© 2023 Barry Culligan
© 2023 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Letter from the Editor | Volume 23, Number 1, 2023 (summer) — Index | Unity Principles—The Key to Dynamic Oneness |
by Barry Culligan
I find the topic of unity not uniformity intriguing. It is instructive that the one paper on which Machiventa Melchizedek collaborated was devoted to unity. It is also significant that Jesus repeatedly admonished his followers to see past their differences and to work together as one family consecrated to the service, salvation, and liberty of the children of God. This was a pivotal theme throughout his ministry. The writers of The Urantia Book themselves revisit this issue over and over again, exploring it in a wide variety of contexts. It’s almost as though they are trying to provide us with a not so subtle hint, but what could they be hinting at?
One could say, on the surface of it, that they are concerned about unity and of driving home the point that the age of light and life can never be established by a sect-divided Christianity. There’s a lot to unpack there. Looking at this more deeply, one could say that The Urantia Book is indirectly pointing out the dangers of division, alluding perhaps to its roots and fruits, and that in our efforts to achieve unity we should be mindful of those individuals and institutions that seek to sow division, discord, fear, and strife among the brethren. Certainly, the unity indicative of the age of light and life will not be advanced very far without being mindful of such challenges. Indeed, one could argue that these set the template by which we could in fact overcome the world and establish worldwide unity.
But hidden in this idea of unity not uniformity are other gems. The Father loves uniqueness. Every single personality in the universe is unique; they may conform to specific types but each individual is unique. Flowers, birds, and bees all have types, but each is unique. This endless stream of unique beings and phenomena is utterly marvelous, mind boggling, and instructive. The Father has made us similar but distinct. He has crowned each of us with personal dignity, made each of us irreplaceably unique, and endowed us each with practically immeasurable value. He craves our prosperity in time and our survival in eternity. He prays with us, in us, and through us for the attainment of the riches He has set aside for us, and grieves to see us at war.
The perspective of God the Sevenfold is an illuminating reality that teaches us about the importance of unity not uniformity. Each Master Spirit represents a specific and unique aspect of Deity; no one in particular is sufficient and adequate to represent the whole of Deity but when working together, as a unified whole, they can and do encapsulate the Deity majesty of the Trinity to all creation. This is a design feature put in by the Creator. Each has his respective domain of expertise and control but all are complimentary. Even in the Trinity we see very specific domains associated with each person of the Trinity, and while there is no crossover per say, again, they are complementary.
We are each essential to the Father’s endeavor to achieve the maximum of selfrevelation and self-distribution. In and through him we are made one, but even though we are thus unified we are not uniform. We are similar but we are different, even as the Creator himself has decreed. The Father relishes and prospers in our uniqueness, and his only desire is that we would voluntarily conform with the ideals of perfection he established in the very foundations of eternity. In so doing, we will discover for ourselves the maximum of joy of which we are capable and the unique potential that we alone can actualize.
However, when we reframe this topic out of a purely spiritual context and bring it down to earth, as it were, these truths can take on entirely new hues. This seems especially true when we consider the evolution and growth of religions and religious movements. Indeed, the dynamics at play here seem to strike through all our institutions.
It seems to me that, technically, what The Urantia Book could be referring to is unity not conformity, but it probably lacked the alliterative style so they went with uniformity. Uniformity, in itself, is not a bad thing. We see that Thought Adjusters, for example, are initially identical but that they acquire distinct attributes as a result of accumulated individual experiences, progressing to the point where they merit the gift of personalisation. Angels are made to uniform specification and these orders are distinct, albeit that some are capable of transitioning between orders. Similar reality is true of other divinely-created beings. However, while beings of a particular order are uniform, it is through the endowment of personality that each becomes a genuinelyunique being throughout all creation and all time.
However, when it comes to religious movements things like unity, uniformity, and conformity become intensely significant. Consider, at the dawn of religious movements, institutions are established to preserve and promulgate certain teachings. However, one of their vulnerabilities is that their capacity for dynamic growth and innovative change is inversely proportional to their size. Sadly, as they age they often progress from being merely preservative to being actively hostile to new growth. In their senility they become intractable, blind to error and deaf to critique. As they sense their loss of control growing they become more and more authoritarian and despotic, demanding conformity with positions that are not only unreasonable but insane. Out of the rupture of schism new movements emerge and so the cycle continues.
In contradistinction to conformity stands the individual. It is said that talent has the ability to hit a target that no one else can reach but genius has the ability to hit a target that no one else can see. Throughout history, again and again, we see genius butting its head against the mores of an age, and often being rejected in its own lifetime, only later to find posthumous glory. The ardent truth seeker engages in a dangerous pastime when he dares critique the dominant ideology. Through the insight, genius, and passion of those who refuse to conform to the world—but who, moreover, challenge the world that it should conform with the ideals of perfection established by its Creators-humanity has been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the kingdom of better and more noble realities.
Unfortunately, the individual is often perceived as a living insult by the conformist, because they reject that to which the conformist so willingly bends the knee. The conformist detests the individual because the individual critiques the values of the conformist, and the world to which they gave birth, deems them as not good enough and demands that they reach higher, do better, and achieve more. The individual does not hate the conformist; he pleads with him to achieve the glorious destiny he knows can be his but for the striving. Consequently, the individual often finds himself in a life or death struggle with the established authorities, with those heavily invested in the status quo. The scions of the established order perceive in the actions and teachings of the individual a threat to their way of life (not realizing that it is already doomed) and so feel compelled to act in defense of it. Thus do we see powerful elites engage in villainous intrigue and come into murderous conflict with inspired individuals. This division reaches its nadir when they are at last forced to give the individual, and his followers, a simple choice: conform or die.
The way The Urantia Book speaks of spiritual unity suggests that the Catholic and the Protestant are not required to conform with one another but are to live faithfully as best they can—humbly before God, respectfully as brothers who understand that their differences are not inimical but complementary, united in loving service, bearing the fruits of the spirit, eschewing violence in all its forms—working together to establish righteousness, peace, and justice. How the world craves to see these brothers united! Indeed, there can be little doubt that the toxic elites of this world fear a unified Christendom more than anything else in the world; they spend fortunes endeavoring to keep us at one another’s throats. When will we wake up from this frightful nightmare which has been foisted upon us and realize that our enemy is not he who is of a different color, or he who was born into a different tradition, but those who “say that which is good, but they do it not.” (UB 175:1.8)
Barry Culligan is the current president of the Urantia Association for the United Kingdom and Ireland. He can be reached at strangepreacher@gmail.com
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site
| Letter from the Editor | Volume 23, Number 1, 2023 (summer) — Index | Unity Principles—The Key to Dynamic Oneness |