From: Lenny Cowles <cowles@indra.com>
To: ubinfo@ubfellowship.org
Subject: Open Letter
Open Letter to All my Brothers and Sisters
in the Urantia Community.
It is with a
heavy heart that I am preparing this document. We are
entering the Dark Ages for the Fifth Epochal
Revelation of God to Man.
Our leadership has been unable to chart a
course that would avoid the
chaos before us. The lines have been
drawn. The choice is now before
each of us. Now is the time to declare
allegiance.
For me, the
decision has been relatively easy. For others, it will not
be. For me, the seeds of doubt were
sowed long ago. In 1983 - 1985,
while attending the Boulder School for the
Urantia Book, I created a
series of drawings, detailing the
organizational aspects of universe
government. The drawings were received
with great enthusiasm. John
Byron would later use them as a blueprint
for his Universe Series of
paintings. However, in my
original set of blueprints, I had drawn 3
concentric circles in each of the four
corners of the border. To me, it
seemed appropriate given that the drawing
did represent a pictorial
representation of the universe governmental
organizations as described
in detail in the Urantia Papers. But
to the "elders" of the
Brotherhood, it was not and they asked me to
remove them. I did as
requested. The seeds of doubt were
sowed.
For the Urantia
conference of '90 held at Snowmass in Colorado, I had
designed a large pendant shaped banner with
three concentric circles of
azure blue displayed in the center, hanging
vertically from a large
wooden cross. With the help of
friends, we raised the Banner of Michael
and displayed it proudly on the main stage
in preparation for the
opening of the conference. That
evening, the night before the
conference began, I was approached by two
"elders" of the Brotherhood
and asked to remove the banner. This
time, I did not do as requested.
I told them that this conference is
dedicated to the teachings of
Michael of Nebadon as revealed to us in the
Urantia Papers, this is the
appropriate time to display the
banner. I have raised the Banner of
Michael, and I will not strike his
colors. If it is your desire that
his banner should not be displayed, then you
strike his banner, it will
be by your hands that his symbol is removed,
not mine. In the middle of
the night, they did what they believed was
right. When no one would
witness the act, they removed the banner.
I was the
entertainment director for the conference. I was also
responsible for all technical operational
aspects of the conference.
After the incident I had decided to
leave and go home. It was only
after many hours of consultations with
friends, long into the night
that, I finally decided to change my mind
and stay and fulfill my
obligations to the conference
participants. But the seeds of doubt had
taken roots.
In the past few
years I have read in official US Federal Court
documents, declarations made by the Urantia
Foundation that the Urantia
Papers were a "work for hire,"
that the Foundation "authored" the
Urantia Papers. Before anyone jumps to
begin debating the finer points
of law and definition of terms, let us be
perfectly clear from the
start. Now and for centuries to
come, when research is done by
nonbelievers as to origins, authorship and
ownership of the Papers, they
will find conflicting testimony. In
various documents they will find
the author listed as "The Urantia
Foundation," they will find that the
Urantia Papers have been written as a
"work for hire," they will find
them to be a "composite
work." They will find statements that say the
Urantia Foundation invented the word Urantia
and Urantian. All of these
terms may seem appropriate for the issues at
hand in the marble and
stone world of our legal system.
But in the real world of common truth
seekers, author means the person who
actually wrote the Papers, work for
hire means someone was paid cash for doing
it, and composite work means
that more than one person (not celestial
beings) contributed to the
writing of the Papers.
Page 1446 "Evil is the fruit of wrongly directed thinking."
Members of the Urantia
Community know that the Urantia Foundation did
not author the Papers, and Dr. Sadler never
hired anyone to write the
Papers; that the selection and arrangement
of the Papers were done by
the revelators, not the Contact Commission;
that the Contact Commission
did not contribute anything other than the
mechanics of spelling,
grammar and punctuation; that the word
Urantia is the revealed,
universal name of our planet and that
Urantian refers to those of us who
believe, study and attempt to live the
teachings revealed to us from the
pages of the text. This is not
in dispute within the Urantia
Community. However, you need only to
make a brief review of the written
public record to find conflicting testimony,
leading to confusion and
doubt. This should have never
happened.
