UNITY NOT INTEGRITY - by Larry Mullins
"The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles,
to betray us In deepest consequence." Shakespeare – MacbethIn two recent face-to-face discussions with Mo Siegel, I must admit he has convinced me of his sincerity and his passion to propagate books and establish unity in the Urantia movement. Yet, while he demonstrated clearly defined ideas and objectives in parts of his conversation, there were strange gaps and aberrations in others. On one hand he clearly wanted unity at all costs, while on the other he could be as dense as lead about specific integrity issues.
For example, Mo flatly stated, and emphasized, that he had no knowledge of changes in the text of the Urantia Papers. Since he is now a trustee, and the integrity of the text is the centerpiece of the Declaration of Trust, it is strange that he is unaware that only the first edition of the Urantia Papers, (10,000 copies of the circa 300,000 now in print) was printed without human editorial changes.
Mo does not know that this human editing flies in the face of the parameters that were defined for the Contact Commission, since it was restricted to changes in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization only. Mo is unaware that every edition of the Urantia Book printed after the first is different from the edition before it, and there is not a single footnote to delineate any of the changes. Nor did he know that in fairly-recent years computer-sleuths compared various editions of the Urantia Book and discovered over 140 changes since the first edition, including ten or so that were "more than minor changes." He was surprised to learn that Urantia Foundation, in recent years, finally conceded that there have been many changes, including the "ten or so" changes in the text that were "more than minor changes."
Now, keep in mind, these are not some guys in a garage printing Urantia Books. Urantia Foundation received a text from the Contact Commission that was free of intentional human contamination. Just as was the Contact Commission, the five trustees are under sacred oath to be keepers of the text of the Revelation. Inviolate means inviolate — not more than "ten or so" changes that are "more than minor." In other words, Mo does not know there is no longer an inviolate text of the Urantia Papers to protect. However, since it is going to be a primary duty of his to protect the mythical inviolate text, he promised he would look check in the back of his Pathways inviolate edition of the Urantia Papers to see what the changes were.
I have not talked to Gard Jamision, but I imagine he is equally sincere and passionate as Mo. Yet, sincerity and passion can be great deceivers.
In politics and business, sophistry is too often par for the course. But in religion, it is an utter disaster: "The kingdom of heaven which we proclaim is a spiritual brotherhood, and no man rules over it seated on a material throne." [1702] In the domain of religion, integrity is everything. Make no mistake, the only business Urantians should be in is the Father's business. The Father's business is religious, because:
" . . . all nonreligious activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting service of self." [67] Now, if anyone really believes the Foundation's proclamation that the Urantia Book "is not a religious book," they believe the cow jumped over the moon.
The Contact Commission, to the best of their human ability, gave us a text that was "exactly" as they "received it." Using the original plates as "the basis for the formation of Urantia Foundation" the Foundation was then given stewardship over this text. [Quotes are from the Foundation's court-submitted history] Simple enough. Five crusty old trustees print the text over and over again in perpetuity. "What about the human errors that were embedded in the first edition?" you ask. That, also, is simple enough – use footnotes to delineate these errors and show probable alternatives – the traditional academic practice to preserve the integrity of another's creative work.
But, after the death of four of the six contact commissioners, with Dr. Sadler in his nineties and failing, the systematic corruption of the Urantia Papers began and continues to this day. Changes were made in the 1967 second printing by a new group of "insiders" with legal minds who held sway over the eighty-year old Christy. No footnotes were used, and the "inner circle" kept the changes quiet. The goal of these sincere folks with legal minds seems to be a desire to make the 10% changes necessary for yet another copyright.
"But wait a minute," you might say. "You still have the plates which were the basis of Urantia Foundation. They have the original text on them." No. First the plates (that were the basis for Urantia Foundation) were corrupted with changes for the second edition, and then they were ordered destroyed by Urantia Foundation shortly after the death of Dr. Sadler.
