© 2024 Gaétan G. Charland
© 2024 Urantia Association of Quebec
Gaetan Charland
Boucherville
French translation by Gaétan Charland.
UBH BILL SADLER on BROADCASTING and SEPARATE READINGS of PART IV
Transcribed from a recording by David Kantor, Oklahoma City [May 20, 1961]
BILL SADLER: What I’m saying tonight is not a criticism. I’m simply sharing some thoughts with you, because, please, I’ve never been down this road before; I don’t know how to do it.
AUDIENCE MEMBER [sardonically]: How many revelations have you released?
BILL SADLER [amused]: This is my first; I’ve only had this Book about a year longer than any of you. I’ve been reading it longer, but when it comes to propaganda, I’m just as new as you are. I’m just about twelve months ahead of you, that’s all.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, Bill, some of us are terribly concerned because we’ve put in so much effort…and seen so much disinterest…and somehow we’re unable to attract new readers…[various audience members express frustration at the lack of new readers.]
BILL SADLER: I’ve listened to a lot of advice, a lot of ideas, about spreading this Book within the Brotherhood. And I’m not too happy with those who seem to do very little except enjoy the Book—and there are some. I haven’t seen a frantic approach be too successful. There’s a guy in California—he’s a good guy, he’s a salesman, he’s been selling all his life—he decided to advertise out of his own pocket. Well, he put out these ads and he didn’t sell any Urantia Book. And I guess maybe that’s not the way to do it.
I feel that I am simply being attentive to doing everything I can do, while taking care of two prior obligations: remaining efficient and accomplishing my material work… [Various discussion from the audience]…
I tell you, I still cling to that parable of the sower. That’s why Jesus told it, I think, to comfort people like us who set out with the hope of sowing a seed, only to find that the results vary due to circumstances largely beyond our control. And if you think I haven’t been the parent of many disappointments, you’re just crazy. I’ve really tried. And I’ve learned to try different ways. This whole story I’ve been trying to write [A Study of Master Universe] represents another approach. The previous ones haven’t worked, so let’s try this one. I’ve proven that some don’t work because I’ve tried them.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, we laughed when we first got the Book and were studying it. It was funny to us that the Chicago organizations, as long as they had these materials, only had three hundred members—why were we going to do better than that the first year! We didn’t understand why they didn’t have more than three hundred members. [pause]. But now I understand. [laughter]
BILL SADLER: Well, I’ll say this; if you had talked to me at the time, I would have listened in silence and said, “Go ahead,” because I wouldn’t know what would happen until we tried it. Just like when the Home Committee wanted to send fifty pounds; I didn’t think it would work, but I encouraged everybody on the Executive Committee to vote for it because I said, “This is the way we’re going to find out how to do it—we’ve got the money, it’s been given for this purpose, let’s spend it and try it. We didn’t know it wouldn’t work.” It didn’t work. Okay, now that was a cheap way to test it.
I’ll hazard a guess, and since this is my first revelation, I’ll have to guess—I wish it were the second, wouldn’t that be convenient?—I’ll hazard a guess that you’ll go through a phase of expansion. Don’t ask me when; I think it will happen.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don’t think being an intellectual student of this Book helps you sell it — I can’t buy that.
BILL SADLER: I think you have to be a salesman.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: The idea is not to say too much.
BILL SADLER: I think J.P. has a very good point; I think I could scare Tom Mercher right off by talking too much. I don’t discuss this Book with him much. I just answer his questions. He struggled with Part IV. “Oh,” he said, “My God, Bill, it’s a gold mine!” And he uses it when he’s preparing his Sunday school lessons; he’s just plagiarizing the Book.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I know a woman here who teaches Sunday school; she says she just couldn’t teach Sunday school if she didn’t have this fourth section of The Urantia Book. She’s a die-hard Methodist, but she’ll be there with that Book. But she’s got the Book and she reads it; this last section—she relies on it, because it helps her in her teaching and she teaches young people.
