Julia Fenderson letter to John Hales regarding
Urantia Brotherhood position on Grimsley war messages
January 23rd, 1984
Mr. John W. Hales, President
Executive Committee
Urantia Brotherhood
533 Diversey Parkway
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Dear John:
This is to express my thanks and appreciation for your letter of December 15th, 1983, showing the Brotherhood’s position regarding the experiences of a well-known individual of our movement. I am impressed and grateful that the position shows objectivity and allows for free will and personal choice and also refrains from being judgmental. I’m grateful it resulted from democratic group processes.
Because of my age and wide travels I have possibly received more enquiries about this that the average person. May times the point was made that this case was very similar to the one described on Page 601. I responded that on the same page 601, the writer, Manovandet Melchizedek stated; “Judgment in such matters belongs to the Ancients of Days, the rulers of the superuniverse.” Though I am ancient I just don’t belong in the category of judges and wouldn’t presume to give a judgment. I suggested that we each wait to form our own individual opinions until we have gathered all possible facts and have learned the direction given us by John Hales with the Executive Committee. This has resulted from a careful study of facts followed by a statement derived through the democratic process. The same democratic group process can be utilized to resolve possible human errors, which might limit the Brotherhood’s organizational effectiveness.
However, let us not make the mistake of making spiritual judgments on matters, which are clearly ones of material choice. On Page 2,094 we find some specific helps on making the human decisions we must make. One of the strong and valuable aspects of the Brotherhood Constitution states that membership does not limit one’s involvement with any other organization. What a challenge and opportunity for us to make us of these recent events and to live the teachings on unity and not uniformity.
This has been a very difficult time for each of us. We love the individuals concerned and “Love is the desire to do good to others.” How can we best express that type of love? We each love and pray to the Father in heaven and the Father within. We each belong to a very small percentage of the world’s populations who read and try to live the teachings of The Urantia Book. One direction that has been pointed out is to study the life of Jesus and how he lived it. So back to the book we go for more careful study of what the Master did in similar situations, especially in his love for his brother Jude and the apostles. The benefit of the time lag, which was often mentioned, will certainly resolve many of the present difficulties.
So let us possess our souls in patience and continue the many tasks of our daily lives, including those of working for world peace where we are and as we are.
With warm regards,
Julia K. Fenderson