The Justin Case

[This essay was originally published at UBRON on Saturday, Novemeber 14, 2009. It is a last ditch effort to address what I believe is the great philosophical loss of Justin Reed, one of UBRON's brightest minds (because of his belief that Christ Michael has incarnated as a human who legally changed his name to "Christ Michael" (called, "CM", below).]

It was the around the time that I began receiving adware from Justin's email account that my concerns about him really began in earnest. I realize now that it was not Justin's fault. I thought - in my paranoid frame of mind over the affair - that it might be a new tactic by CM. I no longer think that (frankly, he's just not smart or creative enough to start a campaign like that). HOWEVER, Justin's refusal to respond to my many emails to him did heighten my suspicions, and was a poor choice on his part. It took my posting the situation HERE to get him to respond (and still the response was not to me, personally).

It might not be well-known that I frequently fought behind the scenes to defend the right of t/r people to post their beliefs here (though I didn't share those beliefs). All I asked of the t/r people, publically was that they CITE their sources and differentiate their (post-UB publication) terminology from that of the published UB. Justin also fought me (hard) on that. He tried to turn my argument for a more scholarly approach into a debate about "freedom of speech." Now we know why. It is the same, self-serving, argument he makes when other members are warned by Patrick about their continued use of off-topic themes.

Never one single time has Justin thanked the Admins for allowing HIM to publically denounce their decisions about UBRON Guidelines; an act, within itself, that is against the Guidelines. Never one single time has he (or any of the t/r followers) publically thanked the Admins for their patience with the t/r discussion here (an act which is ALSO against the Guidelines), though the Admins refusal to stop it, in favor of giving people the freedom to continue no matter how blatant and pridefully these t/r followers shove their dogma into our faces. The followers of the t/r belief system (now a pseudo- religion) often treat the reluctance of Admin interference with certain subjects as proof that the Admins is so biased as to be STREERING the entire enterprise for the gratification their own (the Admin's) personal schema.

So the struggle for clarity, citation, voluntary scholarly practices and truth goes on...

Even Steff was reprimanded by Behz for not citing a t/r quote that she closely paraphrased. I don't believe she would do that again. Her excuse at the time was something like "...Well, if people had know where it really came from they would have dismissed its eloquence [and even *I* admit it WAS eloquent]." Folks, we must all realize that that is the oldest excuse in the (non-UB) book, and the reason why SCHOLARS insist that high quality writing be well cited and referenced- -or it is, simply and delicately put, SHIT. The situation turned right around and fulfilled Steff's fear that it wouldn't be taken seriously, BECAUSE it was revealed to be a deception (albeit a small and very forgivable one). I predict that it might have been accepted as another VALID point of view, had she only been up-front with its source.

Despite her coldness toward me, personally, and her association with the t/r phenomenon, I DO HIGHLY value Steff's work here. She is a beloved sister and well- balanced contributor who DOES follow the rules of the site and (largely) keeps her post-published- FER musings (t/r views) OUT of UBRON. She should be recognized and commended for this. We all know her as "the Queen of Quotes." And despite my seething hatred for posts made of nothing but UB quotes (with no commentary - just MY own little pet peeve), I mind much less when she does it, because her UB quotes are VERY well thought out in the choosing and artfully placed in the context of threads.

And she is not overly stubborn when it is requested that she be clear. To her great credit, she (grudgingly) chose to better differentiate her commentary from the UB quotes she chooses after that was requested of her, some months back.

Someone asked a few days ago why Justin's quotes from the UB had Jesus' name uncapitalized. Well, as any of we search engine-freaks know, Truthbook (which I am presuming is the place we he does HIS searches for his all-quote posts) and other search engines return the quote that you are searching for, by altering the quote WITH THE SPELLING YOU ORIGINALLY SEARCH WITH, which in Justin's (and many of our) cases, is done in quick lower-case letters. This is not because we don't care enough about the word we're searching for, but rather because it is more efficient sometimes. HOWEVER, most of us DO take the time to THEN capitalize the word - especially if it is Jesus' name - when we actually POST those quotes. I'm sure I'm wrong in this assessment, but it made it SEEM more important for Justin to just get the post supporting his argument up than it was to be careful, thoughtful and respectful to both Jesus AND his fellow UBRONers. Yet, maybe he can be forgiven if this was the case, since he believed in his own mind that CHRIST MICHAEL would be emailing him later that day anyway, and probably wouldn't mind. The REAL Jesus wouldn't mind either. But it says something about sloppiness and lack of scholarly care on his part (again, in my opinion).

But my attitude to this kind of deception from others hardened this Fall with Justin's introduction of the "Planetary Supreme" (a purely t/r-"revealed" concept - which I can prove is t/r to anyone who emails me privately, with a forwarded transcript). And his bold and unyielding refusal to link this concept to his t/r-CM- influenced belief system was simply too much to see from him (YET AGAIN). All of the people here who were taken in, and said, "Yeah, it really could be valid in some way!" were suckers in the FIRST degree. Even when several of us CLEARLY pointed out that this was "extra-UB- related" we were summarily IGNORED. And I offer these folks a share of my ownership in the Casco Bay Bridge... ;)

Coupled with this uncited sneakiness on Justin's part, I was genuinely surprised at his distortion and error of ACTUAL UB info; saying that our souls on this world are not morontia (which they ARE), that the soul we wake up with on Mansonia One is NOT the same soul we have here (which he termed the "planetary soul" - DEAD WRONG), and that our SOUL is re-assembled in the resurrection halls (which it ISN'T - it is our FORM that is assembled, with an INTACT soul). Many of our truly greatest minds entertained ALL of these as possibilities without having a clue about the intentions and origins behind them. That's what I mean when I say "twisted agenda."

