The recrudescence of religious intolerance, of racial
animosity, and of patriotic arrogance; the increasing evidences of selfishness,
of suspicion, of fear and of fraud; the spread of terrorism, of lawlessness, of
drunkenness and of crime; the unquenchable thirst for, and the feverish pursuit
after, earthly vanities, riches and pleasures; the weakening of family
solidarity; the laxity in parental control; the lapse into luxurious
indulgence; the irresponsible attitude towards marriage and the consequent
rising tide of divorce; the degeneracy of art and music, the infection of
literature, and the corruption of the press; the extension of the influence and
activities of those "prophets of decadence" who advocate companionate
marriage, who preach the philosophy of nudism, who call modesty an intellectual
fiction, who refuse to regard the procreation of children as the sacred and
primary purpose of marriage, who denounce religion as an opiate of the people,
who would, if given free rein, lead back the human race to barbarism, chaos,
and ultimate extinction — these appear as the outstanding characteristics of a
decadent society, a society that must either be reborn or perish.
- Shoghi
Effendi (‘The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh: Selected Letters’; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. I, Divorce)
