Inactive believers - 18 December 1974

Concerning your question about inactive believers, the Universal House of Justice feels that it would be somewhat abrupt to drop them from the roster simply because they have been absent from meetings or otherwise inactive. They should be approached and the reasons for their absence or inactivity ascertained, and only when such investigation leads you to the conclusion that the believer concerned no longer believes in Bahá'u'lláh should this definitely be recognized. Every case of inactivity should be investigated and the believers lovingly encouraged to become active. A distinction is to be made between those who are interested in the Faith but remain inactive and those whose inactively indicated complete lack of interest in the Faith to the extent that they have in fact ceased to be Bahá'ís. In this latter instant removal from the list is simply recognition of this fact. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the North West Pacific Ocean, December 18, 1974; compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)

Use of radio in “proclamation, expansion and deepening” - 12 December 1974

The religious and cultural content of your programs is important alike for achieving the goals of the Faith and bringing education and service to the non-Bahá'ís' community....

Your perception of Bahá'í needs and their satisfaction through radio broadcasts has prepared you for what may well, in time, be hailed as an historic forward step in proclamation, expansion and deepening through the medium of radio, a medium which the beloved Guardian hoped would be exploited on behalf of the Cause of God. We congratulate you and look forward to news of your progress in this significant initial program. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Letter from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual assembly of Ecuador, December 12, 1974; compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)

Ways in which a Baha’i can help improving the conditions of humanity - 19 November 1974

It is understandable that Bahá'ís who witness the miserable conditions under which so many human beings have to live, or who hear of a sudden disaster that has struck a certain area of the world, are moved to do something practical to ameliorate those conditions and to help their suffering fellow-mortals.

There are many ways in which help can be rendered. Every Bahá'í has the duty to acquire a trade or profession through which he will earn that wherewith he can support himself and his family; in the choice of such work he can seek those activities which are of benefit to his fellow-men and not merely those which promote his personal interests, still less those whose effects are actually harmful.

There are also the situations in which an individual Bahá'í or a Spiritual Assembly is confronted with an urgent need which neither justice nor compassion could allow to go unheeded and unhelped. How many are the stories told of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in such situations, when He would even take off a garment He was wearing and give it to a shivering man in rags.