Message from David Kantor concerning
Urantia Foundation and death threats.

Date: Sun, 02 Aug 1998 22:30:40 -0500  
To: FreeUrantia@cuenet.com, UBtalk@Utalk.org  
From: David Kantor <dkantor@linkzone.com> 
Cc: urantian@concentric.net, mlt@linkzone.com, LorriePaul@aol.com,  
        abgm@mindspring.com, deinstadt@cyburban.com, omra@pacificnet.net,  
        jkaveny@vines.colostate.edu, andon1@ix.netcom.com,  
        colinm@earthlink.net, Lawrenceofdenver@worldnet.att.net,  
        Arley@GetNet.com, MJSprunger@aol.com, hmcmullan@ibm.net,  
        epmoyer@netrax.net, JjGeriJohnson@worldnet.att.net,  
        Mellow1@netvalue.net, richard@dancris.com,
        dkantor@linkzone.com, rkeeler@allwest.net, msiegel@ctea.com,  
        kchoi@iastate.edu, gdupont@isp.fr, gjameson@pbtk.com, mblock@flash.net,  
        cowles@indra.com, dgreen1@earthlink.net, KHQG81A@prodigy.com,  
        Ericon606@aol.com, dkantor@linkzone.com  
Subject: FreeUrantia: Re: UB Media Committee  

[Norm's note: Permission granted from David to repost anywhere.]  

 +++  

Dear Eric;  

Thank you for the copy of your note resigning from the Media Committee and  
the Fellowship.  While I think that these reader organizations have a great  
deal of value, even critical utility in our present situation, this is not  
the subject of my response.  Rather would I like to address your indignation  
at the seldom considered IUA charter and offer some related comments.  

In many ways this charter can be seen as a formalization of the ideas laid  
out in Martin Myers' June 1983 paper, "Unity, not Uniformity." It contains  
certain additional provisions for social control arising out of Urantia  
Foundation's impotence to manage the readership under the original  
Brotherhood constitution (subsequently inherited by the Fellowship).  
Probably with good reason, the trustees seem to have withdrawn copies of  
Martin's paper from availability and have refused to allow me to publish a  
copy on the website. In the letter refusing permission it was stated, "The  
general feeling is that the work is from the distant past and has no bearing  
on what the Foundation represents now."  Nothing could be farther from the  
truth. A side-by-side comparison of the two documents will reveal the IUA  
charter to be a direct embodiment of the ideas, illusions and fears  
expressed in the "Unity, not Uniformity" paper.  

As far as I can tell, the biggest change in Urantia Foundation's policies  
over the past year or so has been the switch from pumping money into legal  
efforts aimed at readership control (which have largely failed) to pumping  
money into public relations schemes (on the way to failure) designed to  
achieve the objectives laid out in the Martin Myers document.  

I hope that the readership can see through the public relations smokescreen  
behind which the trustees are attempting to conceal their real activities.  
The trustees have been spending megabucks flying themselves and an entourage  
of key supporters to meetings all over the country touting "unity" and  
attempting to project an image of change.  

What does not seem to be widely recognized is that, while they have been  
engaging in this public relations "unity" program, the reality behind the  
scenes has been a completely different story.  A couple of months ago I  
received what I take as a serious threat to my life by a trustee for my  
opposition to their program.  This same trustee indicated that various ways  
were being considered for destroying me financially.  My former wife was  
interrogated by a trustee seeking information which could be used to  
publically discredit me in the movement.  I was told point blank by a  
trustee in a private conversation immediately following one of their  
performances, "Look, the bottom line is that the Fellowship either supports  
our trademarks and copyright, or it gets nothing."  This was in response to  
a question I had regarding progress on their agreement to share study group  
referrals with the Fellowship, an agreement which had been made a year  
earlier amidst much public fanfare about unity but regarding which nothing  
substantial had yet been done by the trustees.  

In addition, it was made implicitly clear by another trustee in a private  
conversation that the public unity drive was an open window of opportunity  
during which the Fellowship could embrace the Foundation's program and if  
such an embrace was not made, I could expect to see a return to the use of  
legal means to force compliance.  

During this same time period the trustee's legal action against Kristen was  
expanded in scope to encompass a broad injunction which could include  
hundreds of reader/believers. It appears to me that we are being told one  
thing in public while the same old machinery continues its inexorable  
assault on reader/believer dissemination efforts in the background.  

In just the past few months I have seen new complaints from the trustees  
regarding the use of the word "Urantia" and the circles on the picture of  
the "Urantian Emprise" on the website. A website licensing agreement was  
sent by the trustees which was essentially an insulting re-write of the old  
confirmatory agreement, seeking acquiescence in perpetuity to all the same  
illusions of trustee identity and revelation ownership which they've been  
trying to foist on the readership since the death of the last contact  
commissioner.  

There is growing reason to speculate that the trustees (or at least a  
subgroup of them) are currently supporting a re-write of movement history  
containing references to documents and events never before mentioned in any  
surviving papers.  There have been reports of the appearance of a mysterious  
"secret book" passed by Christy to Martin and recently on to Rich Keeler  
containing information which supports the trustee's claims to authority,  
copyright and trademarks.  If this is true, it could signal a particularly  
insidious turn of events. I am particularly concerned about recent  
Foundation citing of "historic facts" to support their position -- "historic  
facts" which have never before been known to exist such as Wilfred Kellogg  
investigating the possibilities of a perpetual copyright in 1932.  It would  
be nice if the trustees could issue a public statement laying these rumors  
to rest. I may be jumping to conclusions, but I find that as I strain to  
discern some indication of a true sea change, I perceive nothing of the sort  
-- the same cold wind with little slivers of ice in it continues to blow.  