ANOTHER AUDIENCE MEMBER: Then she’s not being honest with herself; she can’t read that and not accept the first part of the Book.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Now, I don’t have the patience to talk to her much. I’ve never had a chance to really sit down, after she’s gotten some knowledge of the Book, and talk to her. I’d like to, but she’s not my contact and I’ve never felt it was my business to do so.
BILL SADLER：Let it ferment; let it ferment.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You couldn’t take that Book from him, no matter what.
BILL SADLER: I’m all for it. If she never reads anything but Part IV, she has a finer conception of God, and I’ll be content with that.
I’d like to put this Book in a broader perspective, if I may. When I finished my term as president of Urantia Brotherhood, a little over three years ago, I wrote a report to the Executive Committee—yuck, you have a copy somewhere—and I tried to summarize what we had done in three years; how well we had done and how badly we had done, and we had done a little bit of both! I don’t think we did too badly for a group of amateurs. But compared to the way a group of professionals would have operated, it was pretty lame and lopsided.
But I think at the very end, I tried to analyze what are we? And I took the position that we were neither a church nor a cult. I said, how can we be sure that we are not a church? Because, I said frankly, I don’t think modern society needs another church — I think we have plenty of them — we might need less, certainly we don’t need more. Well, I said, I don’t think we are a church because we don’t claim any ecclesiastical authority. Our officials have administrative authority. We have a Constitution, and as President I have tried to uphold that Constitution — to make sure that it works. If anybody was unconstitutional, I called them out pretty sternly and pretty quickly. So, I said, I don’t believe we are a church.
But now, let’s consider, are we a cult? Well, I said, we could become a cult; I think it would be unfortunate if we did. Because, if we are cultish, then, I said, I believe we confuse the means with the ends. I think our main objective in life should be the service of God—that is the real end; and everything that leads to that is a means to that end. The Urantia Book is not an end. It is a means to the end, and the end is God.
We should want to do all we can to make God more real to men and to introduce men to God, if we can. That, to me, is our main purpose in life. The Urantia Book I consider a most valuable tool in achieving that purpose. But if I find a wayward Catholic who really needs to be reintroduced to God, and I believe that sending him back to his church is going to be the most effective way to reintroduce him to God, then I’m not going to bring either The Urantia Book or Protestantism into our discussion—and I’ve sent Catholics back to the Catholic Church. And one of them paid me a great compliment. He said, when we finished, “You’re trained by the Jesuits, aren’t you?” He thought I was a Catholic.
If I find any of my brothers searching for God, and he is dissatisfied with what has been offered to him, if he is disillusioned with the conventional approach, then I will certainly present him with this blue book, by all means.
I think the Brotherhood is also a means to an end. Now, I think this — if we put our whole life in a larger perspective, and if we say that we are primarily engaged in the service of God to our fellowmen, and that this is our supreme objective, that is the real end; and this blue book, and the Urantia Brotherhood, and all the Urantia Societies are useful means, useful tools toward that end, then I don’t think we will ever become a cult; we will be a real brotherhood.
And I think it’s important that we stop sometimes and think about the difference between primary and secondary purposes. Our primary purpose is the service of God. Our secondary purpose is the propagation of The Urantia Book. Does that make sense?
And if we’re not wrong in this matter, then I don’t think we’ll ever be a cult. We’ll be a group of brothers, if you will, with a fellowship, trying to work for the boss, and serve him in whatever way seems convenient. So if your Methodist daughter wants to read Part IV and get some good out of it, I say more power to her. I don’t think we should feel obligated to go and recruit her. We should be glad that she’s getting help.
