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Gardner,=20 Moyer, and Mullins:
Three Histories of the Urantia=20 Book
By Matthew = Rapaport

At the opening of the = 21st=20 century we find ourselves with 3 large histories of the Urantia = Papers.=20 First published, URANTIA: The Great Cult Mystery by = Martin=20 Gardner in 1995, followed by Ernest Moyer=92s THE BIRTH OF A = DIVINE=20 REVELATION: The Origin of the Urantia Papers, and then = A=20 History of the Urantia Papers by Larry Mullins, both = published in=20 2000.

From a believer=92s = perspective, Larry=20 Mullins=92 story of the revelation is the most orthodox with all the = phases=20 through which the papers traveled overseen =96 however infrequently = - by=20 divine authority until the actual year of first printing in 1955. = While this=20 is, essentially, the down the middle story, it is full of = interesting=20 suprises and well clarifies some of the conflicting aspects of even = the=20 official histories as they=92ve been recorded since the first = printing. It is=20 also the most severely critical of the present status quo in the = Urantia=20 Movement.

Martin Gardner=92s book, = while often=20 funny =96 and you better have a sense of humor about yourself = because he=92s=20 poking fun at us =96 is so interlaced with misinterpretations, out = of context=20 statements, even outright lies and slander =93Below I AM are = billions of=20 lesser gods=94 Gardner declares on p19, that his insightful = observations may=20 be too easily dismissed by UB readers.  Gardner paints a = picture of=20 utterly human invention, deceit, and betrayal that explains the = existence of=20 the UB. He selects out-of-context events of UB history, especially = those=20 surrounding Harold Sherman and Harry Loose, that best suit his = purpose, and=20 then weaves a story around these isolated facts.

In between this telling, = he does=20 manage to make some interesting observations however, and it is a = shame that=20 the insights are mixed in with so much that is misrepresentative. = Gardner=92s=20 only concession to the divinity of the revelatory process is the=20 acknowledgement that there was a sleeping subject, and that this = person (he=20 thinks its Wilfred Kellog) made statements and/or wrote things whose = content=20 is part of that which makes up the UB. He does not share any opinion = on=20 whether this material really had a celestial origin, or was merely = the=20 product of the sleeping subject=92s mind. For Gardner, the UB comes = down to=20 some unexpected (and unexplained) channeling on the part of Wilfred = Kellog=20 coupled with a conspiracy, on the part of Dr. Sadler, to inject into = the=20 spiritual ferment and literary stream of his time, a fantastic = fraud. The=20 saddest irony of Gardner=92s book is that if he had employed the = services of a=20 UB reader merely to delete the out rightly false statements = concerning the=20 UB=92s contents (I know he had offers), what would be left would = still be=20 pretty damning.

Ernest Moyer, like Larry, = believes=20 that at core, the UB is divinely authored. Moyer however looks at = the=20 unfolding events of the late thirties and early forties and forces = us to ask=20 the question: What is the deposed Planetary Prince (whom we all = suppose for=20 the sake of argument is still on the planet) doing about the UB? We = all take=20 for granted that he (Caligastia) would desire to = obstruct or=20 otherwise thwart the fundamental purposes of the UB. We differ in = our=20 estimation of just how much potency he has in this regard, with = Moyer=20 casting his history in the light of his presupposition of = Caligastia=92s=20 ability to enter into and dialog with any human mind who sits back = and says=20 =93come hither spirit and talk to me.=94 Ironically, for his version = of things,=20 Caligastia=92s worst couldn=92t have been more damaging than what = the movement,=20 particularly the Urantia Foundation, has done to itself! If old Cal = was=20 involved, it wasn=92t the text that appears to have been his target, = as much=20 as the movement.

Larry Mullins manages to = deal well=20 with both Gardner and Moyer, but only if you accept some of his = central=20 propositions to be fundamentally factual. Mullins claims that no=20 communication with celestials ever took place without the presence = of the=20 sleeping subject and at least two of the human contact = commissioners. If his=20 claims are correct, then it would have been impossible for either = Christy or=20 Dr. Sadler to have believed that the celestial revelatory commission = could=20 be reached by channeling, let alone that Dr. Sadler would have taken = channeled messages as the product of celestial intelligences. = Mullins=20 addresses other of Moyer=92s evidence as well, pointing out for = example that=20 the Book=92s 1934, 35 =93indictment=94 statements mean only that the = sections were=20 begun in those years, not that they were a finished product. =

Most people in the = Urantia movement=20 take for granted that a small amount of human error began to filter = into the=20 revealed material as soon as the original handwritten papers were = typed.=20 Further minor errors were introduced during the typesetting process, = unnoticed by the proofreaders. The original set of nickle-plated = stereotypes=20 thus contained errors, which appeared in the first printing of the = Urantia=20 Book. Everything that went before the plates - the handwritten = pages, the=20 typed manuscripts, etc. - was destroyed. At that point, the plates = became=20 the canonical Urantia Book.

