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Worshipping at the Altar of Nationalism

David Langness | Feb 5, 2017

PART 4 IN SERIES Globalism vs Nationalism

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

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David Langness | Feb 5, 2017

PART 4 IN SERIES Globalism vs Nationalism

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

I’m a universal patriot… my country is the world. – Charlotte Bronté

Do you know the difference between nationalism and patriotism? The American journalist and author Sydney J. Harris contrasted them this way:

The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.

Excessive, narrow nationalism, as we’ve all witnessed during the past century, has already come pretty close to destroying the world as we know it. Rabid nationalistic fervor led to the arms race that started World War I, and resulted in the pointless murder of millions. Then the unresolved issues of the First World War and the blatant nationalism of Nazi Germany and imperialist Japan brought about World War II. The absolute lowest points in human history—with nearly a hundred million people killed—those two wars proved to the world that nationalism could no longer meet our needs in the international age.

soldiers

From a Baha’i perspective, nationalism has become one of the three idols we humans have constructed and then worshipped, to our great detriment and shame. Nationalism, because it seeks to exalt one nation over all others, can only lead to death and destruction. The other two idols of our own construction, racism and communism, sought to exalt one dominant race or one dominant class over all others. The Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, reserved his harshest critique for those who revere and foster nationalism, racism and communism:

God Himself has indeed been dethroned from the hearts of men, and an idolatrous world passionately and clamorously hails and worships the false gods which its own idle fancies have fatuously created, and its misguided hands so impiously exalted. The chief idols in the desecrated temple of mankind are none other than the triple gods of Nationalism, Racialism and Communism, at whose altars governments and peoples, whether democratic or totalitarian, at peace or at war, of the East or of the West, Christian or Islamic, are, in various forms and in different degrees, now worshiping. Their high priests are the politicians and the worldly-wise, the so-called sages of the age; their sacrifice, the flesh and blood of the slaughtered multitudes; their incantations outworn shibboleths and insidious and irreverent formulas; their incense, the smoke of anguish that ascends from the lacerated hearts of the bereaved, the maimed, and the homeless.

The theories and policies, so unsound, so pernicious, which deify the state and exalt the nation above mankind, which seek to subordinate the sister races of the world to one single race, which discriminate between the black and the white, and which tolerate the dominance of one privileged class over all others—these are the dark, the false, and crooked doctrines for which any man or people who believes in them, or acts upon them, must, sooner or later, incur the wrath and chastisement of God. – Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come, pp. 113-114.

How, then, do the Baha’i teachings suggest combatting these three dark, destructive idols?

First, Baha’u’llah taught, we can each humbly work to develop a new consciousness as global citizens, as members of one human family, refusing to exalt ourselves over anyone else:

…obliterate differences, and quench the flame of hatred and enmity, so that the whole earth may come to be viewed as one country. – Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 122.

…we are all inhabiting one globe of earth. In reality we are one family and each one of us is a member of this family. – Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 41.

Every one can live in any spot on the terrestrial globe. Therefore all the world is man’s birthplace… Every limited area which we call our native country we regard as our motherland, whereas the terrestrial globe is the motherland of all, and not any restricted area. – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 300.

Then, as we’re engaged in the process of destroying those false idols of nationalism, racism and communism in our hearts and our collective human consciousness; we can begin to envision and work towards attaining the organic oneness of humanity, religion and the world:

A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Baha’u’llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age. – Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 40.

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Comments

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  • Carl Brehmer
    Feb 6, 2017
    -
    I agree that regardless of how WWII started Hitler should not be and wasn't exonerated for the war crimes that he committed, yet history has exonerated Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower for the war crimes that they committed against the German people. Why the double standard?
  • Carl Brehmer
    Feb 6, 2017
    -
    I agree that regardless of how WWII started Hitler should not be and wasn't exonerated for the war crimes that he committed, yet history has exonerated Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower for the war crimes that they committed against the German people. Why the double standard?
    See: HellStorm-Exposing The Real Genocide of Nazi Germany https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkQ6J5F01Do
  • Carl Brehmer
    Feb 5, 2017
    -
    You assert that “the blatant nationalism of Nazi Germany” was a prime factor in the bringing about of WWII. Although this notion fits the narrative of your article it is out of sync with history. Prior to WWII Hitler and the German people didn’t want the war and Hitler made a number of petitions for peace to the European powers.
    "Hitler and the German people didn't want this war. We didn't answer Hitlers various petitions for peace." - Sir Hartley Shawcross, British chief-accuser in Nuerenberg
    “We will force this war upon Hitler, if he wants it or not.” ...Winston Churchill 1936
    Is it acceptable within the Baha'i Faith to continue propagating a lie that has vilified Germans for over 70 years?
    Read more...
    • Tim Bowden
      Nov 6, 2017
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      we also cant become politicians or join the masons etc. im a bahai and understand that there where pressures that made germany go full out nationalist, and also japan, the international bankers and communism being the main two. but what the Bahai Faith teaches is that nationalism isnt the answer. the whole world needs to unify if it is to overcome the extreams of wealth and poverty, and communism and nationalism etc etc etc
    • Tim Bowden
      Nov 6, 2017
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      you are correct, most bahais are not aware of the biast they have been brainwashed with by the mainstream media, (and as individuals they unknowingly serve the narrative) but be assured that the Bahai writngs dont condon war in any form, including the alied nations that destroyed germany, the communists and any racist movement that wages war. the whole world is sick and the revelation of Bahaullah is the medicine. Bahaullah infact says that israel is " wrapt in the densest veils of satanic fancy and false imaginings. " we donot support zionism. or any nationalism
    • Heng Bee
      Feb 6, 2017
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      Appreciate your point. Perhaps, it was the blatant nationalism of various powers in Europe preceding to WWII, still cannot exonerate Hitler and the Nazi.
  • Alexander Zoltai
    Feb 5, 2017
    -
    You've outdone yourself with this one, David --- Bravo! :-)
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