January 26. On this date in 1987, Charles Wolcott died in Haifa. In 1960 he was elected Secretary of the NSA of the U.S., and in 1961 he was elected to the International Bahá’í Council and moved to Haifa. He was elected to serve on the inaugural Universal House of Justice in 1963, a position he held until his death.

January 26. On this date in 1987, Charles Wolcott, member of the Universal House of Justice, died in Haifa. Born in Flint, Michigan on September 29, 1906, Wolcott was a music composer who had a career in various Holywood film studios.

 In 1953 he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. In 1960, when he was elected secretary of the National Assembly, he resigned from his position at MGM Studios and moved to Wilmette, Illinois. In 1961 he was elected to the International Bahá’í Council and moved to Haifa, Israel. He was elected to serve on the newly formed Universal House of Justice in 1963, a position he held until 1987 when he died in Haifa.

From 1960 until his death in 1987, period of 27 years, Wolcott worked exclusively for the Bahá’í Administrative Order. His career is typical for individuals in the Bahá’í hierarchy, whether in an elected office or in an appointed office from which the higher elected officials invariably come from.
At all levels, including the LSAs, Bahá’í leaders generally as if not more authoritarian than clergy from other religious faiths, which as Dale Husband points out, is one of the Four Ways to Create a Religion of Hypocrites:

1. State that religion no longer needs clergy……and replace them with leaders that are as authoritarian as the clergy ever was.
2. Claim that men and women should be equal……but then deny women membership in the all-powerful leadership council of the religion.
3. Condemn as heretics those who believe in your religion but dare to challenge the claims of your religion’s current leadership, while at the same time claiming to welcome as friends the followers of other religions.
4. Claim there is harmony between science and religion, but also claim that anything your leaders say is absolutely true, even if on topics science is expected to address. Any one of these makes a religion not worth following, but what do you do if you find a religion that has all four such contradictions.