Retooling for the Future
The following memo was sent to the General Council of the Fellowship prior to the resignation announcements from Urantia Foundation. In light of the announcements, the memo may be of interest to a wider range of concerned individuals, hence it is reposted here.
David Kantor
Memo to the General Council December 8, 1997
Contents: I. Understanding our Current Challenge II. Current Status of Urantia Foundation III. Considerations for a Viable Future
I. UNDERSTANDING OUR CURRENT CHALLENGE
In recent postings to the General Council E-mail list, several Councilors have expressed what are probably some of the most important goals we hold in common for what our organization might accomplish. Among other things they have listed:
1.) Helping people to live the gospel/revelation out in their own lives 2.) Networking with others involved in the revelation 3.) Learning how to interface the truths of The Urantia Book with society 4.) Providing services that readers need and want 5.) Relying totally upon Jesus and taking this revelation to new heights.
It is important to recognize that virtually all new religious movements go through a sequence of specific stages as they mature into viable social institutions. There is the initial explosion of idealism on the part of the early leaders and their associates. This is followed by a period of social turmoil as these high ideals clash with established socio-religious infrastructure. At this point the emerging movement may either isolate itself from the turmoil or will develop upon a platform established by compromising with the factors causing the conflict.
The way in which we deal with organizational conflict and the compromises we make may significantly shape the foundational platform from which future generations of readers will of necessity launch their evangelistic efforts. If we do nothing, if we ignore the social and material components of our undertaking, this infrastructure will coalesce along the lines of existing socio-political trends and values. If we give it some attention, approach it with prayer, creative thought, political resolve and, most importantly, group participation, we may be able to provide future generations with a much more serviceable infrastructure than that which might otherwise prevail.
Bear in mind the situation on the planet. The Planetary Prince's mission, designed to establish and manage material infrastructure, largely failed. The Adamic mission, designed to establish and manage social infrastructure, largely failed. The actualization of the potentials of planetary spiritual development will always be limited until these missing elements of the first two epochal revelations are uplifted from their status as repercussions of relatively unmanaged evolutionary processes. This developmental phase of the revelation's contact with our world is beginning to take place on our watch. Most of us have volunteered to participate in the work of the revelation. Most of us have pledged ourselves to do *anything* which might be necessary for the safety and expansion of the revelation on the planet. It seems to me that we need to assess the matters which are critical on our watch and address those matters, regardless of what our personal preferences for the application of our creative abilities might be. We are engaged in a multi-generational undertaking. If we take care of the problems which are unique to our time on the planet, we will help pave the way for future readers who will then have the privilege of engaging in more high performance spiritual undertakings.
We can view the Fellowship, the IUA and Urantia Foundation as comprising a production system whose purpose is to facilitate the actualization of the objectives listed above. We might examine the state of this production machinery and ask about its suitability for the task. Does it appear well organized? Does it lend itself to easy maintenance -- that is, can the system be easily corrected when undesirable side affects become obvious? Is it scaleable -- that is, can it easily expand to meet demands 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times greater than those now being placed on it? What sort of social fruits have appeared as a result of the present functioning of this system? Do we want to see these same fruits multiplied 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times?
Can we rise to the challenge facing our generation? Will we allow the infrastructure upon which the fifth epochal revelation will depend for its planetary propagation to form out of a series of compromises made as a result of our pursuit of the products of our own spiritual imaginations instead of the pragmatic and difficult tasks at hand?
In the recent posting to this list titled "Mo's Report on UF Weekend," Mo listed a number of visionary projections which were discussed at the IUA planning session. In fact, he indicated that as much as 97% of the discussion involved these visionary projects. My experience has been that the Urantia movement is *packed* with people who have lots of visionary ideals about what needs to be done. The problem is that very few people have the willingness to do the grunt work. Very few people have the ability to manipulate the external environment in such a manner as to actualize these ideals. This takes us directly back to the need for viable infrastructure. Until we address the infrastructure issue and *do something about it* we will each be severely limited in our ability to pursue our more visionary goals. As a member of the General Council, it is implicit in your commitment that you care about these meta-matters. What are you doing to meet the historic responsibility assumed by your commitment? Most of us volunteered and were eager to do any job which presented itself. Have we forgotten to look carefully at the reality situation to assess priorities -- to evaluate what *needs* to be done now so that our ideals may indeed be fully actualized in the future? The issues of socio-political infrastructure will be addressed. Whether they are addressed and shaped by a few individuals or as a result of a group process is largely up to you.