I would count our progress, not only in membership lists, but in book exposure, and how we serve the boss. I gave a series of lectures in San Antonio one time, all from The Urantia Book, on the psychology of religion. They were good lectures, because they were from The Urantia Book—this was ten years before it was published. And I was invited to attend a ministerial group meeting. And I went in with a rather elaborate speech, and I listened to this meeting, and I could have sworn I was meeting a group of sales executives—except they sang better than most salesmen—but their whole talk was on secular things. They talked about quotas, territories, mortgages, members. And I threw away my prepared speech and took as my text one of Paul’s letters, “Be determined to know nothing except Christ and him crucified.” And I spoke rather frankly to this group. I said, “You know, we don’t need your advice about the affairs of this world our temporal bread.” I said, “I would resent you as competition; I make my living advising businessmen.” I said, “I don’t think you know as much about this temporal life as I do, but if you have a little bread that is not of this world, there is a great market for it—if you have that kind of bread.”
I don’t think we should get so caught up in numbers, quotas, memberships, and the like that we lose sight of the greatest purpose we have in life, which is the service of God. It is a great purpose. You see, this attempt at service makes all life an adventure, for it adds to life the condiments—the salt, pepper, and spice of spirituality. And when you look at anyone as a potential brother, life is then a perpetual adventure—you never know what’s going to happen five minutes from now, or what you might be involved in. You are alert. It produces an attitude that changes your conduct. I think the attitude of the attempt at service of God is important to our function in life. We plan to serve God, and the mere presence of that plan in our minds is likely to make service to God more possible.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Bill, when we first got this Book and had it long enough to know a little bit about it, we thought it was a problem of pedagogy. But later I found out that wasn’t the case. You have to find people whose souls are ripe to absorb it.
BILL SADLER: That’s true
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And how are you going to find these few scattered ones, here and there, — see, that’s the problem; it’s not a pedagogy problem because you’re just talking to a lot of people who are impervious to it.
BILL SADLER: The difference between a suspect and a prospect is the sense of need. Jesus didn’t confuse the two. Coming down from the Swiss lakes, he didn’t waste a sales pitch on a suspect, and Ganid pursued him, as you’ll recall. When in doubt, I would sow seeds. I always sow seeds if I’m in doubt and I feel there’s a chance. But since I’m going to gamble and take long risks, I have to be prepared to be disappointed by a pretty high percentage most of the time. But I’d rather be disappointed many times than fail to sow. How do you escape this paradox? If you’re going to take long risks, you have to expect frequent losses. It’s just a simple horse race—you’re betting on the underdog and you’re not going to win very often.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think of that guy in Southern California who just started giving away Books and letting people know — if he had just gotten one good student, one person who had this Book revolutionized their life, it would have been worth any amount of money he could have spent.
BILL SADLER: I agree with you; but if you only have that philosophy—he feels disillusioned. He wasn’t just enthusiastic and diligent—he was naive in his enthusiasm.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, I think we’ve all been naive, Bill.
BILL SADLER [somewhat exasperated]: Who hasn’t been? Who hasn’t been, Wilma? Who hasn’t been? We’ve all been. We’re all—none of us—this is still, this is our first revelation; we’ll do much better next time, I’m sure. Now, let me give you a bigger picture. I don’t think we’re alone and I don’t think this Book depends—and I know it’s on the record so I’m careful what I say; but I’m honest though—I don’t think this Book depends simply on human resources. However, I don’t believe that supernatural agencies have a basis to work from unless human beings are diligent first. There’s no point in telling the twins “north” until they’ve considered the concept of flight or the word “north” doesn’t make any sense, does it? I have undoubted faith that the associates of the authors of these documents, who are charged with the supernatural supervision of planetary affairs, are well aware of this Book, of our problems, our efforts, our frustrations, our bad judgments and our good judgments, our good wisdom and our lack of wisdom; and I am quite sure that they will, in a most intelligent way, take advantage of all our human efforts. They are not without their resources.
I don’t think they can cause as much as they can coordinate. But if we don’t give them anything to coordinate, they won’t have much to do, will they? Now, I don’t think faith is a substitute for good judgment and wisdom in our actions. But if we use the best judgment, the best wisdom, the most sensible diligence that we are capable of using; if we keep it in perspective, if we remember that this Book comes after health and duty—but before trivialities; and if we remember that God is more important than The Urantia Book or the Urantia Brotherhood, then I think we will be useful servants.