The point here
is that in an effort to protect and control the
revelation, the Foundation has employed
inappropriate means in seeking
help from the US Copyright and Trademark
offices. Consider this: you
may copyright your own version of the Bible,
but you may not copyright
the original stories and text that make up
the Bible. There are
numerous ways for the Foundation to
copyright their own version of a
book containing the revelation of the
Urantia Papers, but legally they
cannot copyright the actual Urantia Papers
themselves without resorting
to deception. The Papers are, as we
know, a revelation from celestial
beings given to us as a gift from God,
factual information detailing
universal cosmology, origins and history of
our planet, religious
teachings detailing our spiritual
relationship with God, and the most
important revelation being a complete
retelling of the life and
teachings of Jesus. This is factual
information that is by legal
definition, beyond copyright and trademark
protection.
To those who
would suggest that we forget the past and move forward to a
new day of reconciliation and cooperation, I
will present this line of
reasoning:
Page 52 "The possibility of mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin
only when the human will consciously
endorses and knowingly embraces a
deliberate immoral judgment."
The Urantia
Foundation consciously endorses and knowingly embraces a
deliberate immoral judgment when they seek
to maintain copyright control
of a divine gift (the text of the Urantia
Papers) and declare that they
coined the word Urantia and Urantial.
This is, by the above definition,
sin and must be recognized as such.
Page 842 "Even though this project of modifying the divine plan
had been conceived and executed with entire
sincerity and with only the
highest motives concerning the welfare of
the world, it constituted evil
because it represented the wrong way to
achieve righteous ends, because
it departed from the right way, the divine
plan."
The Revelators
would never nor could ever endorse any plan for the Fifth
Epochal Revelation that would necessitate
the Urantia Foundation
declaring a falsehood: that they in any
manner contributed to the
authorship or coined any words of the
Urantia Papers. And yet this is
exactly what the Trustees of the Foundation
have repeatedly done.
Page 41 "God loves the sinner and hates the sin."
What is the
Foundation so fearful of? Have they no faith in God's
divine plans? Have they no faith in
the planetary government, the
epochal angels, the progress angels, the
religious guardians, the angels
of the future, the angels of enlightenment,
the angels of superhuman
ministry ... the list can go on and
on. It is the planetary
government's responsibility to safeguard the
revelation, and it is the
Urantia Foundation's responsibility to
maintain the integrity and
dissemination of the Urantia Book.
Page 1253 "...for the Most Highs may intervene at any time in
the affairs of the inhabited worlds,
interposing the superior wisdom of
the constellation rulers in the affairs of
the kingdoms of men."
I find the following story included in the
"Historical Timeline of the
Urantia Movement" (compiled by David
Kantor) very interesting:
"Anecdotal sources maintain that the book was ready for
publication before the start of World War
II. Following the close of the
war, publication was tentatively scheduled
for 1949. It is reported that
the Melchizedeks declared war on communism
in 1946 and that in 1949 the
Most High Observer seized Planetary
Government to devote all celestial
resources available on the planet to the
task. Publication was held up
until the planetary government was satisfied
with the direction the
fight against communism was taking."
The reason I
find this story so interesting (whether or not the story is
true is irrelevant) is that it apparently
shows the celestial host
willing to stop whatever work they may be doing
to throw all their
resources into battling any and all forces
that disrupt God's plan.
Would they do less if the Fifth Epochal
Revelation were to be in
jeopardy? What is the source of
the Foundation's fear, why do they
lack faith in our planetary government?
Another
interesting anecdote in David Kantor's "Timeline" is that after
the first drafts of the Foundation's
Declaration of Trust and the
Brotherhood's Constitution were submitted to
the celestial associates
for approval, they were returned with the
comment, "Can't you do any
better than that?" Again, whether
or not the story is true is
irrelevant, our current causes for concern
are well justified, and if
given a new opportunity today, I'm quite
sure the revelators would make
a similar statement.