Imperfections were = supposed to=20 distance the Urantia Book from anything that might appear = supernatural or=20 unduly extraordinary. They were, I'd supposed, mostly typographical = in=20 nature, with a few typos making some semantic difference. I had also = learned=20 that alterations were made to the text between the various printings = and=20 that some of them went beyond the correction of obvious typos.  = This=20 was not of great concern to those of us who noticed these things as = the=20 number of these semantic modifications was very small (fifteen, = according to=20 Mullins), and could easily be analyzed and evaluated by an = enlightened=20 readership. Mullins observes, however, that dispite revelator = involvement=20 through 1955, they apparently never mention these imperfections. = This fact=20 fits nicely with Gardner=92s version of events.

Gardner attacks UB = content on=20 scientific grounds, on its uncanny similarities to some Seventh Day=20 Adventist doctrine (in which W. S. Sr. was heavily involved in his = earlier=20 days), and upon it=92s over all theological silliness. His = theological=20 criticisms are unfounded. He misunderstands the theology of the UB, = and=20 likely got much of it second hand. He notes for example that the = UB=92s=20 concept of God The Supreme is reflected in the early 20th = century=20 theology of Teilhard de Chardin, but utterly misses the fact that = Teilhard=20 thinks he=92s discovered the whole of God while the UB places the = Supreme in a=20 context much wider than anything Teilhard imagined.

The parallelisms Gardner = identifies=20 between the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventism (as expressed in the = writings=20 of Ellen G. White, one of the sect's founders) and some of the = teachings of=20 the Urantia Book, are intriguing. Also interesting are the = connections he=20 draws between the UB's teachings and some of Dr. Sadler's = philosophic=20 beliefs and scientific views, as expressed in Sadler's early books. = Gardner=20 suggests that Sadler must have felt betrayed when he discovered, in = about=20 1906, that the supposedly prophetic revelations of Ellen White were = often=20 little more than plagiarisms of other human writers. Stung by this = sense of=20 betrayal, Sadler decided to create a new religion, adopting not only = material from Seventh-day Adventism but White's plagiaristic methods = as=20 well.

In this case, Gardner=92s = criticism=20 finds a ready answer in the canon of UB thought. Revelation is not = entirely=20 new, but expresses itself largely from what exists. The Seventh Day=20 Adventist connection could, after all, be one of the reasons W. = Sadler Sr.=20 was chosen by celestials for the task!  Gardner notes however, = the=20 number of coincidental agreements with Dr. Sadler=92s other writing = is very=20 large on subjects as diverse as eugenics and humor. Gardner wants us = to=20 conclude that the UB was largely written by Sadler. Gardner, = however, is at=20 a loss to explain how the language of the UB, while reflecting = Sadler=92s own=20 work, also makes distinctions and qualifications that Sadler=92s = thought=20 lacks. Gardner does not notice that revelation is not utterly=20 new. It borrows from the past, and filters it. Why = shouldn=92t Ellen=20 White=92s recognition of =93soul sleep=94 happen to be a genuine = insight?=20

Gardner's criticisms of = the science=20 of the Urantia Book are very telling. He does a service to the = Urantia=20 movement by highlighting the "timebound" or erroneous data sprinkled = through=20 the first three Parts of the UB. He makes it clear that much of the = UB's=20 science reflects the views, and is expressed in the style, of = popular 1920's=20 scientific and semi-scientific literature. He also finds the UB's = political=20 philosophy dated, characterizing the book's call for world = government as=20 simply an echo of views advocated by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. = It never=20 occurs to Gardner that a world government of the kind the described = in the=20 UB makes sense regardless of its historical associations.

One begins to wonder, = though, about=20 the amount of timebound or erroneous information in the Urantia = Book, and=20 whether all of its material should be taken literally. Were Adam and = Eve=20 real people? Were they in fact "biologic uplifters" from Jerusem, or = are=20 they mythical characters created by the revelators in an attempt to = foster a=20 "creation myth" suitable for the early to mid 20th = century.=20 Gardner sees echoes of the Adam and Eve story in Sadler=92s view of = genetics=20 and eugenics. They would be Dr. Sadler=92s =93creation = myth=94.