"If you have not shown foresight and integrity in the affairs of this world, how can you hope to be faithful and prudent when you are trusted with the stewardship of the true riches of the heavenly kingdom? If you are not good stewards and faithful bankers, if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will be foolish enough to give you great treasure in your own name?" [1854]
The question for MO and GARD:
"What will you do as trustees to restore the integrity of the text of OUR revelation, which your predecessor stewards have allowed to be corrupted?"
Question for MO and GARD:
"Will you refute the statements by Judge Shroeder which demeaned the Revelation and declared it to be a product of human creativity? Or will you accept her uninformed and secular opinion out of expediency?" [In part II of this posting we will put out on the net the text of Eric Shaveland's brilliant rebuttal of Judge Shroeder's gross act of arrogant secular zeal. Every Urantia should read this motion that Eric filed. He was courageously responding to the infamous and disastrous "back of the hand" brush-off Judge Shroeder gave to religion and free speech. Eric exposes the fact that Judge Shroeder handed the Foundation back a conditional copyright, and in doing so cynically and openly refuted the sacred honor of the Urantia pioneers and branded as lies the sworn testimony of the Foundation's predecessor- trustees:]
". . . the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court has declared the Urantia Book to be a fraud created by some unknown contact commission and that these human authors are (almost) all liars. I appreciate the wisdom of these Appeal Judges who, in keeping with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court invalidating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, have taken the responsibility of determining the truth of the origin of the Urantia Book out of the hands of mere citizens like myself and placed this burden squarely on the judicial branch of government." [From Eric's motion. Read the full text and supporting documentation in part II of this posting.]
QUESTION FOR MO AND GARD:
"Do you agree that the Revelation belongs to the people? Will you refute the Foundation's repugnant 'thousand word limit?' Will you refute the claim that the Foundation owns, or 'holds in trust' the banner of Michael? Will you pledge no more wanton lawsuits against readers who act in good faith? Can we trust you?""Faith has falsified its trust when it presumes to deny realities and to confer upon its devotees assumed knowledge. Faith is a traitor when it fosters betrayal of intellectual integrity and belittles loyalty to supreme values and divine ideals. Faith never shuns the problem-solving duty of mortal living. Living faith does not foster bigotry, persecution, or intolerance." [1114]
After all, the situation is like having someone move the fence in your backyard over night to reduce your backyard, and then having them offer to negotiate to get some of it back. The Fifth Epochal Revelation cannot be "owned" by five humans, no more than five humans could have owned Jesus, the Fourth Epochal Revelation.
MO AND GARD: It is not a question of sincerity and passion, but one of integrity and faith. Which Master do you plan to serve? Jesus, of sublime integrity and unbounded spiritual fragrance and goodness, or Rich? Or do you plan to serve both?
ERIC SHAVELAND'S COURAGEOUS RESPONSE
The following was a response by Eric to the Foundation's request for an injunction on him (following the infamous reversal by Judge Shroeder). I believe it would be good for every thinking Urantian to read it, or read it again if they have already done so. In the light of recent developments, it is more important than ever. The question confronts us, and we all must answer: "Do we, the people, headed by the Spirit of Truth own the Revelation . . . or do five trustees headed by Rich Keeler?" LARRY MULLINS
Schaveland's Response to Plaintiff's Motion For Preliminary Injunction
Introduction Urantia Foundation's motion for Preliminary Injunction should be granted in part. I should be enjoined from placing the entire Urantia Book on the Internet since the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court has declared the Urantia Book to be a fraud created by some unknown contact commission and that these human authors are (almost) all liars. I appreciate the wisdom of these Appeal Judges who, in keeping with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court invalidating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, have taken the responsibility of determining the truth of the origin of the Urantia Book out of the hands of mere citizens like myself and placed this burden squarely on the judicial branch of government. By granting this injunction, this Court will relieve me of the temptation to participate in the fifth epochal revelation to the planet—what the Ninth Circuit Appeal Court in its finite wisdom has ruled to be a fraud created by the lying predecessors of the lying Trustees of the Urantia Foundation. The precedent in law for this matter was set long ago by the Sanhedrin Court in Jerusalem and upheld by the highest appeal Court in that land, the Court of Pontius Pilate. Pilate also ruled that the current revelation from God (Jesus—the fourth epochal revelation to the planet) was a fake and that Jesus was a liar when he claimed to be a Son of God—thus removing the confusion from the citizens of that time that personal religious freedom inevitably creates. However, in the Ninth Circuit ruling Judge Shroeder opined that even though
