We have received your letter of 19 June 1973 and can
sympathize with the problems that Bahá'í youth face when trying to live up to
the Bahá'í standards of behavior. It is, perhaps, natural that in the
bewildering amoral environment in which Bahá'í youth are growing up they feel
the need for specific instructions on which intimacies are permissible and
which are not. However, we feel it would be most unwise for any Bahá'í
institution to issue detailed instructions about this.
The Bahá'í youth should study the teachings on chastity and,
with these in mind, should avoid any behaviour which would arouse passions
which would tempt them to violate them. In deciding what acts are permissible
to them in the light of these considerations the youth must use their own
judgement, following the guidance of their consciences and the advice of their
parents.
If Bahá'í youth combine such personal purity with an
attitude of uncensorious forbearance towards others they will find that those
who may have criticized or even mocked them will come, in time, to respect
them. They will, moreover, be laying a firm foundation for future married
happiness.
- The Universal House of justice (From a letter to a Local
Spiritual Assembly, July 9, 1973; Compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)
