June 16. On this date in 1982, in a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Virgin Islands, the Universal House of Justice stated the method by which Counsellors may report "information about the conduct of individuals which adversely affects the interests of the Faith" to National Spiritual Asssemblies.
"Information about the conduct of individuals which adversely affects the interests of the Faith may be conveyed by the Counsellors to the National Spiritual Assembly either directly or, if the Counsellors so choose, through one or more of their Auxiliary Boardmembers. The method of conveyance of such information is left to the discretion of the Counsellors.
"Any matter which is related to the protection of the Faith is obviously a primary concern of the National Assembly, as it is of the Counsellors."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Virgin Islands, June 16, 1982)
The implementation of this apparatus in the United States is described by Juan Cole in his article, The Baha’i Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997. For example, Cole describes some of the activities of Stephen Birkland who was then a Counsellor and currently serves as a member of the Universal House of Justice.
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