The Fellowship Forum
1993
International Conference
Congres International
TOWARD A NEW CULTISM OF THE REVELATION
Byron Belitsos
"Every new revelation of truth" says the Urantia Book on page 965, "has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism." The use of terms like "cult" and "symbolism" come as a surprise to most of us. Yet the author, a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon, makes clear that cultism, with its "symbolism of rituals, slogans, or goals" meets deep human needs that are essential to spiritual progress.
At the most basic level, the cult must ... foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty"; indeed, even "modern men ... crave mystery and venerate the unknown." Beyond these, more advanced needs await satisfaction--both "social and spiritual". These needs will also be met by the "enhanced symbolism" of the new cult. This higher symbolism will be "predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man" and must be "based on the biologic, sociologic, and religious significance of the home."
Cultism can and has retarded social progress, we are warned. But the lack of a symbolism adequate to the needs of modern man, the lack of something "to belong to" is a "regrettable" omission from the lives of many progressive modern believers. In sum, says our revelator, a "cult of mutual support" is a requirement of religious living.
The fact that no cult has yet arisen among the reader/believers in The Urantia Book is equally regrettable. And it is puzzling, considering that cults grow naturally and unconsciously in religious soil. If I rightly interpret the crucial passages in the "Nature of Cultism" (P. 965-6), cult development is inevitable: "...every effective religion unerringly develops a worthy symbolism and necessary: "The cult is the skeletal structure around which grows the living and dynamic body of personal spiritual experience--true religion." It would seem that a cultism of the revelation would grow unless specifically thwarted.
Where Can I Belong?
Many of us have come to the revelation, and not finding a compelling cult symbolism have drifted elsewhere to meet this craving, while still adhering to a belief in the primacy of The Urantia Book. At least this was the case with me. As a young seeker for truth, newly introduced to the book, I faced this religious dilemma sometime in 1978. I had just moved to Boulder, Colorado, a town where a solid, devoted study group existed. This progressive town at the foot of the Rockies was also the capital city of a well-organized, fast-growing Vajrayana Buddhist cult.
The book and the study group deeply satisfied my intellectual needs, but I spent most of my time with the Tibetan Buddhist community, which offered a beautiful, compelling, profound, and updated cult and symbolism, with plenty of intriguing mysteries. The study group provided rational answers to the ultimate philosophical questions, (though Buddhist philosophy was a fair match at times), but the Buddhist "sangha" and its practical religious teachings went much further in meeting my emotional needs.
And the sangha even went on from there. Our passage says that the new cult must, like the olden ones, "...foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty: but it must do more: It must facilitate spiritual progress, enhance cosmic meanings, augment moral values, encourage social development, and stimulate a high type of personal religious living." [My emphasis]. The Buddhist cult, at least temporarily, offered all of these qualities to me.
A similar list is given under "Institutional Religion" (P. 1092), where the author outlines the purposes of group religious living. These should include "to glorify the potentials of family life", "to encourage group worship", "to provide wise counsel", "to promote religious education", "to spread .... the essential gospel", and seven other distinct activities.
None of these activities are certain to occur in the typical Urantia Book study group--except religious education. Study groups rarely rise to the First Steps level of religious groups. An environment which emphasizes religious speculation (which "always falsifies its object"), intellectual quibbling, and amateur philosophizing is in danger of evolving into a "religion of the mind", a passive and stagnant religion about the book. On the positive side, study groups can become a preliminary step toward a religious/cult organization.
What would a genuine religious cultism based on The Urantia Book look like? At a minimum, it must apply and exemplify the book's teachings regarding religious groups and the nature of cultism. Its characteristics should include the following:
1. A congregation that deals with naturally occurring sin and evil by following Jesus' three-step method of maintaining temporal order in the affairs of the kingdom. (P. 1763)
2. "A form of religious collectivism that confines itself to the furtherance of religious causes" (P. 1087). A group of religionists that is "separate in function from all other groups". (P. 1091)
3. A growing cult based on applied love (P. 965-66) that recognizes the real purposes in the socialization of religion. (P. 1092)
4. A "living temple of spiritual fellowship" (P. 1747) that dares to not apply creedal pressure (P. 1091) on its members.
5. A genuine community that refuses to countenance false forgiveness, but instead follows the truth and mercy process outlined (P. 315): "justice, fairness, patience, kindness, then mercy..."
