GOSH RICH, WE WANT ONE, TOO!
An
Open Letter to Richard Keeler: Why Don't You Print the Authentic Book?
-by Larry Mullins
Richard Keeler's wonderful, recently
published comments about the 1955 printing cannot fail to stir any Urantian.
His story was embroidered with heart wrenching nostalgia and was touchingly
warm. I must concede that the text makes glorious advertising copy. Here are
just a few excerpts …:
"The decision of the Board of
Trustees of Urantia Foundation to re-issue the 1955, first printing of The
Urantia Book brings a floodtide of memories over me. Vividly I remember my
sense of amazement and awe when first I opened this huge tome. It was bigger
than any of my college textbooks . . ."
"My sentimental attachment to the
first printing of The Urantia Book will never perish …"
"If I open one of the Foundation's
few remaining pristine copies of that same 1955, first printing, my emotions
are stirred as they were in 1959. There is no greater adventure for the truth
seeker than truth finding ..."
"Re-issuing that first printing is
like coming home to me …"
"It will ever be my most precious
and special material possession ..."
"That is why I am especially and
personally delighted to announce that the Trustees have decided to re-issue
that 1955, first printing of The Urantia Book ..."
Indeed, who would not agree with Mr.
Keeler? The contact commission and the forum labored and sacrificed for over
thirty years to give us a text free of human folly. The contact commission,
according to the Foundation history that was submitted to the court in the
Maaherra case, was permitted to make only capitalization, spelling and
punctuation changes it that text. The process of making the final plates in
1942-1945 and eventually printing the Book in 1955 was under the watchcare of
the Revelators. (According to Carolyn Kendall, the Revelators informed the
contact commission that errors had been introduced into the text during the
process, but not telling them where they were).
When our team of Urantians (there were
15 of us, all veteran readers) worked on the text of "A History of the
Urantia Papers," we concluded that the errors in the 1955 printing must
have been acceptable to the Revelators. Here is what we wrote:
"We can reasonably deduce that the
Revelators were weaning the humans from their control and guidance. The
Revelators seemed to be more and more restricted as to their own involvement -
thus, perhaps, they could respond to questions about errors in the printed Book
but were not permitted to reveal where they were.
We can further assume that any errors
were not a threat to the general integrity of the Revelation, and that there
had been no intentional human corruption of the Urantia Papers. Otherwise, the
celestial Revelatory Commission would surely have stepped in and either made
adjustments or pulled the plug on the entire operation."
When the text was printed from the
original plates in 1955 it was an astounding achievement. The Urantia Book was
unlike any other book that had ever been printed on the planet. Ten thousand
copies of a Revelation were published without the intervention of human folly
… no intentional changes had been made.
At that point, in 1955, the Revelators
and the Midwayers ended the historic interface with humans, with the words:
"You are now on your own." So wrote Clyde Bedell. So Dr. Sadler and Bill Sadler Jr. told Dr. Meredith Sprunger.
The Urantia Revelation had entered the evolutionary mainstream, and the
Revelators had to trust human integrity to find a way of handling the errors in
the text.
That text, printed from the original
plates, was the wondrous gift that the men and women of the contact commission
and the forum gave to our planet. No wonder it makes our souls burn when we
read it! However, Rich, only 10,000 copies of that precious text were printed
from those original plates. This is true even though Trustee Emeritus Jim Mills
wrote that he was told that one million copies were intended to be printed from
those original plates. (Please keep in mind, Rich, when Urantia Foundation was
formed it was formed on the basis of those original plates). That's what your
own History says:
"The plates of the Urantia Book which
had been previously made constituted the basis for the creation of the Urantia
Foundation by a Declaration of Trust under the laws of the State of Illinois, dated January 11, 1950."
Now, we documented in our History, from
Carolyn Kendall's published material, that Christy made changes in the second
printing in 1967, apparently without the knowledge of the other Trustees, save
Tom Kendall, Carolyn's husband. Carolyn wrote that the "The Trustees of
Urantia Foundation did not participate in the process of correcting the text of
The Urantia Book. Their job was to publish the text with whatever changes were
authorized by the midwayers. They were to maintain the text inviolate, backing
it up by copyright. It ought to be clarified to the readership by the Foundation
that the corrections made after 1982 were apparently made without the
authorization of the midwayers."
But gosh, Richard, according to the
Declaration of Trust, isn't Urantia Foundation supposed to be responsible for
the text? The Trust document does not say the Trustees are to "publish the
text with whatever changes were authorized by the midwayers." What
midwayers? It says nothing about midwayers. It says nothing about a copyright.
It is self-evident, when one examines
the third printing, that Christy continued to make changes even though she was
then a Trustee Emeritus, supposedly with no power or duties according to your
Declaration of Trust. When one studies the findings of Merritt Horn, (which you
Trustees should really read sometime), it also becomes evident that human folly
had apparently taken over the text of the Urantia Papers. Changes went far
beyond the power of the contact commissioners, who were allowed only spelling,
capitalization and punctuation changes, and then only under the watchcare of
the Revelators. Words were changed and deleted, numbers changed. Sometimes
things were changed and then changed back. Merritt found that there was no
basis at all for making 67 of the changes. Database (spelling) standardization
could justify 19 of the changes, but only if standardization were consistently
applied - - which it has not been. This seems more like human amateurs at work
than midwayers.
It is regrettable that Urantia
Foundation elected to support these changes, and even claim mysteriously that
"it had reason to believe" that anonymous "revelators" had
directed them. You published, not so long ago, on your website:
"While there is no official
documentation as to the reason for some of the changes after the first printing
of The Urantia Book, we know from analyzing these changes (see the Foundation's
brochure: 'Changes to the Text') that most of the changes were typographical in
nature. We have reason to believe that none of the more significant changes
were made without approval from the revelators." (My emphasis.)
