© 2012 Earlene Green
© 2012 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Perfecting, Neuroplasticity, and the Supreme Actualizing | Volume 12, Number 1, 2012 (Summer) — Index | Religion of Experience vs Religion of Authority |
Editor’s note: The following has been updated from a previous essay by the author.
I was recently reminded of the difficult time I passed through when I reached sections in The Urantia Book which dealt with the races. I had loaned a copy of the book to a girlfriend. After a week or two, she called me to say that whoever wrote Paper 64 was prejudiced. Those were my exact sentiments upon my initial reading.
I also recalled the fact that only seven black adults attended the conference in Wisconsin the summer of 1978. The combination of these two events has led me to feel that if more black people are to benefit from the teachings of The Urantia Book, perhaps they will have to be gingerly guided over certain portions as I was.
To obtain an objective view on the relationship of black people to The Urantia Book, I have read and re-read Papers 51, 52, and 64 many times. This is in addition to having completed one reading of the entire book and being threefourths of the way through on a second reading. Focused attention on one particular subject such as race, without full knowledge of how and why it fits into the whole, may have a tendency to reduce ordinary reasoning to an emotional exercise in futility. During my first reading of the book, I placed X marks opposite several paragraphs to indicate my displeasure. Now, however, after a period of careful attention, I feel that my original interpretation lacked reasoning. It is my hope that the statements I make here will ease the passage across these papers for those serious readers who would initially find them offensive.
I would venture to proffer that there are few blacks in America today who have not experienced racial discrimination. Hence, the overly sensitive response to certain words and phrases such as misfit, backward, you people, degenerate, boy, inferior, etc. In Parts II and III of The Urantia Book, some of these words occur repeatedly. Consequently, emotions gradually displace concentrated reading and objectivity takes a vacation. At such moments of frustration, one can feel that even God is not on his side, and a deep sense of helplessness follows.
How can this lack of objectivity be overcome? “The true perspective of any reality problem…can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny . . . The study of causation is the perusal of history. But the knowledge of how a being becomes does not necessarily provide an intelligent understanding of the present status and true character of such a being.” [UB 19:1.6-10] (Emphasis added)
For an individual to gain an understanding of The Urantia Book and of his relationship to the environment he lives in as well as to the universe it would be helpful to seriously consider:
Completion of the book as a basis of understanding
God’s purpose for six evolutionary races of color
The time factor regarding the six evolutionary races
The defaults of the Planetary Prince and Adam and Eve
An understanding of the Supreme Being and our relationship to him.
We are twentieth-century beings who are intelligent, curious, well-rounded, and spiritually motivated enough to be interested in the contents of The Urantia Book. Personal emotions are a waste of energy when we are considering what our racial status on earth was nearly one-half million years ago—the time period referred to in Paper 64. This was about the time of the arrival of the Planetary Prince and long before the arrival of Adam and Eve. Equality, as we perceive it today, did not exist among early evolutionary people. At that time, a great majority of the people did not have Thought Adjusters, that individual spark from God which makes us all spiritually equal.
Papers 51, 52, and 64 discuss the progress of the six, or sometimes three, evolutionary races of color which are found on an average evolutionary world; and from this information we can measure our own progress. Harmonization of the Urantia races has slowly proceeded, but not through the prescribed technique. The book further states that our planet “. . .is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule.” [UB 52:3.6] And further, The Urantia Book states that on a normal inhabited word the races are practically blended by the end of the Adamic dispensation.
Remember, the period of time referred to in Paper 64 is after the arrival of the Planetary Prince and long before the arrival of Adam and Eve. The shortest paragraph of Paper 64 is the most troublesome “Notwithstanding their backwardness, these indigo peoples have exactly the same standing before the celestial powers as any other earthly race.” [UB 64:6.27] It is my personal opinion that this paragraph is quite unnecessary, but the real fault is one of tense. This statement might appropriately refer to that time long ago, yet it is written as though its application is always current; as it could have been read then, can be read now, and will continue to be read fifty to one hundred years from now when the status of the black man will no doubt be a record of continuous advancement. “However wise it may be to glean wisdom from the past, it is folly to regard the past as the exclusive source of truth. . .” [UB 79:8.8]
Again, it should be borne in mind when reading the sentences that contain some of those “touchy words” that cause social reflex flinching, that unfit and inferior strains are found in all races of people just as higher strains are found in all races. These differences sometimes manifest themselves within the same family “. . .all human beings are not born equal.” [UB 69:3.8] Some are superior at one thing and perform at unacceptable levels at other things.
Mankind is now divided into approximately three classes: the Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and the Negroid, the first two groups containing some secondary Sangik mixture. Mankind is further intellectually divided into three classes: the subnormal minded; the average, normal type of human mind; and the supernormal mind. We must think of ourselves as one part of a whole people we are to become. “There are no pure races in the world today.” [UB 82:6.1]
There are only two races representative of early evolutionary people of color—the yellow man and the black man—and they are admixed with extinct colored peoples. Even our modern white race contains much less than oneeighth to one-sixth percentage of the blood of Adam which characterized the Mesopotamian Andites over eight thousand years ago. [UB 78:4.1] Paper 80 could be just as disturbing to blacks in that it is stated in more than one place that whites absorbed a considerable amount of secondary Sangik blood through the Saharans who were the superior group of the indigo race. Indeed, the white race has been blended too much to be classified as Nordic, Alpine, or Mediterranean.
