Until the Last Task Is Done

"America's achievement in government, commerce, industry, science, and culture staggers the imagination. No less staggering are the evils that have grown in her soil. These, however, must not blind one to the vast potential she possesses to serve the highest interests of all mankind. Clearly recognizing their nation's shortcomings, working and praying for its purification and spiritual growth, American Baha'is of all races, national origins, and religious backgrounds are confident that 'Whatever the Hand of a beneficent and inscrutable Destiny has reserved for this youthful, this virile, this idealistic, this spiritually blessed and enviable nation, however severe the storms which may buffet it in the days to come...however sweeping the changes' in its structure and life, that great republic 'will continue to evolve, undivided and undefeatable, until the sum total of its contributions to the birth, the rise and the fruition of that world civilization, the child of the Most Great Peace...will have been made, and its last task discharged."

--from "Two Hundred Years of Imperishable Hope," editorial marking the U.S. bicentennial, World Order vol. 10, no. 2 (Winter 1975-1976)