"the Contact commission created the Urantia Book," (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6757, No. 6) and, "compiled, selected, coordinated, and arranged the Urantia teachings" (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6754, No.2) into book form, "This case does not concern the use of a single "revelation" outside the context of the Book, which for purposes of this case would be analogous to a 'fact,' and which of course would not be copyrightable. See Feist, 499 U.S. at 347." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6755, No.4)
In Schroeder's bizarre ruling, each of the 196 Papers constituting the Urantia Book is a separate non copyrightable "fact" that the Contact commission "arranged" and "compiled" when they created the Urantia Book. Under the Ninth Circuit ruling my placing facts (Papers) of my own arrangement on the Internet would not violate Urantia Foundation's copyright on the Urantia Book. Indeed, if the First Amendment hasn't been overruled by an all-wise Appeal Court somewhere, my right to place public domain facts on the Internet is still guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Since the Ninth Circuit Court has ruled that the component parts of the Urantia Book (the individual Papers) are public domain facts—much like the names in a telephone book—Urantia Foundation's request that I should be enjoined from placing "any of its (the Urantia Book's) component parts" (Plaintiff's Motion page 3, #6) on the Internet or anywhere else in this free country should be denied—denied and recognized for the blatant attempt to trample on my First Amendment rights that it is. A. Facts in Support of an Injunction Restricting my Placing the Entire Urantia Book on the Internet.
Anyone weak-minded enough (like myself) to have believed the testimony of contact commissioners: 1. Doc Sadler (William S. Sadler, Sr.), 2. Bill Sadler (William S. Sadler, Jr.), and 3. Emma Christensen,
or early Urantia Foundation Trustees: 4. Bill Hales (William M. Hales), 5. Jim Mills (James C. Mills), 6. Thomas Kendall,
or an Affidavit filed with the Copyright Office by Foundation Attorney:
7. Lloyd C. Root (when a Federal Appeals Court finds them all to be liars) obviously needs a Court Injunction to define his religious conduct.
1.Dr William S. Sadler stated in a History submitted as evidence by Urantia Foundation to the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court:
"The Papers were published just as we received them. The contact commissioners had no editorial authority. Our job was limited to 'spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.'" (History, Page 000314, first paragraph).
"About the spelling of 'chazan.' Our mandate forbade us in any way to alter the text of the manuscript, but gave us jurisdiction over capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. We were told to select our authority and stick to it. Evidently, the authority we chose spelled 'chazan' with one z." (3/17/59, 1959 Letter from William S. Sadler, Sr. to Rev. Adams).
Ninth Circuit Appeal Judge Shroeder reveals Doc as a liar when she states: "The answers to these questions, as transmitted to the humans and arranged by them, became the Urantia Papers," (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6751, Par. 2) and, "Thus, notwithstanding the Urantia Book's claimed non- human origin, the Papers in the form in which they were originally organized and compiled by the members of the Contact commission were at least partially the product of human creativity." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6756, No.5).
2. Contact commissioner, Bill Sadler, in his tape on origin, speaking of the revelators, said:
"I'll tell you how I think this paper was written. And my theory is not one-hundred percent correct. But its the best I can find. Visualize several places in space—points A, B, C and D. I think the Papers were dictated or conceived at point A and had we been there when any of these papers were written we would have seen nothing. A Divine Counselor is presenting his concepts in the language of Uversa. A translator is there who translates it into the language of Salvington. There is another translator there who translates from the language of Salvington to the language of Satania and another translator who translates from Satania into English. You cannot translate from Uversa into English because the languages are too far apart. I suspect that 99% of the original concept was lost in translation—English is too primitive a language. Take Bantu where they have one, two and then "many"—the end of their numbers -- and you want to translate into large number systems, you simply can't do it. See the problem? Point A was linked by some sort of communication circuit to point B. At point B there would be something to see, but it would be rather dull. It would be a man asleep—doing nothing. Remember the resurrection and the way the stone was moved by the Midwayers? At point C you would see a pencil moving over paper with no visible means of motion. That's where the physical writing took place. Now point D would be where we found the papers. This individual was never seen to write one of these Papers—and don't think we weren't wearing gumshoes looking. If he wrote them he was more clever than us—he was never observed to write them."
