ON DIVERTING US FROM THE TASK AT HAND
-by Larry Mullins
With the hearing of Kristen and Eric impending, it is regrettable that attention is being diverted to the relationship of the Foundation and the "Fellowship." A delighted officer of the Fellowship presented the "seven points" of agreement at Boulder Study Group Central last week, and Foundation Trustees did the same in Oklahoma. With perfect timing, and possibly planned to divert attention from the Eric and Kristen hearing less than a week away, a great deal is taking place in the political arena, as these two organizations move ponderously toward a remarriage.
In Boulder, the officer for the Fellowship was asked if one of the seven points of agreement included an agreement to drop the lawsuit against Kristen and Eric. Not surprisingly, he admitted the lawsuit against an individual Urantian brother and sister did not even come up. What was discussed were more "significant" issues. Protecting the Fellowship against litigation was carefully covered.. (The welfare of the revelation itself is not mentioned. Not once. The Urantia Book is referred to only as a commercial commodity.) A contribution to the translation fund is one of the issues addressed in the agreement. (Of course, this is an excellent point because translations are legitimately copyrightable, they can be controlled, and they yield revenue.) Marketing a product is discussed, but not dissemination of the teachings. In corporate terms, the "agreement" discusses marketing through referrals, "licensing" agreements (which means TRADEmark licensing agreements), and the final "point" is the need to sell this whole "seven point agreement" package to the "respective constituencies."
Values are clearly present in the agreement, but not religious values. Money, power, and/or aggrandizement permeate almost every phrase. The survival of the Fellowship, loyalty to the organization, and fear are driving the agreement - not loyalty to values, or principles, or even to the Revelation.
But what bothers many Urantian Believers is the new tone of sterile, surgical objectivity - this attitude of virtual indifference. The trustee who visited Oklahoma was asked about the impending legal hearing, and he said that it was Kristen who was prolonging it through her struggle against the decision of the appellate court. [Hey, that is the wrong lawsuit! The question was about the OTHER lawsuit, the one where Urantia Foundation sued Eric and Kristen because Eric used the Banner of Michael and the word Urantia on a free internet site. You know, the lawsuit in which the Foundation is using secular trademark law to punish them. The suit in which Eric removed the offending sacred symbols and the words a year ago in a vain attempt to settle the case.] But this Trustee can be forgiven for the confusion. He lives in France, how could he know about such things? Attorneys handle such matters, after all. It is better that executives not know about these details.
This trustee is a splendid Urantian, a man of superb integrity and insight. But, I wonder, is he really so blind and insensitive in his relatively new role as trustee? He was asked: "Why don’t you visit Boulder?" And he enthusiastically replied to the effect that he would love to visit Boulder because that is where he had an unforgettable experience with Jesus, in a workshop during a conference there. I do hope he comes. I hope he will allow me to drive him up to visit Kristen and Eric in their tiny mountain home. He can feed the goats and meet their children. He can see first hand what the Foundation’s ruthless litigation policies have done to this Urantian family. He can see how half their small home is devoted to litigation files because they can no longer afford an attorney. He will learn that they are now $30,000 in personal debt due to these litigations. How Eric must work in construction all day to feed his family and spend the night reading legal briefs to feed paper to the insatiable Foundation attorneys. Yet, if the trustee does visit these Urantians, he will likely leave with a small gift of some kind, and he will be likely fed a good meal, because that’s what these folks do.
I hope this Trustee comes to Boulder also because he may recapture the splendor of his experience with the Master. He may once more recall that this revelation is about light and life, and sunshine and flowers, and great blue skies with wondrous white clouds. It is about brotherhood and sisterhood, laughing children, and more. This Revelation is an exposition about a task that we Urantians are called upon to complete. A prodigious task that was set into motion four hundred billion years ago by our beloved Creator Son. A task he personally carried forward on the dusty roads and in the hostile chambers of power in Israel, and a task for which he lay down his mortal life. This terribly important task Michael has entrusted to Believers by means of the revelation of the Urantia Papers.
When this Foundation trustee is energized by these realities of the spirit, and his soul resonates with them, perhaps he can then contrast them by reading some legal briefs and litigation summaries, and documents like the one with "seven points of agreement." Can any Believer read through these chilling phrases without the feeling that the plug has been pulled out from their energy reservoir and the sunshine has dimmed? - and that he or she has suddenly entered a cold, dark and mysterious realm of creaking doors and rattling chains?