Mo upheld as an example the phenomenal achievements of the Promise Keepers and the Billy Graham crusades. These organizations are able to function effectively because they rely on the mature infrastructure and communications systems of global evangelical Christianity. We can never hope to achieve such results until we also have a well-established, viable infrastructure. If we responsibly tend to the tasks of our day, future generations will then be freed to pursue the visionary work which all readers want to see accomplished. It is essential that we cultivate a sensitivity to our place in history and take care of the necessary tasks of the moment.
II. CURRENT STATUS OF URANTIA FOUNDATION
It is an unfortunate oversimplification of the real issues to accuse concerned readers of "shadow boxing with the ghost of Martin Myers." The IUA and the Fellowship are both grappling with the very real repercussions of years of misguided leadership -- from the continuing lawsuits, the long history of manipulative and secretive functioning of the trustees, to the launching of an alternative readership organization in 1989 intended as a slap in the face to the de-licensed Urantia Brotherhood. I don't think we're going to have much rest until we are willing to clean up this mess and restructure our organizations so that they are no longer reflective of such misguided decision making on the part of so-called leaders.
I do not agree with the glowing report which Mo provided on the present state of Urantia Foundation. I believe the following more closely represents the reality of our situation:
1. Urantia Foundation is apparently in serious financial trouble. The current emphasis on fund raising along with the current public relations effort is strongly driven by the need to increase their base of financial support (in order to protect their tax status) and to replace the income which Richard Keeler is unable to continue providing. It is possible that Richard Keeler currently meets as much as 85% to 90% of their annual budget. In order to pursue the visionary objectives projected by their public relations department, the Foundation needs to find ways of siphoning off Fellowship financial resources in order to rebuild a financial base severely impovershed by decades of Quixotic legal assaults on the readership.
2. There is a growing awareness of the liability assumed with some of the present trustees as well as most of the office staff. Office expenses alone are estimated to be well over 1/2 million dollars per year.
3. The trustees are rapidly pursuing the development of translations in order to secure copyrights in each of the planet's language groups. According to one IUA leader, they intend to simply hire as many people -- not necessarily readers -- in order to accomplish this job as soon as possible. There are serious long-term dangers in this because it projects the trustee's power base onto a global scale while failing to implement the checks and balances necessary to prevent another misguided trustee from abusing this expanded power base in the future.
4. The trustees are aware that most of the experienced, long-time readers are in the Fellowship camp, as are the more aggressive and creative readers. The present make-up of the Fellowship Executive Committee represents nearly 400 person-years of experience with The Urantia Book and Urantia movement problems. Each member of the Executive Committee has a quarter century or more of experience with movement issues. The Foundation needs to find ways of siphoning off Fellowship creative resources in order to establish viability.
5. The trustees' rush to create translations may already be leading to difficulties. In addition to problems with the French translation early on, they severely damaged the El Libro translation which was undertaken by a professional translation house. They did this by allowing someone in-house who had Spanish as a second language to make hundreds of edits which were then never checked prior to publication. The result has been a very problematic text. The Foundation's Russian translation sits on pallets in warehouses because they failed to address distribution problems. They apparently appointed Kwan Choi to be a trustee in order to help sew up the potential Korean readership. Although seemingly sincere, Kwan appears to be oblivious to past history of the organizations and to know nothing about the significant issues confronting the Foundation or the readership.
