Just as certainly as men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious group of some sort which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. Let the term "faith" stand for the individual’s relation to God rather than for the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree upon as a common religious attitude. “Have you faith? Then have it to yourself.”
The Urantia Book 99:5.7
It is the turning away from these UB ideals in recent years by "certain" UB organizations (i.e. pushing for scheduled and LED group prayer and religious ritual at UB events, overemphasis on Christian-style dogma--moralizing and patronizing about the behavior of others, inflexibility and "gentle blindness" ((my term)) of leaders who believe they are self-appointed pipelines for the FER--along with their unwillingness to listen to and implement the issues brought up by the greater, general and ((Thankfully, so-far)) religiously UNorganized UB readership, and - though this sounds strange perhaps to traditional religionists out there - over-emphasis ABOUT Jesus), that may jeopardize all that we have worked for since 1955.
Some UB groups are LOSING membership, turning off non-Christians, repelling the youth and giving the impression that the UB is a "sacred text," "Word of God (which it ISN'T!)," or "God's Bible" that can replace the Judeo-Christian Bible; one that a church should be based around. In my opinion (and it is ONLY my opinion) "churchification" of the UB movement is the single most destructive thing that we could possibly attempt to institute.
I know how ironic this may sound to some, but, the Effectiveness of the FER and its textbook (the UB) on our world is proportional to how SECULAR our UB groups remain and appear to potential readers. If they are destined to read the UB, then they will naturally work with us to "effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than" set group requirements. And a new kind of *world-wide* religion (being a literal "institution," with full Authority and experiential theo-social maturity) will eventually become realistically possible. Rushing such a plan will delay this goal, and may discredit the UB for many years to come.
In my mind there are only three kinds of valid religion: (1) Personal Religion - The soul growth obtained through daily experience; by getting to know the Father from within one's own soul (the INDIVIDUAL choosing the Will of the Father), and therefore becoming like Him. (2) Social Religion - The UNorganized and spontaneous religious experience of groups of SIMILAR thinking faith-brothers and sisters--devoid of group religious policies (rules, creeds and dogma and desires for unrealistic spiritual uniformity); a social experience that codifies the importance of number 1 (personal religion), over all group goals. (3) Planetary Religion - The only valid form of "institutional" religion, and one that will encompasses the ENTIRE planet--and, by the time that is possible, we will Truly know how to get it right. Anything short of these three, WILL ALWAYS FAIL.
Adherence to a human system of "psychological OPINIONS," "theological beliefs," and group "creeds," stultifies and makes static, the Truths that would be most useful to our world and ourselves as individual souls (if they would only be kept dynamic and pliable). Resigning one's self (and soul) to a system of group parameters, limiting what one can believe in one's own heart and mind, precludes the ability to keep that mind open to the growth of concepts BEYOND the group. Groups - ALL groups - are not in the least bit interested in the growth of the individual and her/his personal adaptations to the outer and inner worlds she/he functions in--despite their platitudes and propaganda that may say otherwise. They have ONE mission: Maintenance of the GROUP. This may not be a bad thing for bowling leagues, but it's a disaster for organized religions.
Only I can save MY soul. No minister or priest (or self-appointed UB religious leader--even if they truly believe they are promoting the "spirit of religion") will stand beside me at the time of my death and subsequent Judgement. I must face that moment ALONE, and I would be wiser to have spent my time here on Urantia doing the *inner* work of personal spiritual enlightenment in the sanctuary of my own soul, through direct experience with my Father (Our Father), than to attempt such a thing in the midst of a group of people (though well-meaning and even highly loving) who may have innocently (or not) stumbled upon the error of disallowing the integration of some of my own spiritual discoveries into THEIR conception of what MY "faith" should be...just for the upkeep and harmony of the concreted belief system of the GROUP.
And so I say: LOVE to all here. Though somewhat impersonal, an online forum of this kind has a much greater potential to attract new readers, satisfy the desire to socialize our personal religions and reach large numbers of other interested folks. If we were to have THIS kind of group, in person, without the trappings of a church-like agenda, our UB events and conferences would fill to over-flowing with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and all other people of God...as well as Christians.
And YOUNG people (16-35 y.o.) - having been turned off by the meaningless (though comfortably accepted) rituals of the conventional and traditional churches which they were often *forced* to attend (but - through Inner Leading - might have chosen to walk away from these so-called "houses of God," all the while, filled with guilt, shame and hatred for themselves for not being able to live "up" to the unrealistic and inflexible creeds therein) would then swell the ranks of our readership. They would joyfully take the reigns of the movement, as the (hopefully) loosened and freeing, current UB leadership is passed from our older generations to them; lighting a Divine fire, fueled and led by the oxygen of the Power of the God Sparks in their minds, that would then sweep across the world. If you think WE (as generally older folks) are doing well with social media channels and digital communication, wait til you see a group of "Millenials" take over. In ONE generation THEY could make the UB a world-wide, household Word. But they ave to love it and not fear it. Or, they will reject it.
Let's not loot their future. Let's not turn them off when we (and the whole world) needs them most. Let's give them the guilt-free Tools to save the planet, end the cultures of greed, materialism, intolerance, racism, sexism, militarism, political polarity and general selfishness. We can fix what we are doing in this UB movement, but it must be conscious, deliberate, intelligent and wise.
In my opinion (again) we MUST step back and outside of our re-inforced bubble, and TRULY observe what we are doing here. Throw away expectations and fantasies about having UB churches on every street corner. As great and dearly loved as the UB is to me, I KNOW now that IT is not the Epochal Revelation that will achieve the kind of acceptance necessary for religious organization. I KNOW in my heart that it IS, however, the textbook which is training a Religious and Cosmological Caste of heaven-educated individuals, who will prepare the world for the coming of the Sixth Epochal Revelation (or possibly the completion of this FER)--a Paradise Son. And HE will initiate the forces needed to bring about the eventual organization of the world under Michael and our Father. No one has to subscribe to this belief, but it would not hurt to consider it, if even hypothetically.
Epochal Revelation is about putting the peoples of Urantia in direct personal contact - while in the flesh -with incarnated Sons (and Daughters). The "Book" of Urantia is a stepping stone to the fulfillment of exactly this. We are out of sequence. The point being, that the incarnation of a new Paradise Son coming before an organized religion can form around the concepts of the UB, is mathematically much more probable, than not.
I implore my wonderful sisters and brothers HERE, NOW, to abandon "churchification," for the sake of a future in which it will eventually happen anyway, but organically; with out pushing and shoving the UB or the agenda of organized religious groups who read it, down people's throats. Why are we currently so impatient for organizing a religion that we ourselves are just now barely beginning to understand? We must *Master* it first (in every meaning of that word). We need further Instruction and more self-enlightenment. What we should be is THRILLED at the prospect of receiving a New Advent that will fill in that Instruction. My heart of hearts tells me this Event will very shortly come to pass. And I thank my Daddy that I was born among the most fortunate of Urantian generations.
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