© 1987 Judith L. Mace
© 1987 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
This paper describes our world situations, not only the western societies.
In brackets within many quotes from The URANTIA Book are changes in gender language in keeping with the proposed alterations. These bracketed words are mine.
The Author
“The Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of all things and beings.” (UB 1:0.1) Heretofore, the world view of this entity has been of a stern male God with emphasis on judgement, appeasement, and atonement. Larger numbers of people every year are searching the world over for religious and philosophical sources which include and honor a more feminine, wider and more humane view of ourselves and our cosmos, The URANTIA BOOK offers them this more mature vision as well as a more complete and accurate description of “God”.
A new concept, born of evolution and revelation, not only gives lip service to the high value of the fruits of the spirit, but also practices them. (See UB 34:6.13) These traits have long been both denigrated as feminine and sought after as the spiritual ideal. The female’s practice of these virtues throughout ”herstory“ has awarded her the honorable status of spiritual leader of humankind. (See UB 84:6.4) The perception of “God” as a Father Patriarch no longer adequately describes our maturing concept of an entity who embraces not only the female and the male essences, but vastly more as well. This new concept, born with The Women’s Movement, is a manifestation of the feminine aspect of The First Source and Center, which has been covertly and overtly excluded from development on this planet. The continuation of spiritual growth and awareness is dependent on the continuation of this evolution.
Patriarchy is antithetical to balance and imposes a constant pressure on women by destroying their sense of self, and on men by favoring their participation in an immorality which borders on iniquity. “There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties.” (UB 54:1.8) “No being, in the exercise of his [her, their] supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.” (UB 54:1.9) “With the Son [Second Source and Center] and in the Spirit [Third Source and Center] did God [First Source and Center] project eternal Havona, and ever since has there obtained the eternal pattern of co-ordinate participation in creation — sharing.” (UB 54:2.1) “Of all the dangers which beset man’s [woman’s]'mortal nature and jeopardize his [her, their] spiritual integrity, pride is the greatest. Courage is valorous, but egotism is vainglorious and suicidal.” (UB 111:6.9) “Pride is deceitful, intoxicating, and sin-breeding whether found in an individual, a group, a race, or a nation.” (UB 111:6.10) “Unbridled self-will and unregulated self-expression equal unmitigated selfishness, the acme of ungodliness._” (UB 54:1.5) “Today the nations of the world are directed by men [women] who have a superabundance of ideas, but they are poverty-stricken in ideals. That is the explanation of poverty, divorce, war, and racial hatreds.” (UB 111:4.10)
Human languages define and perpetuate the barbaric condition of patriarchy which retards our planet’s culture and growth. Languages hold the major key to our transcendence of patriarchy. The URANTIA Book was revealed in the early 1900 's to a world steeped in sexism. The inaccuracy and exclusionism of the language either was not apparent, seemed correct, or did not seem changeable. The URANTIA Book, as a guide for the future of Urantia, must specifically include and address all humans — female and male. This quote from The URANTIA Book has been rendered as an example:
“The Adjusters are the actuality of the Father’s [First Source and Center’s] love incarnate in the souls of men [mortals]: they are the veritable promise of man’s [your] eternal career imprisoned within the mortal mind; they are the essence of man’s [your] perfected finaliter personality, which he [you] can foretaste in time as he [you] progressively masters the divine technique of achieving the living of the Father’s [First Source and Center’s] will, step by step, through the ascension of universe upon universe until he [you] actually attains the divine presence of his [your] Paradise Father [Parent].” (UB 107:0.2)
“All soul-evolving humans are literally the evolutionary sons [off-spring] of God the Father and God the Mother, the Supreme Being.” (UB 117:6.8) “The mother influence dominates the human personality throughout the local universe childhood of the growing soul.” (UB 117:6.5) Since the message of The URANTIA Book is that the First Source and Center indwells every mortal of moral capacity, it is evident that the authors were speaking to females as well as to males, but it is not evident in the text.
Language is not trivial. It teaches and it limits. Referring to all humans in the masculine gender perpetuates many obsolete and destructive institutions and attitudes with a powerful imagery of male dominance. It is a gross error. At the very least, genderless language is accurate. It enhances the personal impact and credibility of the material. The time has come for women to be specifically included in our language and most especially in our spiritual literature. “Accordingly, future students of such a revelation are tempted to discard any element of genuine religious truth it may contain because they discover errors on the face of the associated cosmologies therein presented.” (UB 101:4.1) Let The URANTIA Book provide the spiritual and inspirational leadership required to transcend barbarism by replacing all its sexist language with the wonderfully powerful genderless language. The need to provide the means for transcending patriarchy has never been more urgent, and the opportunity to fill that need has never been so clearly offered to any person or group than now to the readers of The URANTIA Book.
The URANTIA Book clearly defines a world as barbaric as long as one sex seeks to tyrannize the other. (UB 49:4.5) “Even among advanced peoples, man’s attempt to protect woman has always been a tacit assertion of superiority.” (UB 84:4.10) Our religious legacy was written by, about, and for males. Furthermore, this “spiritual” literature has rigorously oppressed and devalued fermales both in content and by omission. This unabashed denial of personhood to females has been succinctly reiterated by Mary Daly in her book, “Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation” (Beacon Press, 1973 P. 132-133): “As the victims of a planetary caste system whose very existence has been made invisible to us, women have been divided from each other by pseudo-identification with groupings which are androcentric and male dominated. Among these are the various religions whose ideologies degrade and mystify women to such an extent that even the fact of this degradation is not perceived by its victims. From the Hindu code of Manu V: A woman must never be free of subjugation. From a daily Orthodox Jewish prayer: I thank thee, O Lord, that thou has not created me a woman. From the Bible, Ephesians: Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church.”
Jesus “… made it very clear to them that women were to be accorded equal rights with men in the kingdom.” (UB 138:8.11) “In one generation Jesus lifted women out of the disrespectful oblivion and the slavish drudgery of the ages. And it is the one shameful thing about the religion that presumed to take Jesus’ name that it lacked the moral courage to follow this noble example in its subsequent attitude toward women.” (UB 149:2.9) “Man’s brutal treatment of woman constitutes one of the darkest chapters of human history.” (UB 69:7.5)
Margaret Fuller: “What woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely, and unimpeded to unfold such powers as were given her by the creator.”
“Male and female are, practically regarded, two distinct varieties of the same species living in close and intimate association. Their viewpoints and entire life reactions are essentially different; they are wholly incapable of full and real comprehension of each other. Complete understanding between the sexes is not attainable… The differences of nature, reaction, viewpoint, and thinking between men and women, far from occasioning concern, should be regarded as highly beneficial to mankind [humankind], both individually and collectively.” (UB 84:6.3,5) The URANTIA Book assures us that the differences we describe as female and male will exist throughout eternity. To arbitrarily impose a human value judgement on these intentionally created differences is a travesty of truth. The First Source and Center and the dual creativity of the Sovereign and Divine Minister of Nebadon created two distinctly different varieties of humans, not two values of humans.
The destiny of a world so retarded in and by patriarchy can only be annihilation if the balance of spirituality fails of development. Any imbalance is incompatible with the outworkings of the eternal patterns of The First Source and Center. This balance inherently necessitates the development, establishment, and ascendancy of the Urantian feminine aspects of The First Source and Center. Such validation will require linguistic growth and renovation.
“As the women’s movement begins to have its effect upon the fabric of human society, transforming it from patriarchy into something that never existed before — into a diarchial situation that is radically new — it can become the greatest single challenge to the major religions of the world — western and eastern. Beliefs and values that have held sway for thousands of years will be questioned as never before. This revolution may well be also the single greatest hope for the survival of spiritual consciousness on this planet,” (Mary Daly. p. 13-15)
“However wise it may be to glean wisdom from the past, it is folly to regard the past as the exclusive source of truth. Truth is relative and expanding; it lives always in the present, achieving new expression in each generation of men [people] — even in each human life.” (UB 79:8.8) “Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death.” (UB 102:2.7)
The most important function of The URANTIA Book is to improve spirituality on Urantia. To exclude half and more of the human race by not addressing women is a poor start.
“‘Here, Master, is the truth you committed to us a hundred or a thousand years ago. We have lost nothing; we have faithfully preserved all you gave us; we have allowed no changes to be made in that which you taught us; here is the truth you gave us.’ But such a plea concerning spiritual indolence will not justify the barren steward of truth in the presence of the Master. In accordance with the truth committed to your hands will the Master of truth require a reckoning.”
“In the next world you will be asked to give an account of the endowments and stewardships of this world. Whether inherent talents are few or many, a just and merciful reckoning must be faced. If endowments are used only in selfish pursuits and no thought is bestowed upon the higher duty of obtaining increased, … service of men [people] and the worship of God [First Source and Center], such selfish stewards must accept the consequences of their deliberate choosing.”
“And, how much like all selfish mortals was this unfaithful servant with the one talent in that he [she] blamed his [her] slothfulness directly upon his [her] lord. How prone is man [are you], when he [you] is [are] confronted with the failures of his [your] own making, to put the blame on others, oftentimes upon those who least deserve it!” (UB 176:3.7-9)
“The spread of civilization must wait upon language. Live and growing languages insure the expansion of civilized thinking and planning… Today, there is great need for further linguistic development to facilitate the expression of evolving thought.” (UB 81:6.16) Remember that much depends on your personal and our collective choice to participate in the evolution of Woman, and consequently, our language. The Fragments, The Sovereign and Divine Minister of Nebadon, The Supreme Being, and the Deities of Paradise are awaiting the expressive manifestation of that half of the Urantia peoples for their own fuller realization of existence. The act is ours, the consequences — Theirs.
Judith L. Mace
Lincoln City, Oregon