6. There is a growing awareness of the serious liabilities created as a result of continued legal action against readers, both in terms of internal political tensions, a constant drain on financial resources, and in terms of the inadvertent creation of negative public impressions of the Urantia Book and its readership.
7. The sale of books at Expos is dropping to 25% of what it was with the Uversa Press edition now that we're forced to sell the Foundation's blue rubbers. If you go into a bookstore which sells this book, look around you. I challenge you to find an uglier book anywhere in the store. And yet, this is how the fifth epochal revelation is being marketed. In more than forty years, the organization charged with publishing the book and fostering the spread of the revelation has not conducted a single marketing study or made an effort to package and target the book to a receptive audience.
8. There have been rumors about licensing proposals leaking out of both groups. While this might be a viable way to address some of the immediate pressing problems, the involvement of payment for such rights creates more difficulties. I think there are serious ethical issues involved if the trustees barter the Foundation's copyright in order to replenish their bank accounts.
9. It is obvious from a study of early movement documents that the functions of book publication were to be completely separate from the development of social infrastructure. Likewise, the revelators insisted that financing be a group effort and not rely on the largess of a single individual. I believe that much of the present difficulty can be traced to the trustee's gradual divergence over the years from these original plans.
10. For the past year, the trustees have repeatedly spurned the offers of the Executive Committee to meet with them and instead they have developed personal liaisons with members of the Executive Committee who support their objectives. These individuals are now being used as propaganda channels to spread the Foundation's public relations propaganda to the rest of the Executive Committee and the Council. This seriously undermines the still fragile and incomplete attempts of the Fellowship to function as a truly representative organization.
11. The Foundation's board of trustees has been plagued by instability. The trustees are asking the readership to support undertakings which greatly exceed the mean period of time served by any group of trustees. This is highly problematic given the lack of accountability and readership control which characterize their present institutional structure.
12. IUA leaders and members are beginning to experience some of the discomfort resulting from being under the dominance of Urantia Foundation. In addition, there may be a dawning awareness of the potential for seizure of personal assets of IUA leaders and members as a result of lawsuits engaged in by Urantia Foundation. You will recall that this was a key issue in the Foundation's attempt to have the Urantia Brotherhood Societies sign the confirmatory agreement. Legal counsel sought by some of the Societies confirmed that this would have allowed the trustees to exist safely behind their corporate status while the Society officers and members functioned with their personal assets at risk. This resulted in the Societies incorporating and becoming much more independent. IUA is approaching this threshold of maturity and awareness of itself as a legal and political entity. This presages additional social instability within the readership in the near future. III. CONSIDERATIONS FOR A VIABLE FUTURE
What is the greatest strength of the movement?
I believe it is the readership -- the IUA and Fellowship study group members, many of whom maintain a healthy distance from the political fray and are deeply dedicated to the revelation. I believe it is imperative that IUA and Fellowship study groups foster coordination and interaction on a local level.
What is the greatest weakness of the movement?
The failure to evolve a truly representative readership organization coupled with the way in which major policy decisions affecting the entire readership have been made by members of the Urantia Brotherhood/Fellowship Executive Committees and the Urantia Foundation trustees. It doesn't matter whether a top-down agenda comes from the trustees or from the Fellowship's Executive Committee -- it is still the service desires of the many being exploited by the political agendas of a few. I think this is the heart of the matter before us.
What is the solution?
Foster the evolution of a truly representative readership organization empowered to make decisions on all factors affecting the developing socio-political infrastructure of the movement
Much of this problem I lay directly at the feet of the General Council of the Fellowship. This body has a constitution and is empowered to address and act on these issues. Democratic institutions cannot succeed unless each member takes the time to inform himself or herself, participates in discussion, insists on the viable functioning of the representative body, and acts to curb the actions of officers and members which violate the decision-making relationships established in the constitution. People bemoan the intrusion of politics into our movement, but the absence of viable political process is anarchy; the failure of democratic institutions leads to despotism. The Fellowship constitution (approved by the revelators) provides for a truly representative body mobilized to accomplish the tasks of the revelation. Each Councilor needs to assess this situation and take an active role in helping the movement through this critical period. Failure to do so may equate to the abdication of the most sacred trust put into your hands during your mortal career.
