiety lest Bahais fail to find funds to build the structure ac- cording to plan; also lest-the Temple fall into disuse and ruin because of lack of maintenance. To him. it is mysterious; and therefore imbued with some dreadful menace. Let me say that it is just as mysterious, and ligion, the other groups named by! no mo.re so than anyplace of con your correspondent, i. e., Animism Station where the hearts are up- lifted to Almighty God. On this basis, every true place of prayer is which in itself lays rto~claim to such a station, but is rather a form of na- ture worship; Mormonism which is a Christian sect "based upon the be- liefâ€"inâ€"a-^further revelation of the Words of Jesus; anil ShinToism which is not traceable to the utter- ance of as particular Prophet. Mr. Stafford has good reason, if he is open-minded7^o set aside his fears and. "apprehensions on this ground. He very happily quotes from the utterance of Christ "By fruits ye shall know them.'* This passage is found in -theâ€"f^ng- "pels; Matthew, Ch. 7, verses 15-20, and herein Jesus admonishes the'"di- a place of mystery. Yes^ a place where the mystery of the human heart is uncovered before its'Maker. Let notrMrr Staff or d question or look askance at so sacred a function as this, nor liken to fools, in the words of a former circus owner, those jvho merely seek the privilege in free America of worshipping God as their, hearts dictate.- Before leavinj and finances which is quite outside the qtier.tion nowTefoi.e". the Village Board, let me say that if Mr. Staf ford's contention is true, then thous- sciples concerning false and true j ands of Roman Catholic." "Protestant* prophets. In verse 18 He says. "A j and other churches and cathedrals good tree cannot bring forth evil j in America would today be non-ex fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit/^_"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." But your correspondent applies this injunction sweepingly to nearly all the groups he originally set forth as religions, excepting apparently,â€"uf i s t en t. Churchesâ€"fulfill ing tuday^a noble place of service in the com- munity would never have been be- gun, if the fearsome attitude of your correspondent were the law of the land, for how often_it has been that rhe greatest, most beautiful cathe- the mam groups, only Christianity] <lral* were begun, and permits is- and Judaism. And he complains that | sued, when but an infinitesimal part the remaining religions, (we are of ilieVnlite co*t-w^jtt_kajid^Thi eliminating any -not properly relig- ious in scope,) have never done any- thing for the brotherhood of man- Beyond answering that even if this were,true, which it is not, we should require, beforeâ€"putting in a defense of these religionsT^that MrrrStafford sustain the burden of proof of his own assertion-by at least some evi^ dences that heltnows just-what these religions havr pr~haW~~hot this respect. We will ask him, how- ever j &-^H-ifiyj^som^yrHat thy ptfre^ morality and high standards of the and the original unadulterated teach the lives of men. Let him also at- tain a little first hand knowledge of the law of Mohammed, arid the re which-foll appearance. sibly Mr- Stafford has taken his be- liefs about these is not the case with Bahais. but if it were, it should not have the slightest weight. Faith, sacrifice and real en- thusiasm, are greater than fear and prejudice, and are pre-requisites of every great success. We have mentioned the searching wrmbrTrf His Holiness Christ in re- Tpect to the "fruits" of the good and c°rru^PXlr^-^Cme^wonders^ust what Mr. Stafford would admit to be good ^r"it^//^^Jso^-yyjiether he would ad- iini that the fOrmT^mTrdeeds of evil above mentioned as now afflicting best type of Chinese ^Confucianist. ^nioxJ^xn-^-Christ^nxlom axe^ncorrupt one's fellowmen. Such is the ab- sence of brotherhood and' divine fel- lowship. A philosophy of brother- hood which starts out by practically convicting -every race and religion except the white race and Christiani- ty, of being unfit to associate with, is not a teaching of brotherhood, but rather of selfishnessr race egotism, isolation and death. For the "good fruits", would your correspondent agree that a religion which had destroyed the veils of en- mity and hatred between vast groups of men, who were formerly Jew, Mo- hammedan; Zoroastrian, Buddhist, as well as Christian, had produced a good fruit? Is this not a long step toward brotherhood! This is art achievement of the Bahai Revelation in the world of mankind. Is sacrifice of the most precious possession known "toâ€"man, anything less than a holy thing? Then, the voluntary yielding up of life by 20,- 000 men, women and children in Per- sia and the Orient, within this and the preceding generation, for their love and faith in Baha'o'llah,, is the most holy record of sacrifice ever recorded in the pages of humanity. Every one of these martyrs could have saved his or her life by a word of rejection of Him whom they knew for their Promised Lord. But they did not speak that word. Theirs was not a death of comparative humane- ness, such as electrocution. Each, on the contrary knew, that he faced a degrading death of torture and fire, so much so that the contemporary French and western historians who, as eye-witnesses, chronicled those events, set them down as unparal- leled in the realm of religious perse- cution. What of these deeds, then, are they of a good or a corrupt Tree?** For it is written, "Deeds (not words) reveal the station of the In all ages, the emblems of truth have been the same. We have now illustrated one, which is Sacrifice; also another, Love, the love of the neighbor which is not your neighbor of Chicago, or America, but your neighbor of every --clime^jand land. This love of mankind, as man, is impossible save it is engendered by the love of God,â€"Himself. This is the reconciliation of East and West, Orient and Occident, (the scriptural "lion and lamb" who were to lie down together), and this* love has; been -demonstrated among Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan Bahais and others. The Mashrekol-Azkar is a symbol of this uniting power that accom- plishes this long hoped for, but some- times disbelieved in. reconciliation. The power of unity is the power of health and happiness. Therefore, that community or country in which the true Mashrekol-Azkar is estab- lished, has within it, an attractive force; riot to draw to it a hetero- geneous collection of evil, as Mr. Stafford seems to assume, but the very highest, the noblest and most universal forces, and the individuals embodying these. Let us not reject a pearl of greatest price because of false rumors, and imaginations with which the Bahai movement has noth- ing to do. •>â- " , . . ,. _ In a wonderful spiritual address, while in America, Abdul Baha, the Chosen Center of the Bahai Cause, as established before His departure^ by Baha'o'llah, spoke of the various kinds of brotherhood for which the f^j^WM^ What Did You in 1920? The between the man who has learned to save ^nd bank his money, and the man who has not, is the difference ten years from now between the man "flourishing in business" and the one "looking for a job." 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