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The University Campus
Urantia Book Club University of Colorado, Boulder History of the Urantia Book Club |
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Donald Shea Green It all started back in 1981. At the time I was a student at The Boulder School for Students of the Urantia Book founded by John Hay. Merritt Horn designed and taught the two and a half year program. Besides the incremental study of the book, Merritt insisted that we all had to find some sort of community service project. Several of us at the school figured that the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus (CU) would be a great place to expose students to The Urantia Book. So a few of us decided to try to do something on campus. In those days, the Student Union building would allow the various student clubs and organizations to set up booths along a large gallery leading into the cafeteria. Hundreds of students would pass by all day, five days a week. It looked like an eastern bazaar with a crazy assortment of campus organizations, sports clubs, fraternities, sororities, along with clubs representing every possible religion. Mixed into this clamor were vendors who could get permission from any of the official clubs to use their booth privileges to sell products and in return give the clubs a percentage. All vying for attention — it was great! So how the heck would we fit into this hubbub? We decided that we’d call ourselves “Synthesis” — as in the synthesis of science, philosophy and religion. Clever, huh? The big question was just how would we present a virtually unheard of big blue book (with no pictures!) which called itself a revelation. We didn’t have a clue, but we decided to jump in. We got one of the non-religious clubs to sponsor us, and we set up our own booth. By booth I mean a folding table — the large, brown, well used, variety. We figured — because of the clever name we chose — if we got a lot of different books relating to philosophy, science and religion and casually stuck The Urantia Book in the midst of them, we might be able to engage some unsuspecting young person in a conversation. And (of course) hook them on the big blue one in the middle. Needless to say, everyone thought we were selling used books! What a mess it was! Actually, the only book that got absolutely no interest was — you guessed it — The Urantia Book. Our next plan was to put some notices around the Student Union announcing a discussion group on how to synthesize science, philosophy and religion. We packed one of the meeting rooms with 5 or 6 of the students from the Boulder School and laid in wait for any curious student that might happen into the room. Two or three stumbled in looking for a meeting taking place next door, and here we were, five guilty looking individuals all with big, blue, books on our laps. Needless to say, they took one look and fled in horror! “Synthesis” lasted, as I remember, one semester. At that time, I lived two blocks from the university and just couldn’t give up the idea of doing something on campus. It dawned on me that our approach was wrong. We wanted to interest, or at least expose, the students to the Urantia Papers — not necessarily trick them into a debate. Why not call our group what it really is about? So I changed the name to The Urantia Book Club. Now for the booth itself. The table was a mess. From looking at it, no one could figure out what the heck we were doing there. It was cluttered and confusing. It needed a complete change. I picked out a very clean, shiny blue cloth to cover that ratty table top, and placed three copies of The Urantia Book on it — two opened to different places and one in the center closed, showing the book and its cover. Next, I added some brochures and flyers on The Urantia Book. Also displayed was a copy of the Concordex and one of the Paramony. The Urantia Book Club was now open for business, three days a week for two hours a day. In those days there were no less than 14 Christian clubs active on the CU campus. Many of them had booths set up at the same time we did — sometimes right next to us. That never bothered me. Whenever the kids from one of these groups would stop by to see if he or she couldn’t save me from the grip of the devil, I’d do my best to try and point out some of the similarities we shared. But usually they would just tell me they’d pray for me, and they’d end up going back to their booths shaking their heads. Periodically, members of the local Urantia Book community would stop by to help out. One was a self-proclaimed Bible expert who loved debating these sincere young Christians. On several occasions, he would get the better of them, theologically. I personally considered that a form of bullying — taking instead of giving. I finally told him I thought he was doing more harm than good, so he just stopped coming by. Other members who stopped by to help would get bored with our apparently passive methods — they would want to go after the students aggressively. I responded to that outreach philosophy by referring to a group who used to operate aggressively back in the mid-80s, the Moonies. The Moonies were an example of what I call “the hard sell.” They had their evangelists posted at every entrance and exit to the Student Union building. They would literally chase the students down until they got them to take their literature. And then they’d try to engage them in a dialogue. Kids are very susceptible to pressure tactics. Most of them just haven’t learned to say, “Get lost,” or “NO!!” The Moonies did very well with certain types of individuals, but most kids hated to be pushed — and that's just as true today. |