The Abolition of Clergy
The Bahá'í Faith has no clergy; each believer is directly responsible for their own spiritual development and community service.
Bahá'u'lláh specifically did not establish a clerical class in the Bahá'í Faith. Leadership is provided by elected administrative institutions, not religious specialists. Each Bahá'í is directly responsible for reading, understanding, and applying the teachings — empowering individuals and preventing the accumulation of spiritual authority in a priestly class.
The administrative order of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh must in no wise be identified with the prevailing notions and systems of human government.
The Bahá'í abolition of clergy is one of the most radical institutional innovations in religious history, creating a genuinely lay-led global religious organization.
World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
Written about in
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about doubt
With no clerical class, nobody can close your doubt by authority. Elected institutions handle community affairs; they are not interpreters of your conscience, and each believer carries direct responsibility for reading and applying the teachings.