"More significant changes?"
Richard, does this not give validity to the Christy cult that has protected her
violations of the Declaration of Trust? Doesn't it continue the enabling
process that existed at 533 for so many years, when none dared challenge her?
Did the Trustees really believe she was talking to Revelators? Carolyn says the
intention was to "make the Book perfect." However, the Declaration of
Trust says nothing about making the Book perfect. Is it not more obsessive to
continue to meddle with the text to make it "perfect," that it is to
be content with the text the full contact commission originally printed?
Now, Richard, a great many of us
Urantians do NOT want this altered text. We want the original text without any
"significant changes." Most of us old timers have several first
printings. Indeed, we know the thrill we got when we opened those pages. You
seem to acknowledge the superiority of the 1955 text when you write: "If I
open one of the Foundation's few remaining pristine copies of that same 1955,
first printing, my emotions are stirred as they were in 1959. There is no
greater adventure for the truth seeker than truth finding ..."
Gosh Richard, you still have a
"few remaining pristine copies of that same 1955, first printing"
lying around there at 533? That's the book we want! Richard, you wrote the word
"pristine" in describing the first printing. The first definition of
pristine is "remaining in a pure state; uncorrupted by civilization."
That's the book we want, Rich! But that is NOT the book you are passing off as
a first printing in your current promotion. We do not want a book that is
"identical to the first edition published by Urantia Foundation in 1955,
except for the few spelling corrections and changes that were authorized by one
or more Contact Commissioners." One hundred and thirty-three changes are
not a few. Besides, why can't we get a book with no changes, a pristine one
"uncorrupted by civilization?" Then all readers can have the same
pleasure you do when you open "one of the few remaining copies of that
same 1955, first printing …"
We know you are bound by the
Declaration of Trust to keep three copies of the original printing free from
damage or harm. But, why do you continue to print a text that is different from
those copies you are preserving? Why do you call the text you print
"inviolate" when you know it is different from the text that is in
the Books you are preserving? How can two different versions of the same text
both be inviolate?
Now Richard, we know you were not
responsible for the destruction of the Plates. But surely you can understand
that the very last vestiges of those plates are what you characterize as the
"few remaining pristine copies of that same 1955, first printing."
You wrote that this printing "stirs" you ... you did not write that
any of the changed printings so move you. Don't you see that by printing
something different than the 1955 text and calling it the 1955 text you may be
completing the destruction of the original text that began with the
obliteration of the original plates? If you persist, what basis is there
remaining, then, for Urantia Foundation at all?
For perhaps the first time since
Urantia Foundation's responsibilities for the text were taken over by Christy
(during the period 1967 -1982), all the Trustees are fully aware of the changes
in the text. With full knowledge of these changes, surely all of you can see
that putting a facsimile of the 1955 cover on a miniature book that was printed
from the electronic digital files which contain not the original text, but
Christy's folly, and calling it "identical" to the 1955 original
printing, is misleading to the unsuspecting reader?
When I suggested to you, Mo, and George
that you should print an anniversary reissue of the original printing, I
explained it would have to be shot, page by page, from an actual first
printing. The way Pathways did it. This is tedious, difficult and expensive, I
know. But there is simply no other way to print exactly what was on the
original plates before they were destroyed.
Please end this promotional effort and
give us the Book we want. The one you love to open, the one that brings a
"floodtide of memories" to you. Even if you believe, personally, that
Christy was talking to the revelators in the period 1967-1982, can't you see
that it is unfair to characterize the changed version of the original text as
being the original? and that it is unjust to sell the altered text to readers
(who do not know any better) as identical the original 1955 text?
The promotion material Urantia
Foundation printed says the changes were "authorized" by one or more
contact commissioners. But, there were no contact commissioners when the
continuous alteration of the original text of the Urantia Papers was set into
motion in 1967. Bill Sadler wrote ten years before that the contact
commissioners were "defunct." He should know. So how could a
"contact commissioner" have authorized changes in the text? Even if
you believe Christy was still a contact commissioner in 1967, you know that
none of the contact commissioners were ever authorized to make any changes but
spelling, capitalization and punctuation. Anyway, the original text (the
plates), were turned over by the contact commission to Urantia Foundation in
1950. And under the Declaration of Trust, there was no power whatsoever granted
to the Trustees to edit the original text.
Isn't 50 years long enough to wait
between printings of the text given us by the full and Revelator-sanctioned
contact commission? Isn't it time to print the authentic 1955 text in the
manner that Pathways did? the same text the contact commission produced under
the watchcare of the Revelatory Commission? Urantians of today want the same
book you enjoy opening, the one you are preserving copies of somewhere at 533.
If you wish, Merritt Horn may allow you to print his findings in the back of a
republication of the authentic 1955 text, and then readers can decide for
themselves whether the changes made were justified or not.
But more important, with a valid and
authentic replica of the first printing all Urantians can all have a touchstone
to know what was actually published from the original plates.
Richard, you know that I believe that
this Revelation belongs to the people. We may differ on this. However, there
can be no question that Urantia Foundation must have the confidence of the
readers. It is true that older readers will be gone one day, and the question
of the text may be forgotten. I doubt this, however, because there are many
younger readers who fully grasp the folly of printing several different
versions of the text while "preserving" the original, and calling all
of these versions "inviolate." Regardless of all of this, however,
surely you can see how damaging it could be to the confidence of readers to
sell a book as an authentic replica of the original text when it is not.
In your own words: "There is no
greater adventure for the truth seeker than truth finding..." Richard, I
urge you to permit ALL Urantians to get the benefit of the original text in
their hands when they do their truth seeking. Surely every believer in the
Fifth Epochal Revelation can agree on the integrity of this basic principle.
Larry Mullins
6-10-02