And then I think—I don’t think we’re alone in this. I have a lot of faith in our friends. But I think the first moves are ours. We have to give them something to chew on. We have to get out some seeds that they can maybe maneuver. I can see a maneuver easily,—but it has to be easy. It’s a Urantia Book sitting on somebody’s coffee table, not because he thinks the Book is worth anything—he despises it, but it’s a beautiful blue spot; it goes with the scenery, you know! It’s there purely for color. And it’s a cocktail party, and some joker comes in, sits down, and says, “Well, what’s this about?” And there’s our prospect. We didn’t even know it existed. And somebody was foolish enough, recklessly enough, to give this Urantia Book to a man who was not a prospect, but put it on his coffee table where the prospect found it.
That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. I don’t think our friends can send someone a thousand miles to find a Urantia Book, necessarily. But if he’s in the neighborhood and he’s going to a cocktail party, it might be possible to get his attention to a Book on a coffee table. That falls into the range, I think, of manipulable, or circumstantial.
I think they can do little things. Especially if that man is searching and hungry, and doesn’t know where to look. I have this feeling that I’ve had some kind of change in my feeling about the propaganda of this Book — you might call it getting your second wind. I’m not running a hundred-yard sprint; I’ve settled in for a long distance — it’s a five-miler. I’ve tried a few hundred-yard sprints. It’s a long distance and I’m going to be pretty darn stubborn about this Book — I’m just going to be stubborn. And I don’t think I’m going to be very disappointed for the rest of my life because I think I’ve had all I can take in this area; and I’ve blown all my fuses and I’ve put in some high-current circuit breakers — I think they’ll take a pretty heavy load.
I’ve done some—I’ve tried to do some pretty direct reasoning within myself; because if you don’t think I have a sense of responsibility and obligation—please, I do. It’s been too much of my life for far too long. And I’ve looked at it this way: Well, what more can you do than what you see to do? The answer is nothing. If you try to do more than that, all you’re going to end up doing is going around in circles, and kicking up a lot of dust or mud, and looking very ridiculous. Now, what else can you do? Well, you can do a little praying—to be more useful—if you’ve got nerve enough to sign those blank drafts that your seraph, I’m pretty sure, can fill out, and remember—you’ve got to cash them in.
And I’m almost afraid to pray a lot of prayers along those lines because I’m not sure I want any more pressure than some of the pressure I’ve experienced. I mean, you know, there’s a - you can get tired of that too. But that’s about the only extra thing you could do. You could take a good look at yourself and say, “Well, gee, what’s wrong here? How can I be a better salesman?” I think technique is important. Your point is well taken - it’s not enough to know the Book - how are you going to sell it? You could be an engineer who had designed a product, who couldn’t go out and sell it, yet you would know more about it than any salesman.
I’ve just been stumped many times as to what to do. And I just fall back on what seems to me to be common sense, and that is to look at the situation and do what you see to do and if you don’t see anything to do, don’t do anything at that time. But what are you going to do if you don’t see what to do? Have you tried advertising for free drinks? You might get a few Urantian Martinis.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We haven’t found a way to find contacts.
BILL SADLER: That’s true.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We don’t know who’s hungry, and I don’t know how to find them.
BILL SADLER: I don’t know what to do either, except play the long shots. I’ll play any odds—I just want odds, but I don’t want—I don’t want anything! I’ll play 100 to 1…
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You want value for your money…
BILL SADLER: Yes, I want a horse in the race. I don’t care how slow or skinny he is, I just want him there at the starting post.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: By the way, who won the Preakness today?
BILL SADLER: I don’t know. Well, it’s nine o’clock. Let’s turn the machine off.
Because your world is generally ignorant of origins, even of physical origins, it has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide instruction in cosmology. And always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned or premature knowledge. (UB 101:4.1)