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USBN #179 January 1946 p1
Regarding Mr. Smeskal’s question about the Covenant-breakers: Bahá'u'lláh 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, Bahá’u’lláh says that God will forgive Mírzá Yahyá 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.
To Mr. and Mrs. Otto Smeskal November 30. 1944.
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