Moyer thinks that the = more=20 significant erroneous time bound data is the work of Caligastia via = the=20 channeling Christy, his attempt to corrupt the revelation. Indeed no = one=20 seems precisely to know just how many changes took place during this = critical years from 1935 to 1942, the period on which Moyer focuses = his=20 attention. Moyer, and Mullins, based on Sadler=92s off handed = remarks=20 concerning them, take these changes to be relatively few in number. = Gardner,=20 on the other hand, paints a picture of broad discrepancy between the = UB and=20 modern science. In the opinions of this reviewer, some of his = criticisms are=20 legitimate while others are not.   Moyer believes that = Caligastia=20 began influencing events through a channeling Christy in 1939. He = grants (in=20 personal conversation) that since she was personally responsible for = small=20 changes to the UB between the first two printings, and even up to = her death=20 in 1982, Caligastia would still have possessed a channel into the = Urantia=20 Foundation at least until that date.

Moyer alludes to events = and policies=20 that punctuate the history of the Urantia Movement since 1955. = Gardner, not=20 surprisingly, portrays this history as nothing but a parade of = silliness and=20 gullibility based upon a colossal fiction. It is left to Mullins to = provide=20 us with the most detailed and helpful analysis of everything that = had=20 happened in the history of the UB and the movement that surrounds=20 it.

From the autocratic = structure of the=20 Book=92s controlling body, unpopular with some as far back as the = 1930=92s, to=20 textual changes unknown and unapproved by more than one of the = original=20 members of the Urantia Foundation, Mullins builds a case for the = Urantia=20 Foundation=92s legal and moral default of its own declaration of = trust. He=20 also elaborates on the significance of the elite circle within the = elite=20 group that became the Urantia Foundation. Three of the original = members of=20 the Foundation were also contact commissioners, those involved = directly in=20 the receipt of the revelation. This gave them, and Emma Christensen = in=20 particular, a special status that has had its continuing impact to = the=20 present day.

Gardner does not = understand Christy=92s=20 significance to the whole UB story. Moyer and Mullins well = understand it,=20 and both point a finger firmly at her as the focal point of much of = what has=20 occurred in the Urantia Movement even after her death. Christy = believed that=20 she received communications from midwayers (presumably) and/or other = members=20 of the celestial planetary government. Other prominent persons in = the=20 movement (including the other two contact commissioner Trustees) = since 1955=20 and up to her death also believed this, or at least accepted the = claim as a=20 means of justifying policy. Moyer believes this process began in = 1939 after=20 the death of Lena Sadler. If Larry is correct about the sleeping = subject=20 mechanism being in place at every instance of = communication=20 until 1955, this would have been impossible.

What happened after the = last 1955=20 contact was made however is another matter. Both Moyer and Mullins = note that=20 changes to the text between the first two printings were primarily = Christy=92s=20 responsibility. Larry notes carefully that the change process, and = the=20 belief (on the part of some members of the UF) that Christy had a = =93special=20 relation to the text=94 and continued if infrequent contact with = celestials,=20 is a critical component in their default as a body, but more = importantly=20 continues to have consequences for our present situation. Mullins=92 = patient=20 examination of the mechanisms of the real =96 pre 1955 =96 contacts = cast serious=20 doubt on the veracity of any of these contact claims.

Too bad no body thought = to examine=20 these matters in the early 1960s! Christy=92s stature brought both = Martin=20 Myers and Vern Grimsley into prominence. She saw something she liked = in both=20 young men, and invested them with early authority in the movement = thanks to=20 her continued relationship to celestials. Myers subsequently grew to = become=20 the goliath of the Urantia Foundation slaying creative initiative in = the use=20 and distribution of the content of the UB on the part of = reader-believers=20 with ceaseless litigation. No one more than he, a believer in = Christy=92s=20 messages, was responsible for the schism that still rends the = Urantia=20 Movement today, while Vern Grimsley picked up the mantle of = Christy=92s=20 contact with celestials itself!