Page 1070 "The custom of looking upon the record of the
experiences of the Hebrews as sacred history
and upon the transactions
of the rest of the world as profane history
is responsible for much of
the confusion existing in the human mind as
to the interpretation of
history."
The truth in
this statement still reflects in the crisis of today. It
is human nature to comb through the written
records of individuals and
institutions who purport themselves to
custodians and revealers of
truth. For more than twenty years the
public records have been filled
with misinformation with respect to the
Urantia Papers. Let there be no
doubt that the source of much of this
confusion leads directly to the
door step of 533 Diversey Parkway.
The Urantia
Foundation knowing and willfully deceived the US Trademark
office while applying for a registry of the
words Urantia and Urantian,
in two ways:
1) They did not inform the Trademark examiner that the word
Urantia is primarily a geographically
descriptive term, as this would
give just cause for denying the application.
(From The Synergist,
Summer, 1989)
2) They went on to declare that: "In response to the Examiner's
inquiry, the designation URANTIAN is not a
dictionary word. It is a
coined word -- formed by, and from the name
of, Applicant Foundation --
which has been adopted and is employed by
Applicant to identify
publications [at this point, newsletters]
published and distributed by
Applicant." (From The Synergist,
Summer, 1989)
We all know this
to be untrue. This must rightly be viewed as willful
deception and an absolute lie. This is
an undefendable transgression
against the laws of our civilization and the
laws of God.
Page 1109 "Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though
revelation is invariably a spiritual
phenomenon. While statements with
reference to cosmology are never inspired,
such revelations are of
immense value in that they at least
transiently clarify knowledge by:
1. The reduction of confusion by the authoritative elimination
of error."
This goal, the
reduction of confusion, has now been enormously
compromised. And with the repeated
denial of having done anything
wrong, the Urantia Foundation (and the Trustees
in particular) have
willfully sinned.
Another example
of this willful distortion of truth is found in a
transcript from a court case in
Hawaii. See: ufquotes.htm
For background purpose:
Attorney Mr. Fujino,
Q: Do you know approximately how many years you've been a
student studying the book?
Urantia Foundation Executive Director,
A: I started studying the book in 1967
Q: To the present?
A: Yes.
Later on, we find this confession from the
Executive Director:
Attorney Jack Schweigert,
Q: So are you saying -- do you know who wrote the Urantia Book,
who authored the Urantia Book?
Urantia Foundation Executive Director,
A: No, I do not.
It is
inconceivable that a long time reader and official representative
of a Urantia organization, would under oath
declare that they did not
know who authored the Urantia Book.
However, this again adds evidence
to the public record which creates more
confusion and doubt as to the
authenticity of the Fifth Epochal Revelation
of God to Mankind.
Page 842 "Eve had consented to participate in the practice of
good and evil. Good is the carrying out of
the divine plans; sin is a
deliberate transgression of the divine will;
evil is the misadaptation
of plans and the maladjustment of techniques
resulting in universe
disharmony and planetary confusion."
I do not
challenge the motives of the Foundation's early leadership in
seeking to protect the terms Urantia and
Urantian from inappropriate use
by those whose activities might truly be
detrimental to the integrity of
the Urantia Papers. It should be obvious,
however, that there is a vast
difference between use of the words Urantia
and Urantian by dedicated
believers, and the exploitative use of the
term Urantia alone for
commercial purposes. But I do
challenge and protest the means by which
they seek to protect and control the Fifth
Epochal Revelation itself.
No Urantian has sought to use the terms and
symbols that identify our
religion for exploitive or commercial
purposes. Their purpose is and
has always been evangelical.
Page 754 "There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the
universe philosophic viewpoint sin is the
attitude of a personality who
is knowingly resisting cosmic reality. Error
might be regarded as a
misconception or distortion of reality. Evil
is a partial realization
of, or maladjustment to, universe realities.
But sin is a purposeful
resistance to divine reality - a conscious
choosing to oppose spiritual
progress - while iniquity consists in an
open and persistent defiance of
recognized reality and signifies such a
degree of personality
disintegration as to border on cosmic
insanity."