The Urantia Book states that “Race mixture is always advantageous in that it .favors versatility of culture and makes for a progressive civilization. . .” [UB 79:2.7] The book further states, among other things, that “Race mixtures of the average or superior strata of various peoples greatly increase creative potential, as is shown in the present population of the United States of North America…The chief troubles of ‘half-breeds’ are due to social prejudices . . .” and “Mixtures of the white and black races are not so desirable in their immediate results. . .” [UB 82:6.9]
“Immediate results” in North and South America, as well as on the nearby Carribbean islands, were during the height of slavery. Lerone Bennett, Jr. in Before the Mayflower wrote that most black slaves came from an area bordering a 3,000 mile stretch on the west coast of Africa.[1] They were a bewildering mixture of various stocks. Centuries of contact and interbreeding had already produced different types. Some of the West Africans were short and broad nosed. Some were tall with straight hair and aquiline noses. They were of all colors—chocolate, asphalt, café au lait, persimmon, and cream.
I am of the opinion that today in the United States of America over half the black population is of mixed ancestry, long since past the stage of hybridization which was an immediate result referred to above. This is not where the harm lies. The Urantia Book says that “. . .the real jeopardy of the human species is to be found in the unrestrained multiplication of inferior and degenerate strains of the various civilized peoples rather than in any supposed danger of their racial interbreeding.” [UB 82:6.11]
It is no longer relevant that the earlier evolutionary races were somewhat superior than the latter, that the red man was endowed with a higher intellectual ability north of the Rio Grande—he is all but extinct. (Shades of an inverted parable: The Talents and the Servants.) And about eighty percent of the Chinese population consists of peasants because of China’s underdeveloped agrarian economy. At this period of time on Urantia, intellectual ability seems to be relative to one’s environment.
As a result of slavery and wars, the modern-day black man’s presence and influence is now firmly rooted in four continents. Here in America, numerous blacks live around, nearby, and with whites and other ethnic groups. Through the mechanism of slavery, the black man developed a unique insight into the psyche of the white man which contributed greatly to his ability to survive. In general, the white man has not availed himself of opportunities to know the black man in a similar manner. Only lately have some whites made overt overtures to blacks, often being rebuffed in so doing. The cause and solution to this problem, however, is not the subject of this narrative.
Students of The Urantia Book have learned that there exists a unique opportunity to reconcile some of the existing social problems during this phase of life, thereby greatly enhancing the prospects for advancement on the mansion worlds where we will be“ “. . .mingling with diverse groups of personalities, orders very different from one’s own fellows.” [UB 46:5.22]
The one great truth Jesus taught was the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It is personally debilitating and ungodly for any one of us to rebuff another who is earnestly seeking growth. Each of us must willingly serve our fellow man to fulfill our duty to God the Supreme. Some of us, as individuals or as a group, have difficult tasks to perform, on the whole, and from our limited perspective it might seem quite unfair. But remember, our attainments are the result of individual effort and actual living. Finally, it is the task of each of us to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and be led to glorify the Father who is in heaven.
Eleven years later the question is: Is the divine plan for the races, as described in The Urantia Book proceeding apace? I will have to say not necessarily. Let’s look at the big picture.
Diverse people are again longing for nationalism; proand anti-abortion issues in the United States mask the main issue of purging the races of the antisocial and degenerate individuals. So many people have found that the issues confronting them today are too much to deal with so they have “copped out” on drugs. A lot of self-purging and group-purging is going on. There is no hurry for a racial commission to undertake the “weeding out” task. A great number of people are committing suicide in various forms. A new underclass of people consistently eliminate each other with guns because of drugs and the profit drugs bring. Ethical leadership is at an all-time low. I can’t recall in my lifetime when such leadership was at an all-time high. All of these factors have a bearing on our evolutionary progress on this planet. “Evolution is the rule of human development.” [UB 49:1.4]
I consider Washington D.C. to be one of the major crossroads of Urantia. Plant yourself in a good spot in this area and you can watch the world go to and fro. Here in the United States I have observed a marked increase in interracial cohabitation and marriage. I have observed the larger category to be among black men and white women followed by white men and Oriental women, then white men and black or Hispanic women. Of course there are additional racial mixtures, but I speak mainly of those who cause your head to turn as they pass by.
Since my first writing I have visited Brazil and was told that eighty percent of its citizens were racially blended. I have been to China and saw some Chinese who were more red, so-called, than so-called yellow. How to get this nation to emerge from hegemony is a task worthy for the Angels of Nation Life.
And it is good that people from some eastern European countries where everyone is beginning to look like brother and sister have the urge to migrate and hopefully will mix and marry outside their own group.
The 2000-year birthday of Jesus on Urantia is said to be in 1994 which we hope will inaugurate a new dispensation for Urantia. What type of people will carry us into this new era? Of necessity they must be the biologically fit and the intellectually competent and those who possess the capacity for spiritual receptivity.
We in the United States are just a small part of that global struggle wherein man is constantly searching for his identity and place in this world. “When men search for God, they are searching for everything. When they find God, they have found everything.” [UB 117:6.9] May our continuing search enhance our daily lives with new understanding and increased love for our fellow men.
One parting thought: When Ganid asked Jesus what he thought about India’s caste system, Jesus replied: “Though human beings differ in many ways the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not.” [UB 133:0.3]
Earlene Green completed her first reading of The Urantia Book on May 17, 1979. Eight more times she read it on her own and with her reading group—“Those Without Name or Number.” Her mentors were Troy Bishop and Neal Waldrop. In April 1979 she wrote the paper “Race and The Urantia Book”, followed by the addendum in 1990. The paper was well received and widely distributed throughout the Urantia movement. She has hosted a number of workshops at various International Conferences over the years, and was a plenary speaker for IC96.
| Perfecting, Neuroplasticity, and the Supreme Actualizing | Volume 12, Number 1, 2012 (Summer) — Index | Religion of Experience vs Religion of Authority |
Lerone Bennett, Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, Penguin Non-Classics, 1993 (first published 1984) ↩︎