We must love one another.

A note from Matthew Block

Hello,

I did not attend the session at IC99 in which Richard Keeler delivered his speech on "A Call to Unity," but a copy of the talk has been posted on the Internet and I recently had a chance to read it. I was immediately struck by its resemblance to a 1994 message by Vern Bennom Grimsley, audiocassettes of which were circulated among a number of readers in the mid 1990s.

Although I was not present at Richard Keeler's talk, I have learned from someone who did attend that Mr. Keeler did not acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Grimsley for the composition of most, or all, of the speech. I am concerned that Urantia Book believers (or anyone else) may be misled into thinking that Mr. Keeler composed the speech. As demonstrated by the following parallels, the person who deserves authorship credit is Vern Bennon Grimsley. Mr. Grimsley, as longtime movement people will recall, founded the Family of God Foundation and was known for his spiritually inspiring speeches and radio broadcasts. In the early and mid 1980s he precipitated turmoil in the movement by claiming that he was receiving messages from the superhuman government warning of the imminence of World War III and instructing the Urantia Foundation to remove its files and records to Vern's compound in northern California to safeguard them against the ravages of a nuclear holocaust.

Readers who would like a cassette of Vern's message are invited to contact Matthew Block.

In the transcripts below, Mr. Keeler's talk appear in blue and Mr. Grimsley's comments appear in black.

A CALL TO UNITY
Speech made by Richard Keeler
President of Urantia Foundation
Vancouver Conference IC99

Keeler, 1999:
In the closing years of the 20th century, the Urantia movement has survived several perilous periods. Many of the organizations involved with The Urantia Book have come under attack--not from atheists, Christian fundamentalists, or militant materialists, but from readers of The Urantia Book! The Urantia movement has suffered its most bitter and divisive attacks from individuals and factions within the Urantia movement itself! But it's time for healing.

Grimsley, 1994:

The Urantia movement is in perilous disarray. Every organization based on The Urantia Book is right now under attack. All by other readers of The Urantia Book! Not by atheists or Christian fundamentalists or militant materialists: The Urantia movement is under bitter and divisive attack by different factions and members of. . . the Urantia movement.

Keeler, 1999:

As never before in the history of this epochal revelation, we need to talk, to fellowship, to meet and mediate, to support each other, to love each other, and to pray for each other. We need a spiritual renaissance right here and right now within our own community, the community of readers of The Urantia Book.

Grimsley 1994:

As never before in the history of this epochal revelation, we need to talk, to fellowship, to meet and compromise, to support each other and pray for each other and love each other. We need, in short, a spiritual renaissance, right here, right now, within the Urantia movement.

Keeler, 1999:
How can we teach or lead others to have a spiritual renaissance unless we first have one ourselves--as individuals and as group of religionists? "Only transformed individuals can create a transformed world. Only better men and women can fashion a better society. Only spiritually advanced citizens can architect a spiritually advanced civilization." These words are true of the Urantia movement as well.

(COMMENT BY M. BLOCK: No parallel with Grimsley's 1994 speech. The quoted passage, however, originated with Grimsley and is familiar to anyone who has heard his radio broadcasts.)

Keeler, 1999:
During her last days at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago, Emma Christensen spoke of the need for spiritual unity within the Urantia community. Her expression of the need for spiritual unity became a Urantia Foundation policy when, about two years ago, the Trustees formally called for unity and cooperation among readers and reader groups.

The Trustees felt that fences needed to be mended and bridges needed to be built. We still feel this way. We must accept one another as we are -- with all our faults, failings, sins, and shortcomings. We need to get out of the swamps of interpersonal and inter-organizational animosity.

Grimsley, 1994:

I was privileged to preach the funeral sermon for the last of the original contact commissioners - Emma Christensen, Christy. When I stood by her bedside those last days at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago, she told me that her most desperate, urgent, and heartfelt dying prayer was for the spiritual unification of the Urantia movement.

We need to mend fences and build bridges; we need to become friends again. We must accept one another as we are, with all our faults, frailties, sins, shortcomings and stupidities.

Perhaps the ultimate disgrace to this movement came on the 2000th birthday of Jesus, when the Foundation and the Fellowship held separate celebrations in Chicago, August 21st. If we can't even suspend and compose our differences for one day - the 2000th birthday of our local universe Creator Son - then we are in massive and major trouble. And the only way out is up.

Keeler, 1999:
If we don't stop fussing and fighting, this revelation may falter, and it would be all our faults. You may disagree with me on many matters and I with you. But we must ever remember that we are still brothers and sisters. Everyone who reads and believes The Urantia Book is part of a divinely blessed family. But the bitter sibling rivalries among our numbers have simply got to stop.

We may not all like one another, but we are COMMANDED to love one another. Said Jesus, "Love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another." (1944:04) And this we must do!

GRIMSLEY 1994:

If we don't stop feuding and fighting, this revelation IS going to fail, and it will be our fault. You may disagree with me, I may disagree with you, but we're still brothers and sisters in the spirit. Everybody who reads and believes this book is part of a very special family, and the sibling rivalry has simply got to stop.

We may not all like each other, but we are COMMANDED to love each other. Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." And this we have to do.