3. Contact commissioner Emma Christensen wrote in evidence admitted in the Maaherra case:
"Since your letter centers around the question, 'How did the Urantia Book get here?' the essential facts which answer this question are found in the Book itself. Using information given on pages 1258, 1243, 1343 and many other similar references you could systematically compile the authors' answer to your question. I can categorically assure you that no humans decided the content of the Urantia Book. The Book is as the revelators gave it to us." (Emma Christensen, document # 455, 6/16/78; and documents # 455, # 475, and # 619, 4/20/78.)
"The Urantia Book was published precisely as it was given to the people of this planet. Not a word has been added or deleted." (Emma Christensen, document # 2730, 8/28/75).
"The Urantia Book has not gone through any alterations. It was received in all essential respects just as you now find it, and was written in the English language. It is Urantia Foundation's purpose to insure that the text remains unaltered." (Emma Christensen, document # 2740).
"The Urantia Book was published just as we received it in English. There was no editing. Our only jurisdiction had to do with typing, proof-reading and publication." (Emma Christensen, document # 2151, 3/23/60.) "If you will read the book carefully you will learn that it is a revelation and the Papers were sponsored, formulated, and put into English by a commission of spiritual administrators in the year 1934." (Emma Christensen, document # 870, 3/24/71.)
"No human scholars edited the book. You will note on page 1 of the Foreword the statement that an Orvonton Commission was sent here for the purpose of revealing these truths on Urantia." (Emma Christensen, document # 794, 9/19/72.)
"The authors are all listed in the book itself, and you will find papers describing them in detail, as this is the only information we have regarding the origin, nature, and organization of the Urantia Book." (Emma Christensen, document # 708, 10/25/73.)
"The Urantia Book claims to be a revelation and we believe it to be." "No human being's name is in any way connected with the book." (Emma Christensen, document # 2016, 2/19/63.)
However, since Judge Shroeder claims that the humans did enough deciding on the content of the Urantia Book to qualify for a copyright, then Urantia Foundation President Patty Mundelius' Aunt Christy (Emma Christensen) must have been lying about the Urantia Book in thousands of letters to the general public most of her adult life.
Other descriptions by the Foundation of the Urantia Book include:
"The Urantia Book is a meaningful whole constituting the Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth to Urantia, our planet. The authors, all superhuman beings, composed the Urantia Book with the intention of giving men a balanced view of his past, present and future, especially his eternal destiny that is his for the choosing. . . ." (Mundelius dep., Exs. 12, 14). "The Foundation has no knowledge or materials respecting the entities listed as 'authors' in the Urantia Book other than the materials which can be found in the Urantia Book. (Plaintiff's Amended Answers to Defendant's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 18).
"The final origin of the Urantia papers lies in the authors themselves. All of the papers in the first three parts are signed by their author while credit for their presentation of Part IV is given to a commission. These are all superhuman beings." (Caston dep, Ex. 11).
This is also another prevarication exposed by Judge Schroeder—unless, of course, the contact commission who Schroeder claims "created the Urantia Book" were really superhumans. If Patty's Father, Grandfather, Grandmother, two Aunties and grand Uncle Wilfred (her father's mother's sister's husband) are all superhuman beings, maybe Patricia Mundelius' (current Foundation president) writings have superhuman origin as well. Perhaps we should ask the expert on superhuman authorship, Judge Schroeder, for her ruling on that.
