In many cases of breach of marriage laws the believers
apparently look upon the law requiring consent of parents before marriage as a
mere administrative regulation, and do not seem to realize that this is a law
of great importance affecting the very foundations of human society. Moreover
they seem not to appreciate that in the Bahá'í Faith the spiritual and
administrative aspects are complementary and that the social laws of the Faith
are as binding as the purely spiritual ones.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States,
August 29, 1965: Canadian Bahá'í News, No. 265, February 1973, compilation:
‘Lights of Guidance’)