"...Baha'u'llah and the Master in many places and very emphatically have
told us to shun entirely all Covenant breakers as they are afflicted with
what we might try and define as a contagious spiritual disease; they have
also told us, however, to pray for them. These souls are not lost forever.
In the Aqdas, Baha'u'llah says that God will forgive Mirza Yahya if he
repents. It follows, therefore, that God will forgive any soul if he
repents. Most of them don't want to repent, unfortunately. If the leaders
can be forgiven it goes without saying that their followers can also be
forgiven...
"Also, it has nothing to do with unity in the Cause; if a man cuts a
cancer out of his body to preserve his health and very life, no one would
suggest that for the sake of unity it should be reintroduced into the
otherwise healthy organism. On the contrary, what was once a part of him
has so radically changed as to have become a poison."