Dear Baha'i friends,
We have received your letter of 19 June 1973 and can sympathize with the problems that Baha'i youth face when trying to live up to the Baha'i standards of behaviour. It is, perhaps, natural that in the bewildering amoral environment in which Baha'i youth are growing up they feel the need for specific instructions on which intimacies are permissible and which are not. However, we feel it would be most unwise for any Baha'i institution to issue detailed instructions about this.
The Baha'i youth should study the teachings on chastity and, with these in mind, should avoid any behaviour which would arouse passions which would tempt them to violate them. In deciding what acts are permissible to them in the light of these considerations the youth must use their own judgement, following the guidance of their consciences and the advice of their parents.
If Baha'i youth combine such personal purity with an attitude of uncensorious forbearance towards others they will find that those who may have criticized or even mocked them will come, in time, to respect them. They will, moreover, be laying a firm foundation for future married happiness.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, ‘1963-1986’)