6. A dynamic organization that is cognizant of the inherent dangers of religious institutionalism. (P. 1092)
7. A living community of truth-lovers that is able to achieve profitable levels of religious and philosophic self-criticism. (P. 1138)
In my view, progress in the growth of the "new cult" is impossible without the first two elements in our list above: (1) the institutionalization of what I would call a spiritual group process and (2) the independence of the cult/ religious group from all other groups. When religionists lack religious due process, there arises the specter of unresolvable conflicts--a condition that can jeopardize even the most straightforward activities. This is why Jesus very explicitly presents a spiritual grievance procedure in the "Sermon on Forgiveness" (P. 1762-3), a passage that closely parallels Matthew 18 in the New Testament.
It amazes me how often we hear quoted the almost mystical passage concerning "when two or three are gathered together...", and how little we hear quoted the practical and more challenging first part of the same sentence on the same page, in which Jesus refers to our legitimate right to "legislate regarding the conduct of the group". Here he confers upon the religious group or "congregation" of believers the right to confront sin and evil according to its own discovery of group wisdom.
This beautiful procedure presents what I would call a structure for forgiveness that can be followed by persons with grievances: As you will recall, one first goes with "tact and patience" alone to the offending brother; if there is no satisfaction, then returns with one or two others "to confirm that you have dealt justly and mercifully" with the alleged offender. Then—
... if he refuses to hear your brethren, then tell the whole story to the congregation, and then, if he refuses to hear the brotherhood, let them take such action as they deem wise...
Obviously, a study group or society could not legitimately carry out this sacred procedure. In fact, society constitutions usually substitute a secular procedure for the one Jesus describes. Section 4.4 of the constitution of one society concerning expulsion of members describes a bureaucratic procedure for handling problem members:
Members may be expelled from membership only pursuant to a three-quarters vote at a Formal Meeting in which the individual has been found to have engaged in activities prejudicial to the welfare of the Society. A motion may be made ... only after an identical resolution shall have been adopted by the coordinating board, followed by written notice to the Active Membership.
This disciplinary approach does not describe a spiritual process. It does not present a structure for forgiveness, beginning with the first step of going to the offending brother or sister in confidence. And there is no congregation to which an appeal for group wisdom may be made.
Study groups and societies cannot be effective religious groups; as currently constituted they do not and cannot have a cult structure. Unfortunately, what we normally see is that study groups and societies replace and displace the functioning of religious activity. They are pseudo-religious communities. I have observed that a kind of 1960's style moral tolerance prevails, and one often finds situations in which the strong and willful and rich and charismatic operate freely in the name of "spirituality", without accountability to a spiritual group process. If I have a grievance, I have no recourse except to (1) withdraw, (2) make underground alliances with others who are hurt, (3) take measures to retaliate covertly, or (4) become sainted by attempting to operate as if a community of golden rulers exists.
Such a tragic situation vividly illustrates the principle that "religion has little chance to function until the religious group becomes separated from all other groups" (P. 1091).
Why not begin by heeding the warning that "religionists, as a group, must never concern themselves with anything but religion"? (P. 1089)
Let's stop confusing a political, bureaucratic process devoted to supporting book-related activities, and a religious process capable of building a community of golden rulers who become inspired to go forth and preach the gospel to the whole planet.
Many have argued that to transform the Urantia movement into a religious movement would invite all the pathologies of institutional religion listed on page 1092: the evils of "fixation, fossilization, petrifaction," etc. The book's powerful critique of institutional religion is one deterrent to these very real dangers; but more important, braving such hazards would have been far preferable to pursuing the Fellowship's bureaucratic alternative--a secular organization with a "religious purpose", a pseudo-community that was, until only a few years ago, a licensee of an exclusive legalistic body that was totally removed from spiritual or even political accountability, and yet whose structure was borrowed from the Presbyterian church.
If our existing organizations get out of the way, perhaps the new cult will arise. Once the usurpers leave the field, the cult will grow inexorably in the natural religious soil. This means that the Fellowship can no longer sponsor a religious purpose, and it must explicitly declare that this is so. Then, like Jesus did, we can begin again at the level of individual believers, whose faith in the Father will lead them to find and fellowship their brothers and sisters. From among these inspired ones inevitably will arise the prophets and the teachers of the new cult of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship