Each Local Spiritual Assembly should become the heart and
nerve center of its community. The Assemblies should be so educated and
equipped with guidance from you that they become pillars of strength for the
believers, and sources of knowledge and guidance. The Local Assemblies should
neither be like private agents prying into the lives of the believers and
seeking out their personal problems, nor should they condone glaring disregard
of the Holy Laws. Whenever it becomes known that one of the believers is
flagrantly disobeying the Teachings of the Faith, whether spiritual, ethical,
moral or administrative, the Assemblies should not allow such a situation to
become a source of backbiting among the friends or deteriorate into either the
loss of the dignity of the Teachings in the eyes of the Bahá’ís and
non-Bahá’ís, or the eventual inactivity of the believers, as you have observed.
The Assemblies, with the encouragement and under the continuous guidance of
your National Assembly, should, in the name of protecting the interests of the
Faith, themselves initiate action for the solution of the problem, and handle
it with love, wisdom and firmness.
(The Universal House of Justice, from a letter dated November 12, 1965, to a National Spiritual Assembly)