I became a Councilor in the General Council of the Urantia Brotherhood in the mid- eighties and left when my nine year hitch ended. During that period a great deal went down, including the split from the Foundation. I was privileged to meet some of the great Urantians during that period, some of whom still choose to serve on the Council. I do not doubt the sincerity of those who want to "reunite" with the Foundation.
Yet, sadly, what we are seeing in the seven points are the final stages of the decline and fall of the Fellowship as a failed experiment, in the sense that it could exist as an independent and autonomous entity. Perhaps those who want to bring back the "good old days" suffer from euphoric recall. In the old days the Brotherhood was under the thumb of the Foundation. I was there, I know that they were not "good" days by any measure. Why go back to that? It may seem safer under that powerful Foundation thumb of authority, but is it not also very, very dark?
But - surely this diversion is less important than the other issue that some would have us forget. The issue about human beings; a Urantian brother and sister. One final time I urge Believers to help us get at least a fair trial for Kristen and Eric. Please sign the Believer’s Affidavit, or craft your own. It is the most radical procedure in an American courtroom to deny a free trial to any citizen. Yet the court could deny a trial - without a shred of evidence being presented - if the slick and expensive Foundation attorneys get their motion for judgment without a trial. Urantia Foundation attorneys are trying to paint Eric and Kristen as fanatic mountain people who are attempting to make a personal religious belief out of a "non-religious" book about philosophy and science. These hired professionals are using secular, for profit trade laws - ("trademarks" that are actually the banner of Michael) - to punish a family for doing a free religious service for Urantian Believers. If the judge sees the truth, and comes to understand that there are thousands and thousands who are sincere Believers in this - an authentic religious revelation of great significance - then he must grant a trial.
If we have a trial, we will have a chance to free the banner of Michael and the word Urantia and Urantian for all Believers to use in a religious context. Remember the battle cry of Martin Meyers "Down here on rebellion-torn and sin-seared Urantia, the Foundation owns the trademarks, the word "Urantia," and the Concentric Circles Symbol in perpetuity." [See the "Special Report to Readers of the Urantia Book, April 1990, page 22. Published by Urantia Foundation.] Please keep in mind that when the Foundation declares it will allow religious use, the Foundation will decide how to define that phrase.
Has Foundation policy changed since that infamous day in the courtroom when they had one of their attorneys successfully importune a judge to order Kristen to remove her wedding ring with three concentric circles on it?
Consider that just months ago a Foundation attorney informally told Eric (while they were waiting for the judge) that the Foundation would allow the circles to be used for religious expression. Eric silently lifted his hand and showed him his own wedding band, which has the banner of Michael on it. The attorney shook his head and said: "Well, I don’t know about that."
When the Fellowship officer who so eloquently presented the "seven points of agreement" was asked in Boulder if he would attend the hearing (to determine if Eric and Kristen deserve a trial) in the Denver Court on Monday of next week, he replied that he did not want to do anything to upset the Foundation.
Indeed, cocktail glasses may soon tinkle in toast that the Fellowship and Foundation are reunited. This Fellowship officer may even be successful in getting the Foundation to increase its size from five to seven, as he says he is trying very hard to persuade the trustees to do. Of course - first things first: money, power, and who knows? Maybe even an eventual trusteeship for those who perform well.
We must turn away from the spectacle of brothers and sisters so engaged and so indifferent to the plight of Eric and Kristen. We turn away not so much in anger, as in sadness and dismay. But for our own part, we must go on. As the Master said, this revelation, this sacred task, "belongs to all who believe it; it shall not be committed to the custody of mere priests." Indeed, this revelation belongs to the people.
Please help us. Time is running out, but you still have time to act before the 20th of October. Please send in your affidavit. Please attend the hearing as a concerned believer if you can.
Larry Mullins,
in behalf of the Urantians for Religious Freedom CommitteeAFFIDAVIT
I am a Urantian believer. I believe the Urantia Papers were authored entirely by celestial beings, and are a divine gift to all the people of our planet. The Urantia Papers are the basis of my personal religious beliefs. The three concentric azure blue circles on a white background have special religious significance to me. It is my belief that these circles are the emblem of Michael of Nebadon, our Creator Son who lived on our planet Urantia as Jesus of Nazareth. The three concentric azure blue circles on a white background are also the material symbol of the Paradise Trinity of all creation, and was used by Melchizedek when he was on Urantia. I have often seen Urantians use the three concentric azure blue circles on a white background as an expression of religious beliefs.
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