"Down here on rebellion-torn and sin-seared Urantia, the
Foundation owns the trademarks, the word
"URANTIA" and the
Concentric-Circles Symbol--in
perpetuity." (The Trustees of Urantia
Foundation, April 1990, Special Report)
There can be no
denying that the Trustees' actions constitute "an open
and persistent defiance of recognized
reality." The deceptions and lies
that they have supported have been
consistently brought to their
attention by numerous Urantians. Yet
they continually refuse to see the
truth of their actions.
Page 1521 "Jesus of Nazareth refused to compromise with evil,
much less to consort with sin."
These acts are
premeditated lies intended to deceive US governmental
officials. They sin by declaring that
they are the sole owners of the
Urantia Papers, that they coined the words
Urantia and Urantian, and
that they own the Banner of
Michael. Let there be no doubt that this
is blasphemy against God.
Page 1446 "Make no apology for evil; make no excuse for sin. By
your efforts to make amends for past sins
you acquire strength to resist
future tendencies thereto. Restraint is born
of repentance. Leave no
fault unconfessed to the Noble One."
If the Fellowship does not first publicly
confront these horrendous
transgressions by the Foundation
trustees before attempting any sort of
reconciliation, then the rational mind can
only assume that the leaders
of the Fellowship do not recognize the
gravity of these evil, sinful
acts.
Page 1114 "The acid test for any religious philosophy consists
in whether or not it distinguishes between
the realities of the material
and the spiritual worlds while at the same
moment recognizing their
unification in intellectual striving and in
social serving. A sound
religious philosophy does not confound the
things of God with the things
of Caesar. Neither does it recognize the
aesthetic cult of pure wonder
as a substitute for religion."
"What is a great man who has made his mark upon history? Every
time, if we think far enough, he is a man
who has looked through the
confusion of the moment and has seen the
moral issue involved; he is a
man who has refused to have his sense of
justice distorted; he has
listened to his conscience until conscience
becomes a trumpet call to
like-minded men, so that they gather about
him and together, with mutual
purpose and mutual aid, they make a new
period in history."
"...the lessons of great men are lost unless they reinforce upon
our minds the highest demands which we make
upon ourselves; ...they are
lost unless they drive our...wills forward
in the direction of their
highest ideals." Jane Addams.
To the leaders of
the Fellowship I would say, do not compromise your
high ideals, do not compromise the teachings
of the Urantia Papers in an
effort to save the Urantia Foundation.
Page 555 "Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct.
Evil is a transgression of law, not a
violation of the rules of conduct
pertaining to life, which is the law.
Falsehood is not a matter of
narration technique but something
premeditated as a perversion of truth.
The creation of new pictures out of old
facts, the restatement of
parental life in the lives of offspring -
these are the artistic
triumphs of truth. The shadow of a hair's
turning, premeditated for an
untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or
perversion of that which is
principle - these constitute falseness. But
the fetish of factualized
truth, fossilized truth, the iron band of
so-called unchanging truth,
holds one blindly in a closed circle of cold
fact. One can be
technically right as to fact and
everlastingly wrong in the truth."
I can forgive
someone who has sinned against me, but I can do nothing to
forgive the sin itself. The
persecution of Urantians must stop
immediately. Before any course of
reconciliation can be planned,
sincere reparation must be made to those who
have suffered for their
evangelical efforts.
Page 1714 "Many of you have this day come to the parting of the
ways; you have come to a beginning of the
making of the inevitable
choice between the will of the Father and
the self-chosen ways of
darkness. And as you now choose, so shall
you eventually be."
Leaders of the
Fellowship, be ever mindful of what you say and do. The
effects will be felt far beyond our
lifetimes here on rebellion-torn
Urantia. My prayers go out to
you. In this gigantic struggle between
the secular ways of the Foundation and the
spiritual ways of the
Urantian evangelists, the religion of Jesus
will eventually triumph.
Remember my friends, the act is yours, the
consequence is God's.
Your Urantian Brother,
Lenny Cowles
October 24, 1997