We are still confronted with a small group of readers who appear intoxicated  
beyond reason at the possibility of being able to buy, own and control an  
epochal revelation.  Their euphoria with the illusion that the revelation is  
simply another commodity for which they can buy up all the futures continues  
to leave twisted truths, manipulated facts and disturbed social relations in  
its wake.  Is no one noticing this? Is everyone suffering from so much  
battle fatigue that they're just keeping quiet out of a desire for "unity"?  
Am I somehow failing to see the salvation being offered with all the  
rhetoric?  I keep looking for the beef in all this rhetoric and never see  
anything but the buns aimed at my face -- the perpetual moon.  

Part of what is so strange about all this is that when the trustees speak  
personally relative to their own ideals, I am always impressed with their  
personal dedication to the work of the revelation and to the spiritual  
renewal of our world.  However, when they function collectively, relative to  
the assumptions and illusions upon which Urantia Foundation as an  
institution has come to be based, the results are complete anathema to the  
effective dissemination of the revelation and the development of a healthy  
reader community.  

If we truly believe that "by their fruits shall you know them" sincere  
people will be forced to agree, when looking at the decades of serious  
disturbance within the reader community effected by Urantia Foundation in  
pursuit of its institutional policies, that this is an entirely human  
organization working on the basis of principles which have no cosmic reality  
whatsoever. The idea that a celestial agency would charge a group of mortals  
with the implementation of a legal policy which would repercuss in such  
social destruction and personal acrimony simply doesn't make sense.  

There is a paragraph from early movement apocrypha cited in Martin's "Unity,  
not Uniformity"  [(C) Copyright Urantia Foundation, All Rights Reserved) ]  
which states, "Those entrusted with the Urantia Papers early realized that  
there had not in 1900 years been anything about which there could be so much  
competition for control as The Urantia Book."  Little did these early Forum  
leaders know that it would be a later evolution of an organization which  
they themselves created -- Urantia Foundation -- which would spend millions  
of dollars and create irreparable harm over at least three generations in  
the attempt to forcibly gain reader support for such control.  

The Forum leaders who founded the Urantian organizations purposely and  
wisely designed them to have absolutely no connection with each other. In  
the last decade, the trustees, in spite of constantly appealing to tradition  
and the authority of the founding fathers, have switched 180 degrees with  
the promulgation of the IUA charter and have attempted to establish powerful  
mechanisms of control over the social expression of readers.  You have  
identified some of these in the quotes you provided from the IUA charter --  
"First, IUA is responsible to Urantia Foundation...", "The size of the  
Coordinating Committee and the selection and terms of its members are  
decided by the Trustees...", "This charter may be revised by a majority vote  
of the Trustees...", etc., etc.  

The final "Membership Requirement" says it all:  The membership "...supports  
the work of Urantia Foundation as specified in its Declaration of Trust;  
supports the Foundation's ownership of the copyright and marks..."  

Contrast the above with Founding Trustee William Hale's sworn statement  
that, "During the forties from time to time the [Forum] leaders would report  
to the Forum progress being made and specifically stress that the two  
organizations would be separate and distinct with no tie together legally or  
in any other connection. It was purposely designed with no connection  
between each organization."  

Also he notes in the same document, "In the final documents for both the  
Urantia Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood there is no possible  
interpretation of a tie-in of the Urantia Brotherhood to the Urantia  
Foundation." (This document may be reviewed on the website at:  
http://www.ubfellowship.org/archive/history/doc151.htm )  

The trustees have come far indeed with their attempts to fully replace the  
ideals of the founding Forum members with the philosophic perspective  
expressed in the Martin Myers document.  

Eric, I hope that if you are going to abandon participation in "official"  
organizations that you will remain a participant in *networks* of readers  
who are trying to move the dissemination of this revelation forward.  There  
are networks of interested readers around the world, working on  
translations, building communities, and engaging in a variety of  
revelation-promoting work.  While the trustees appear to be running around  
trying to buy up these networks (or at least buy off their leaders with the  
bestowal of cash and social identity) I suspect that the real work of the  
revelation will continue to expand underground as necessary until it has no  
choice but to burst forth from the soil of its incubation, heralding the new  
day for humanity which we all long to see. Find networks of people you can  
trust and with whom you can work, and *work*!  

In terms of organizations, don't give up.  The membership of both the IUA  
and the Fellowship contain many serious readers deeply concerned about the  
dissemination of the revelation. These folks constitute a growing cadre of  
dedicated revelation workers, learning how to work together in large groups,  
which I do not believe will go un-utilized by the Planetary Seraphim.  Have  
faith in the ability of an increasingly aware and dedicated readership to  
bring this revelation to our world.  Have faith in the readers' demonstrated  
ability to eventually force self-appointed leaders into accountability or  
exile. Have faith in the readers' ability to foster the evolution of a  
healthy organizational infrastructure which can support the world-wide  
dissemination of this revelation.  

Eric, be of good cheer, and God bless you! And by all means, get your butt  
back in the arena after you've had a little rest!  

In friendship,  

David Kantor