Less than a year after = Christy died,=20 Vern was contacted by the midwayers! What followed that episode sent = Urantian=92s all over the U.S. literally and figuratively packing = for the=20 hills. The events that occured between that date and dissolution of = The=20 Family Of God Foundation (FOG), Vern=92s organization, in March of = 1984=20 changed the Urantia Movement forever. Ironically, Myers recognized = that his=20 fraternity brother was deluded and stood fast against the early pull = to=20 consolidate power in Grimsley=92s hands. In a double irony, the = disaffected=20 members of FOG still retained a measure of power and respect in the = Urantia=20 Movement, and ended up among the strongest opponents of the policies = of=20 Martin Myers with whom they had, until the time of Grimsley=92s = contact, been=20 allies!

Based on Mullins work, = one might go=20 as far as to say that even if the UB is certifiably divine, the = entire=20 history of the Urantia Movement since the first printing of the book = has=20 been, and continues to be, based on a tissue of lies and false = belief=20 starting with Christy=92s continued contact with celestials! Even = this notion=20 continues to find expression throughout the Urantia Movement! Like = the=20 =93religion about Jesus=94 begun on that fateful day of Pentecost by = Peter, The=20 notion of contact with celestials is a very powerful = draw.   In=20 the early 1990=92s, after languishing for half a decade following = the WWIII=20 episode, not one, but numerous people came forth claiming to have = been=20 contacted. A whole new =93phase of the revelation=94 was manifesting = before our=20 eyes (one way or another I=92m afraid), and now, anyone could be = contacted who=20 desired it!

To Larry, this newest = twist is yet=20 another divisive event possibly fostered by the Urantia = Foundation=92s open=20 declaration of their belief in the channeling activities of Christy: = =93We=20 have reason to believe that none of the changes were made without = the=20 approval of the Revelators=94 they declare. Why shouldn=92t = celestials be=20 talking to all of us? For Ernest, the present channeling wave is yet = another=20 channel of involvement by Caligastia who can disguise himself as = anything=20 and talk to anyone who simply declares him or herself open to chat! = Lastly=20 for Martin Gardner, it=92s just another cycle in the silliness of UB = readers=20 proving only once again that some people will believe anything! =

Postscript

As I was working on this = review,=20 another watershed event occurred in the history of The Urantia = Book,=20 and the movement. Both Martin Gardner and Larry Mullins touch on the = subject=20 of the Urantia Foundation=92s litigious nature, a pattern solidified = by Martin=20 Myers, and based on a continuing Foundation claim to owning a = copyright on=20 the UB. Their original copyright expired in the early 1980=92s, but = they=20 renewed it based, on a manifestly false claim, the UB was a =93work = for=20 hire.=94

Since that time, numerous = Urantia=20 Book readers have stepped forth in one way or another to challenge = the=20 Urantia Foundation=92s right to a renewed copyright. The Foundation = has=20 predictably and consistently acted to protect its copyright claim by = litigation, a process that has wasted millions of dollars and = polarized the=20 movement far more than even the recent spate of channeling. Gardner = notes=20 all of this infighting and suggests that it is still more evidence = of the=20 manifestly human origins of the book. Mullins more correctly = recognizes that=20 it is a reflection of the Book=92s power; that many groups, some = with=20 conflicting claims, seek to attach themselves to it. Although Moyer = doesn=92t=20 address these issues, he might justifiably note that all of the = infighting=20 that has gone on around this issue for the past 25 years might be in = Caligastia=92s interest.

The Urantia Foundation = briefly lost=20 its copyright in the mid 1990=92s, but a judge=92s order was = overturned by=20 another judge after a brief hiatus in the public domain. Now, in = June of=20 2001, a jury in Oklahoma has now decided that the copyright renewal = was=20 invalid and The Urantia Book is once again in the public = domain, this=20 time, more securely (presumably) than it was before, though the = Foundation=20 has, of course, said it will appeal. This certainly presages a new = era in=20 the history of the Book. We can look forward to alternate printings = in a=20 variety of formats that may appeal to a wider audience. Whether this = results=20 in some resurgence of interest in the Book is difficult to predict. = As in=20 times past, we seem to take for granted that many people will be = interested=20 in this =93pearl of great value=94, but time and time again, our = visions do not=20 appear to materialize.

At least one of the = missing=20 ingredients has been the armies of dedicated believers whose lives = are=20 changed by contact with the UB and who subsequently share those = changes with=20 others. For decades those opposed to the copyright have argued that = this=20 continuing claim (and of course the litigation that follows from it) = has=20 acted to suppress the growth of private and public ministries that = will=20 elevate the Book into the religious consciousness of the Earth=92s = people. If=20 this was a suppressive influence, it is now mostly gone. It remains = to be=20 seen if its absence makes a significant difference.

Matthew = Rapaport