Charles Mason Remey, Second Bahá'í Guardian, Explains His Position Against Violating Hands in Defense of the Covenant

"In the conferences of the Custodian Hands in Haifa, following this Second Behje Conclave, I told the Hands repeatedly that they were violating the Will and Testament. Together with them I had made the agreement that strict secrecy be maintained as to all that passed between these Custodians. It had also been agreed that we could and should all speak out openly in our conferences, and this I always did, speaking most frankly. But as I stood alone, no one paid any attention to me. Thus, matters went along for a year until I refused to sign my name any longer as being “In the Service of the Beloved Guardian of the Faith” (Shoghi Effendi). My contention in refusing to sign was that the Guardianship of the Faith is a function of this world and that with Shoghi Effendi in the Abha Kingdom, he was no longer our Guardian in the flesh to be obeyed; consequently, we were no longer in his service. Rather, we should then be in the service of the Second Guardian of the Faith! But even then I did not realize that I, Mason Remey, was then the Second Guardian of the Faith. "My refusal to sign the message of the Hands from the Third Behje Conclave to the Baha'i world, in November 1959, precipitated matters and eliminated me from the nine Custodians. Therefore, shortly after this, I left Haifa for Washington, where I am now in voluntary exile from my home in Haifa - - the home that, publicly and before all of the Baha'i community in the Holy Land, Shoghi Effendi ordained for me on this earth. "The Custodians did not want me to leave Haifa. They evidently feared that I might not keep their pact of secrecy and that I might let the people in America know what they were up to, for at that time there were many in America who still hoped for a Guardian to lead the Faith. But I chose to leave Haifa, and in the end this was accepted by the Hands. "I left for America via Italy, all under apparently pleasant conditions, I assuring the Hands that I could keep their secrets and not tell any of the believers what they were doing. With me to America I took all of my notes and records of the happenings amongst the Baha'is in the Holy Land during my residence there. Then, in America, away from the Custodian Hands in the Holy Land (and even before that in Italy), I started formulating a written argument to the Custodian Hands of the Faith. This argument I prepared in “An Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”, “Another Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”, and a “Last Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”. "These lengthy documents were bound in book form and sent by me to the Hands in Haifa. When I started in upon this last effort to awaken the Hands to their violation, my thoughts, that before this had been disordered, gradually began to arrange themselves in a logical sequence in my mind; and step by step, one thought opened up the way for a more comprehensive thought. Slowly, little by little, one thought led to another until I found myself considering the Beloved Guardian’s appointment of me as the President of the International Baha'i Council (a subject that had never even been mentioned in any of the conclaves or conferences of the Hands of the Faith). Finally, little by little, it was born into my consciousness that I, myself, Mason Remey, was actually then the protector of and the Guardian of the Faith and that I had been in this supreme station of protector – that is, I had been the Guardian of the Faith – ever since the death of the First Guardian. "Thus at last, Ridvan 117 B.E., all was clear to me. The great danger to the Cause from the violating Hands of the Faith made it necessary for me to come out with the Proclamation of my Guardianship – first to the Custodian Hands in Haifa, then before the Ridvan Convention in America. This had to be done in order to save the Faith from the utter destruction that was being perpetrated by the erring violating Hands of the Faith. "I was indeed a very long time in coming to the realization of mine own command of this entire situation of the Faith. But during this time, while my mind was not at all alert to these conditions in the Cause, I was arising instinctively to defend and to uphold the Guardianship of the Faith. As people read over my notes of my thoughts and the mention of events transpiring in Haifa, they will see and understand the complexity of thought that was gradually being straightened out in my mind. At times I was away, far away, from the solution of many of the problems of the Faith, even considering at one time that the Hands of the Faith, in order to protect the Cause, might choose and install a Guardian. Other such ideas were pondered; but out from this maze of thought, I gradually realized that the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi had actually appointed me the Second Guardian of the Faith and had so announced this to all the world. Until that time, no one, not even I, myself, had realized this*. It was thus, in this way, and little by little, that I arrived, until now - - as the acknowledged Guardian of the Faith (acknowledged by the few who faithfully follow the admonitions of the Will and Testament, as against the many who are misled by the erring Hands who have renounced the Guardianship) - - I am clear upon any and all matters as they come up for me to take action in leading the Faith on to its destined triumph over the powers of mankind and bringing victory to the Kingdom of God upon Earth." *Charles Mason Remey was not aware of it at the time of this writing, but the French National Spiritual Assembly was aware of his Guardianship. Our Beloved Fourth Guardian, Jacques Soghomonian, even joked with Charles Mason Remey at the funeral of Shoghi Effendi in London with the remark, "The Guardian is very young!" Mason was actually 83 years old at the time he became guardian.––Further the fact that Charles Mason Remey did not immediately recognize his own station as second Guardian reveals his pure heart. It took him over a year to realize that when Shoghi Effendi appointed him to be the President of the future Universal House of Justice, i.e. the International Bahá'í Council in 1951, he was being named the second Guardian. From The Question of the Guardianship by Charles Mason Remey, 1960. The full document can be read here: https://proofsforguardian.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-question-of-guardian-of-bahai-faith.html