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The prospects for advancing the teachings of the Urantia Papers in the western world appear to be very limited indeed.
Traditions are quite different in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds of the East. To present a Westerner with a revelation is to automatically set in motion an "either/or" train of thought. The Westerner will analyze what he or she reads, dividing into alternative but mutually exclusive possibilities--such as "it is either divinely authoritative or it is not," one of which must be totally rejected.
In contrast, the Easterner is more likely to utilize a traditional "both/and" attitude, and accept what he or she finds valuable which then becomes incorporated into the body of their treasured beliefs.
To we Westerners, China and its people are a strange, wonderful, but almost totally unknown quantity. The breakdown of communism in Russia generated an unexpected repercussion stemming from the previous repression of religion. By analogy with Russia, something similar may occur among the Chinese people. Perhaps it will be these people who will prove to be a fertile ground for the wisdom and spirituality of the Urantia Papers?
There are some interesting pointers in The Urantia Book in which the revelators draw attention to Eastern people. They do so for a purpose--leaving us to discover that purpose and to implement the necessary action. They do it that way because the Universal Father has decreed that our free will is sacrosanct.
"Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel--the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael's life bestowal a white man's religion." (1032)
Are these objectionable dogmas completely absent from the Urantia Papers? If not, then should they be modified or removed before introducing a translation to these people? (And already I hear echos emanating from our either/or thinkers screaming that in no circumstances can the text be modified. To which, I reply, "Read Section 7 from Paper 2.")
Referring to Buddhism, the revelators say:
"At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?" (1041)
With some emphasis having at long last been placed on the translation of the Papers into other languages, there is now an accompanying need to consider how the content of the Papers might assist to speed up the spiritual progress of religionists of "all kinds."
"All kinds" must be inclusive of those of our brothers and sisters who are born into societies whose "universe frame" is highly antagonistic to many concepts found in the Urantia Papers. For example, many sects of Islam (and some of Christianity) appear not to have any chance whatsoever that the Urantia Papers' teachings could be introduced in toto within the foreseeable future.
But possibly even those sects that are locked into an apparently incompatible belief system could benefit from specific concepts of the Papers. Those that tell of the nature and qualities of the Universal Father, and of the virtues of our membership in the family of God are possible candidates.
We have a whole millennium in which to work. A gradual approach appears to be the only one likely to succeed. But that is a task for specialists--and for the Spirit of Truth.
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