4. William (Bill) Hales was the first President of Urantia Foundation and long-time forum member. Judge Schroeder's ruling would indicate that in a deposition in the Maaherra case Bill blatantly perjured himself about the origin of the Urantia Book when he testified: 5. "No humans decided the content of The Urantia Book." (W. Hales dep., 22:20; Forsythe dep. Ex. 8).
"The book is unchanged from the way the revelators provided it." (W. Hales dep., 23:7). "The essential facts which explain the origin of the Urantia Book are found in the book itself." (W. Hales dep., 22:14).
"The Urantia Book was published just as it was received in English. There was no editing. The only function of the Foundation had to with typing, proofreading, and publication." (W. Hales dep., 19-20).
The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court spotted this blatant fabrication right off, finding that: "Thus, notwithstanding the Urantia Book's claimed non- human origin, the Papers in the form in which they were originally organized and compiled by the members of the contact commission were at least partially the product of human creativity." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6756, No 5).
6. Professor of Ethics and Urantia Foundation Trustee Jim Mills was also a rather obvious liar according to Judge Shroeder. How else can we account for Mills' statement that: 7. "The authors have placed the sequence of studies in their present arrangement for their own good reasons and while it is tempting to skip around, much better results are obtained by slow steady reading." (James C. Mills, document # 589, 6/11/73).
When referring to authors in the above statement, Jim did not mean the contact commission, because he also stated:
"The final origin of the Urantia Papers lies in the authors themselves. You will note that all Papers in the first three parts are signed by their author while credit for the presentation of part four is given to a commission. As these are all superhuman beings the next question arises as to the technique of transmittal." (James C. Mills, document # 1244, 1/03/73).
"No human mentality was engaged in its original compilation which has been reproduced exactly as it was transmitted." (James C. Mills, document # 445, 10/26/72.)
The contact commission is never mentioned in the Urantia Book. Don't take the word of a justifiably injuncted layman like me, just ask Judge Schroeder. Though I am sure that she has never read the Urantia Book, she seems to know more than anyone else about its origin and authorship.
6. Thomas Kendall, former President of Urantia Foundation also has some "splaining to do" about his Urantia Book authorship whoppers. Since Schroeder's Order is law, Kendall must have been "fibbing" in official Foundation correspondence when he wrote:
"The Urantia Book was first published in 1955. No human ever edited this material..." (Thomas Kendall, document # 2638, 1/31/78).
"The authors are members of the revelatory commission and are superhuman, that is, they exist above our mortal level. A thorough review of the Urantia Book will place these beings in proper perspective and relationship with other personalities including mortals." (Thomas Kendall, document # 2638, 1/31/78).
"The information concerning the origin of the Urantia Book and its advent on our world is contained within the pages of the Book itself in scattered passages." (Thomas Kendall, document # 929, 6/28/79).
"The Urantia Book was prepared under the direction of a superhuman revelatory commission." (T. Kendall dep., 18:18).
"None of the entities listed as 'authors' in the Urantia Book are human." (T. Kendall dep., 21:4).
"If the URANTIA teachings are of superhuman authorship and part of the divine plan for upstepping our planetary religious thought, then it would seem presumptuous for mere mortals to affect any changes." (T. Kendall letter from Mundelius dep., Ex. 8).
"If you have a copy of the Urantia Book with a dust jacket, I suggest you look up and read the references on the back which will give you all of the available information concerning ... the nature, origin, and organization of the Urantia Book." (Thomas Kendall, document # 524, 4/25/73.)
"The Urantia Book is arranged and assembled exactly as revealed." (Thomas Kendall, document # 750, 11/27/79.)
I have been studying the Urantia Papers for over 20 years and have read every Paper many times. I have attended numerous study groups dedicated to this book. I spent one year of my life studying the Urantia Book at The Boulder School for Readers of the Urantia Book. Never, until Judge Schroeder's enlightening opinion, had I ever heard of or read that the Urantia Book was created by a mysterious group of mortals known as the contact commission. It was certainly a revelation to me. I thought that what I had placed on the Internet was written by superhumans. Now, thanks to Judge Schroeder, I realize that I was mistaken. The Urantia Book was really written by Patti Mundelius' lying relatives, and, therefore, if I was stupid enough to believe in superhuman authorship once, who knows but that—without an injunction—I might be tempted to believe in superhuman authorship or (God forbid) believe in evangelizing my religion on the Internet again.