I receive TONS of email from all sides of all of these issues. And for years I've received both t/r transcripts from believers in the phenomenon, as well as rebuttals from highly conservative fundamentalist UB readers and TeaM watch dog groups. Frankly, I had always sided with the TeaM-related (or t/r-believing) folks because they were open-minded to more liberal philosophies. And as you might know, I am a great believer in Cognitive Liberty. But, in these last couple months, I have been forced to see just how deluded some t/r programs are becoming (in my opinion, of course). That doesn't mean I'm camping out with the Fundies now. It simply means that I have not been balanced enough in my personal assumptions.

Honestly, I would still be a supporter of the t/r expression here at UBRON if their believership didn't INSIST on shooting themselves in the feet every chance they got. Justin is perhaps that latest and the greatest of these folks. In answering my question about his belief in CM, at least NOW his cards are on the table. Why should it have taken, literally YEARS for this disclosure? Who knows? But I do appreciate his recent, though painfully reluctant, admission. And I thank him for finally being partly honest with us. Now we will have a better chance of discerning where his "introduced" concepts come from. Perhaps this is a start? Or, perhaps this is a non-start? Regardless, it is a CHANGE that was vitally needed here.

Now with the ridiculousness of Soren's statement on the heels of Justin's admission, and integrated with the UN-CHRISTLIKE behavior displayed by CM in emails to our members (like me and Rick), perhaps a new leaf is very slowly being turned over. Despite how some of you view me, I really am an optimist and that is why I seem so naive in my belief that - as the Beatles once sang - "It's getting better all the time."

I've said it many times before... The truth need not be tip-toed around. There should never be a commandment to not "get too close" or "you can look but don't touch" or "just trust us, it's true." the truth is a tough son-of-a-God! When you go to check out the truth, you should be able to kick the tires, honk the horn, drive it around the block, test the brakes, see it's maintenance history. It doesn't need sneaky, pussy-footing. It doesn't need to have itself be broken up and "validated" for better digestion by special "experts" with pipelines to transmit and receive its vital nature, to the "less contacted." It doesn't have to be sheltered underground by cults, special rites, secrecy and subterfuge. It's the TRUTH for petesake! :) Jesus didn't use special codes and secrets. He didn't limply and surreptitiously use deception to tell the Word. He went straight to the center of the religious world, stood up in the greatest temple that ever graced our world and broadcast his new Gospel across the olive-covered mountaintops! Jesus wasn't a PUSSY. He new his ideas were plainly spoken of and generously given to anyone who asked.

Therefore, more and more often lately, I am sickened by this little network of self- styled extenders of the FER. They will use the tired old cliches about "witch hunts" to bitch about the lack of acceptance here at UBRON for the t/r phenomenon but don't be fooled.

Having said all this - and allowing the Fundies to wring their hands a bit in a very minor, unearned triumph from their side of the isle (so to speak), I must in all fairness make the following caveat...

As a final word upon what was once called, TeaM, t/r, etc, (feel free to let me know what the more acceptable term should be now) - at least in this rant - I will say that I DO believe there is something to what was originally being identified back in the 1970's to 1990's regarding a certain amount of inter-realm communication.

Gerdean, my adopted Auntie, perhaps the wisest member in our UBRON community, and a person I consider beyond reproach or human judgement, has some VERY believable memories to recount about these early days, if people would just listen. TRULY - I believe - she had ACTUAL encounters with the kinds of beings that today's younger generation may be deceiving themselves about receiving. That's why I will never fully discount the possibility of infrequent and occasional communication of this sort. It is out of respect for her (and her very pointed and justified request to me one night a couple years ago ;]) that I DO NOT use the terms, "channeling", "channeler", "TeaMer", etc. And I would STRONGLY request that others also be more respectful when speaking about what she and many of these people did, (and possibly) still do, encounter.

The fair-minded person will show respect to the request by t/r believers and MYSELF, as we KNOW that these stated terms are offensive, derisive, derogatory and are now mostly only used by non-t/r believers to elicit, presumptuous, socially- stigmatizing negative and unfair stereo-types and prejudice onto others, and onto a phenomenon they don't understand and blindly want to abolish.

I submit this lengthy comment, in a spirit of diplomacy. I fully understand that the less-insightful among you (one person immediately comes to mind, but this time I will not mention his name) will fight like the dickens to smear me, cherry- pick the weakest parts of my writing and attempt to cause you all to reject it. In truth, I sincerely hope that my critics DO come out of the woodwork to do just that! It has become obvious to me, as of late, that that very act of desperate defiance has made these people look stupid. And finally (though not completely yet), I'm learning to not immediately fire back my own character assassinations upon them.

Further, my discussion of Justin in the above should not be seen (though it will be by some) as a character assassination of the sort I just spoke of either. This will be hard for some of you to believe, but it IS true.

If I still didn't see tiny shards of light streaming from the brilliant mind of this falling human angel, I would stand-down in my attempts to point out the problems as I alone see them. That is the biggest thing I want to express here at the end of my diatribe. Justin is not beyond redemption, I believe (again ONLY my opinion). When I think that he ultimately has reached the point of no return, I will genuinely promise to refrain from ever uttering his name again (critically) in public. In this same vein, I offer to hear what he thinks about me and my views, and I welcome his always honest assessment of my intentions.

As a Coda and personal message to Justin I will say, in the kind of language he alone might fully appreciate:


I want to love you, Justin. But you are slipping into unreality, and setting like the evening sun, beyond the horizon of my sight. I pray that, perhaps like the inevitable warmth and brilliance of the new morning light, you will rise again; this time as a human star and teacher like no other has ever been, as if re-lit by a profound luminosity that the whole world will discover, rejoice about and thank God for.
Love,

A.