During the interim when the copyright was in the public domain, a significant number of secondary works were begun. Multiple translations were underway and systems for coordinating these groups began to evolve. Local fund raising mechanisms were being put into place. This did not require the development of a big organization with a multi-million dollar fund raising program -- it began to happen spontaneously as the result of the removal of bureaucratic obstacles. All of this activity is indicative of a great vitality in the grass roots of the readership. All of this activity has been repressed by Urantia Foundation's use of the copyright as a basis for maintaining political power. An ideal organization would foster and coordinate these reactions, not attempt to pre-empt them with political and legal controls.
Seeking a Long-term Solution
One way to approach a solution would be to first get consensus on what the ideal state should be, in terms of a business organization charged with managing publication issues, and readership organizations of a socio-religious nature. This should be done by involving both Fellowship and IUA members in a significant, informed discussion of key issues. Once there is consensus, then a migration program can be designed. For example, it might be desirable to try to restore the original configuration in which a business organization is established to take care of publishing matters, and a completely independent readership organization is developed to foster the social repercussions of the revelation. It will be essential for the publishing entity to keep in close touch with and be responsive to the plans and forecasts of readership outreach efforts.
An example of a migration path to this desired arrangement would be:
1998: IUA and Fellowship members develop organizational transition plan and timeline. IUA and Fellowship groups are encouraged to work more closely together on a local level. A small advisory group of IUA and Fellowship members is established to advise Urantia Foundation on matters of book design, marketing, distribution, etc. This group should also work to establish a reference edition of the text of The Urantia Book based upon the first printing which will be the "official" version to be kept "inviolate." Urantia Foundation establishes a general licensing agreement which allows reproduction of the text as long as it is kept consistent with the inviolate reference edition. A joint IUA/Fellowship task force is established to research and discuss various existing forms of social organization preparatory to the drafting of a new constitution. A goals task force is established to review the Fellowship's existing Strategic Plan and current goals objectives as well as those which may have been established by IUA leadership. These goals are then fed back to the group tasked with drafting a constitution for purposes of facilitating the development of a flexible organizational structure supportive of a broad range of undertakings. Such a structure must also be scalable for international expansion and adaptable by readers in substantially different cultures. This transition plan must also include a finance component in which the financial needs of publishing and outreach are carefully considered. A viable financial architecture must be developed along with a self-sustaining business plan to meet Urantia Foundation's publishing needs. These transition task forces must be inclusive of the international readership and must think globally in their planning.
1999: IUA and Fellowship leaders and members participate jointly in IC99, providing a leadership workshop track designed to foster readership unity and provide input to the resolution of remaining problems. Initial outlines of proposed social and business structures submitted for comment. Readership orientation to the transition process, building of support for long-range objectives, and the solicitation of comments on goals and process is also undertaken.
2000: Draft constitution submitted to the readership for comment. Task force continues to refine new constitution. Draft financial plan for Urantia Foundation submitted to leadership groups and interested readers for comment.
2002: IUA and Fellowship members sponsor joint international conference. Final draft of constitution submitted to the readership for ratification.
A platform such as this provides for the ability of Urantia Foundation trustees to continue meeting the requirements of their trust document related to publishing while freeing them from the complexities of developing and managing social infrastructure. A truly representative social organization should help to alleviate some of the pressure developed by groups who feel that their needs are being ignored. By packaging and managing this transition as a five year plan, there would be time to carefully examine important issues, seek a broad range of comment, and to build readership support. Hopefully, readership faith in effective organizations could be restored, resulting in greater participation and increased financial support for the more visionary outreach projects all readers want to see undertaken.
Someone in the Council once commented that there are three groups of people within the readership. The first group makes things happen. The second group watches things happen. The third group asks, "What happened?"
In which group do you intend to stand?
In the continuing adventure,
David Kantor