I must confess that I still find the words of the revelators very clear and compelling:
"These thirty-one papers depicting the nature of Deity, the reality of Paradise, the organization and working of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of the grand universe, and the high destiny of evolutionary mortals, were sponsored, formulated, and put into English by a high commission consisting of twenty-four Orvonton administrators acting in accordance with a mandate issued by the Ancients of Days of Uversa directing that we should do this on Urantia, 606 of Satania, in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, in the year A.D. 1934." (Urantia Book, Page 354)
7. Urantia Foundation attorney Lloyd C. Root filed an affidavit with the copyright office swearing that the Urantia Book was "not a collective work." Root swore in his Affidavit:
"The Urantia Book is not a collective work, since the material therein was not in existence before the arrangement of it was placed in tangible form, and it was in existence prior to publication thereof only in manuscript form." (Affidavit of Lloyd C. Root, attorney for Urantia Foundation, February 11, 1980.)
Since Judge Shroeder has ruled that the Urantia Book is a compilation, Mr. Root must not only have been a liar, but a perjurer as well. Dismissing Root's sworn testimony, Schroeder rules:
"This is a copyright dispute between parties who believe the copyrighted work, the Urantia Book, was authored by celestial beings and transcribed, compiled and collected by mere mortals." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6750, Par. 1). "For copyright purposes, however, a work is copyrightable if copyrightability is claimed by the first human beings who compiled, selected, coordinated, and arranged the Urantia teachings, 'in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.' 17 U.S.C. S 101 (defining a 'compilation')." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6754, No.2).
The only "compilation" I know about in the Urantia Papers is described by a contact commissioner:
"The authors of the Urantia Book are those who have signed each of the Papers in the first three sections of the book. Part IV, the Life and Teachings of Jesus, is the work of a composite group, the acknowledgment for which appears at the beginning of Part IV." (Emma Christensen, document # 1193, 11/29/73.)
The beginning of Part IV of the Urantia Papers says:
"This group of papers was sponsored by a commission of twelve Urantia Midwayers acting under the supervision of a Melchizedek revelatory director. The basis of this narrative was supplied by a secondary midwayer who was onetime assigned to the superhuman watchcare of the Apostle Andrew." (Urantia Papers, page 1321). The Foundation also claims: "These listed authors determined what would be included in the text of the Urantia Papers." (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission 3, p. 13).
B. What is a Component Part?
Since Judge Schroeder has so generously taken responsibility for my religious beliefs, wisely ruling that the "opiate of the people" I was peddling on the Internet—the Urantia revelation—is now a controlled substance, I must assume that her ruling about the Urantia Book being compiled from public domain facts is also gospel. Schroeder states that:
"It must be remembered that the claim of copyright infringement in this case concerns the verbatim copying of the entire Urantia Book, including the selection and arrangement of the revelations into the Papers that comprise the Book. This case does not concern the use of a single 'revelation' outside the context of the Book, which for purposes of this case would be analogous to a 'fact,' and which of course would not be copyrightable. See Feist, 499 U.S. at 347." (Ninth Circuit Opinion filed with this Court by Plaintiff, page 6755, No.4).
Therefore I request this Court to determine whether or not it would be a violation of copyright for me (or any other Urantian) to place these same non-copyrightable revelations on the Internet. And exactly how many of these non-copyrightable facts (revelations) do I get to use before I reach the mystical level of copyright infringement? Urantia Foundation has asked for an injunction requiring that I "cease and desist from placing the book or any of its component parts on the Internet." (Foundation Motion for Preliminary Injunction, page 3, No. 6).
I can see how (in compliance with Schroeder's Order) I might need an injunction for the Urantia Book as a whole, but this line about "any of its component parts"—in light of Judge Schroeder's ruling about the facts being in public domain—seems a little vague and a little fascist to me.
Respectfully submitted,
Eric Schaveland