Keeler, 1999:
There once was a teenaged boy in Oklahoma, where I grew up, who asked a young woman, who was resisting his advances, if she thought she could learn to love him. And she replied, "I suppose so. I learned to eat spinach."

Grimsley, 1994:

There was an adolescent boy who once asked a girl if she could learn to love him. And she said, "I suppose so; I learned to eat spinach."

Keeler, 1999:
Likewise, it may be difficult to make friends with people with whom we have had dire disagreements, caustic confrontations, and acrimonious arguments. We may never in this lifetime--nor in eternity--come to full agreement with each other on every single matter. But we absolutely must forgive one another. And we must learn to love one another.

We are all in the same boat, and that boat has been leaking in several places. We need to repair it and resume our thrilling voyage through the uncharted waters before us as one unified crew doing the many tasks at hand, as best we each are able. We cannot go on in ill will any longer.

Grimsley, 1994:

It will be difficult to make friends again with people with whom we've had acerbic, angry and awful disagreements, caustic confrontations, acrimonious arguments. And we may never in this lifetime come to full agreements with each other; but we absolutely must forgive and embrace one another again. There is no other way. We are out of alternatives. We are all in the same boat.

And that boat is leaking, and it is sinking fast. We need to patch it, and repair it, and resume our thrilling voyage through the uncharted waters before us with all of us as one unified crew, doing the tasks at hand as best we are able; or, we are literally sunk. We cannot go on this way any longer.

Keeler, 1999:

WITH good will, almost anything is possible; WITHOUT good will, almost nothing is.

Grimsley, 1994:

With good will, almost anything is possible. Without it, almost nothing is.

Keeler, 1999:
We may not all agree on what to DO about disunity in our young movement. But perhaps we CAN agree on what NOT to do. We may disagree about what ARE the solutions to our present problems, but perhaps we CAN agree on what are NOT the solutions to our present problems. Cruelty and suspicion are not the solutions. Malice and defamation are not the solutions.

We must learn to love and to forgive. None of us want to see our young movement become just one more desperately divided denomination, spending more energy in infighting than outreach. Nor do we want to devolve into some cult of Fifth Epochal Fanatics who systematically stone their prophets and lampoon their leaders.

Grimsley, 1994:

We may not agree on what to do next in this movement, but maybe we can agree on what NOT to do next. We may have differences on what is the solution to our present problem, but I believe we can agree on what is NOT the solution. Cruelty and hate are not the solutions. Malice and defamation are not the solutions.

We must learn love and forgiveness. None of us want to see the Urantia movement become just one more desperately divided denomination that systematically shoots its wounded.

Keeler, 1999:

I have long believed that if each student of The Urantia Book were to give a quick kick in the rear to his or her greatest enemy, none of us would be able to sit down for a week. We would all be sore from kicking ourselves!

Luckily, God made it difficult to kick ourselves and to pat ourselves on the back.

We create the majority of our own problems. If you've got your guardian angels drinking three bottles of Maalox a day, it's time to reevaluate your life. It's time to reassess your plan. It's time to make some changes.

Grimsley, 1994:

I have long believed that if each student of The Urantia Book were to give a swift kick in the behind to his or her greatest enemy, none of us would be able to sit down for a week. Because we create the majority of our own problems. And I say that when you've got your guardian angels drinking two bottles of Maalox a day, it's

time to reevaluate your life!

Keeler, 1999:
It's time to stop shaking fists and start shaking hands. If we would transform this world, we must not hammer it with hatred but illumine it with love. And now is the time for action. In the words of Yogi Berra, when you come to a fork in the road, take it.

We have come to that fork in the road. Some of us may like each other, others of us may not like each other-but we all have to live with each other. And we are supposed to love one another. The Urantia movement needs fewer pointing fingers and more helping hands.We must turn our focus from the gossip of the kingdom to the gospel of the kingdom.

Grimsley, 1994:

It's time to stop shaking our fists and start shaking hands. If we would transform this world, we must not hammer it with hatred but illumine it with love. And now is the time for action. In the words of Yogi Berra, when you come

to a fork in the road, take it.

Well, we have come to a fork in the road. Some of us may like each other, others may not like each other. But we still have to live with each other. We need fewer pointing fingers and more helping hands. We must turn from the gossip of the kingdom to the gospel.

Keeler, 1999:

The former U.S. ambassador to Russia in the early 1990s, Robert Strauss, said in a CNN interview, "You can have allies in this world with whom you have many disagreements, but you can still be allies because you have so much in common with each other in your purpose and direction." He cited U.S. relations with China, Japan, Israel, and Russia as examples.

In the Urantia movement, we need to maintain alliances with other God-knowing kingdom believers, even if we may have many points of disagreement with them. After all, if Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization could finally sit down and talk together, why can't the different factions in the Urantia movement?

Grimsley, 1994:

The former US ambassador to Russia in the early 1990s, Robert Strauss, once said, "You can have allies in this world with whom you have many disagreements, but still be allies because you have so much in common with them in purpose and in direction." He cited US relations with China, Japan, Israel and Russia as examples.

