© 2004 Richard S. Omura
© 2004 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
I have expressed my views that a spiritual organization based on the teachings of The Urantia Book is necessary to further the truths of the book in the lives of men and women of the planet as detailed in my thesis, “Disseminating the Teachings in The Urantia Book.” The points in contention of such an organization are the pitfalls of institutionalized religion of which The Urantia Book speaks:
(The following is reformatted in numerical order for this purpose.)
But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are:
- fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments,
- accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization,
- tendency to standardize and fossilize truth,
- diversion of religion from the service of God to the service of the church,
- inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers,
- tendency to form sects and competitive divisions,
- establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority,
- creation of the aristocratic “chosen-people” attitude,
- fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness,
- the routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship,
- tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands,
- failure to make up-to-date interpretations of religion,
- entanglement with functions of secular institutions,
- it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes,
- it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy,
- it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation,
- Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them for heightened service as kingdom builders. UB 99:6.3-4
Although the dangers are many, I feel that we must sooner or later venture onto this path. Presently, The Urantia Foundation furthers the material needs of the book, publishing and distributing. The Fellowship brings readers together in a social context and creates an environment where the ideas in the book are intellectually and philosophically discussed. But, alas, there is no organization to promote and develop the spiritual concepts that is so much an integral part of the book.
So, in order to meet what I believe is this need for a spiritual organization that will not succumb to the dangers of institutionalized religion, I propose the following:
A spiritual facilitation organization that transcends the conceptual framework of traditional religious organizations is one that is open to new truths, and is in service to God and not to itself; where truth is dynamic and open to personal interpretation; where there are only ministers and no administrators; where uplifting competition and diversity is encouraged and not repressed; where authority is given each individual and not to an ecclesiastical group; where every human being on the planet is given equal worth so as not to foster a “chosen-people” attitude; where levity and humor is encouraged as to avoid exaggerated ideas of sacredness; where new and cutting edge ideas of religion are explored in order to escape the routinizing of religion and petrification of worship; where we are focused in the “now” instead of venerating the past; where new and better interpretations of religion are nourished and advanced; where we shun all entanglements with secular institutions; where there is equal integration of status; where progressive ideas and orthodox standards are given equal value; where activities encourage and hold the interest of our youths so that the message of eternal salvation is kept from generation to generation.
How can we create such an organization? How would it be structured?
The following are safeguards against the 17 dangers of formalized religion listed above:
I envision this spiritual facilitation organization as a nationwide brotherhood of Urantia Book readers who support the efforts of other Urantia Book readers who wish to promote the spiritual concepts of the book through seminars, worship services, conferences, retreats, outreach, etc.
In a sense, this organization will be the spiritual spokesperson for the Urantia movement as the Urantia Foundation is a spokesperson for the publishing arm and The Urantia Book Fellowship the spokesperson for the socializing arm. As for its structure, rather than having a constitution and by-laws such as are a part of most human organizations, I envision a group of people who are bonded as a family by their spiritual maturity — that is, the attitudes of humility, righteousness, meekness, and purity of heart, where leadership is earned by insight, love, sincerity and service. It would be an organization that would indeed transcend the structure of how other organizations are run.
This organization will not be a new religion or a church, but will facilitate the development of personal religion and will make available guidance to any individual or group desiring to start a church based on teachings of The Urantia Book.
This organization will not be a new religion or a church, but will facilitate the development of personal religion and will make available guidance to any individual or group desiring to start a church based on teachings of The Urantia Book. Its purpose will not be to compete with, censure or to repeat the activities of other Urantia Book organizations. The ultimate purpose of this organization will be to promote, develop and apply the spiritual teachings of the FifthEpochal Revelation through diverse personal interpretations in order to establish on this planet a foothold of the supernal ideas, concepts and truths which is so necessary for the optimum well being of this world.
For this purpose, the recent technological advances in communication such as e-mail and the internet provides a wonderful tool for organizing such a group. But because it is based on a new paradigm, it may be slow getting going. The actual work will only happen if individuals with strong organizational skills come to the fore to propose new projects and garner ample support from members. It will be an experiment to see if such a new organization would be viable in this social and cultural context.
As is evident, this is just an idea at this time and definitely needs more work from many other minds besides myself. Suggestions, ideas and plans are not only welcome but sorely needed.
Richard Omura has been a reader of The Urantia Book since the early '70’s. He has written two books based its concepts and often holds workshops at the Fellowship conferences. His web site is: www.RichardOmura.com.