In the Urantia movement we too need to maintain alliances with other God-knowing kingdom believers, even if we have many points of disagreement with them. After all, if Israel and the PLO can finally get together and try to make peace, why can't all of us?

Keeler, 1999:

If we are to bring spiritual renewal upon this planet, we first must bring it to our own ranks. But in order to renew the Urantia movement, I will have to begin with me. You will have to begin with you. The Trustees will have to begin with the Trustees, the Fellowship with the Fellowship, the IUA with the IUA, and so on down the line.

As tempting as it may be for each of us to call somebody else to repentance, the uncomfortable truth is that I will have to begin with MY self, just as you will have to begin with YOUR self.

Grimsley, 1994:

If we are to bring renewal upon this planet, we will first have to bring it among our own ranks. In order to save the Urantia movement in this precarious hour, I will have to begin with me. You will have to begin with you. The Trustees will have to begin with Trustees, Fellowship council members and others will have to begin with themselves.

As tempting as it may be for each of us to call somebody else to repentance, the uncomfortable truth is that I have to begin with myself, just as you have to begin with yourself.

Keeler, 1999:

My father use to say that if each of us sweeps the sidewalk in front of his house or business, then all the sidewalks in town will be clean. And that is what we need to do today.

All of us--Foundation people, IUA people, Fellowship people, Jesusonians, Foggers, Synergists, Undershepherds, Morningstar people, Teaching Mission people, channelers, anti-channellers, and everybody else, including those without name and number who don't know what on earth to think about all the controversies of recent years--we, each and every one of us, must become a representative of reconciliation, a focus of forgiveness, a person of contagious kindness and love. Only then can we fulfill the mandate of the master--that we love one another.

Grimsley, 1994:

My dad back in Kansas told me that if he swept the sidewalk in front of his business, and if each other person swept his own sidewalk in front of his business too, then the whole sidewalk would be clean. And that is what we need to do

today.

All of us - Foundation people, Fellowship people, Foggers, Jesusonians, Synergists, Undershepherds, Morning Star people, channellers, anti-channellers, and everybody else including those without name and number who don't know what on earth to think after the controversies of recent years. We each must become a representative of reconciliation, a focus of forgiveness, a person of kindliness and love. Because if we don't. . . we're sunk.

COMMENT BY M. BLOCK: (1) One wonders whether Richard's father did in fact talk about sweeping sidewalks. (2) The reference to "Foggers," "Synergists," and "Undershepherds" points to the speech's datedness. These groups are no longer part of the current scene in the Urantia movement.

Keeler, 1999:
In Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1861 he said, "...in your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend' it."

Lincoln continued: "We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

This statement of Lincoln's, changed slightly to apply to all of us who read The Urantia Book, might read something like this: "Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory and love-which stretch between each one of us and between every heart, mind, and soul of every participant in our young movement and beyond--will yet swell the chorus of unity and brotherhood when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

There is an old saying that "life is too short to live in ill will." And that is true. But life is ALSO too LONG to live in ill will, for soon the days become decades, the years become lifetimes. Who among us can bear to live in smoldering resentment until his dying day?

Who among us, in his right mind, would willingly nurture and brood over personal and organizational animosities, over past wrongs and grievances "til death do us part?" Surely, not one of us!

The hour has come to call a permanent cease-fire to the interpersonal and inter-organizational civil war which has raged for more than a decade in the Urantia movement. We must make peace. Back in my home state of Oklahoma, every spring we would ride along the property lines of our ranch, mending fences. And today, in the springtime of the new millennium, the mending of interpersonal fences should be our paramount task. We must repair our broken relationships with love, forgiveness, and reconciliation--with kind acts and cooperative behaviors.

COMMENT BY M. BLOCK: No parallel with Grimsley's 1994 message. But I would not be surprised if these passages were also written by Vern.

Keeler, 1999:

Remember when the Apostle John was so old, weak, and feeble that he had to be carried into meetings in a chair. Remember "when at the close of the service he was asked to say a few words to the believers, for years his only utterance was, 'My little children, love one another.'" (1554:04)

That is exactly what we have to do...beginning here and beginning now. We have tried other remedies and had precious little success.

Grimsley, 1994:
Remember when the apostle John was so old and weak and feeble that he had to be carried in to the meetings during his last years, and all he would say was "Little children, love one another"? That is exactly what we have to do, beginning now. We've tried everything else and it all has failed. The only thing left is the thing we should have tried first. But it seemed too simple to work. But it always has and it always will.

Keeler, 1999:

We know love works--if it's true love, for.... "All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he

himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured. It is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of the father and imprison it within his heart. The father's love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows." (1289:3)

Where there is love, there are always miracles. We know love works. It always has, and it always will. We are called to experience and then share God's love.

COMMENT: No direct parallel with Grimsley 1994.

Keeler, 1999:

We must love one another. We must love one another.

Grimsley, 1994:

We have to love each other. We have to love each other.

COMMENT: It seems probable either that Vern wrote Richard's entire speech, or Richard himself combined various messages or writings from Vern's pen. In either case, I believe it is helpful to inform readers of the derivations of this speech, which was delivered in an official capacity by the president of Urantia Foundation.

Matthew Block