Recently there has been discussion among some readers of The URANTIA Book concerning the use of more public and mass means of spreading the teachings. Some of the suggested methods for doing this include magazine and newspaper advertising, radio and T.V. commercials, and pamphleteering. lt has long been the policy of URANTIA Brotherhood and URANTIA Foundation to avoid such public means. The reason is the advice of the early leaders that The URANTIA Book has been given to our world long before the time of its worldwide mission so that those who are ready for it may build a solid foundation of thousands of study groups, prepare teachers and leaders, and prepare translations for non-English speaking people. Secondly, this belief has been supported by experience because nearly every new reader of the book who tries to share it with friends and relatives tells us of their frustration of not finding many people who are genuinely interested.
However, the question of how to spread these teachings and whether our movement is proceeding too fast or too slow is one that will always be pondered and debated. We should be willing to examine and re-examine our policy to be as sure as we can be that we are acting according to the highest wisdom we can obtain. After much discussion, the Executive Committee of URANTIA Brotherhood, by an overwhelming majority, passed a resolution to reaffirm the current policy of avoiding public means of spreading the teachings. This resolution was also supported by an overwhelming majority of the General Council of URANTIA Brotherhood which met the first weekend in July.
The Trustees of URANTIA Foundation wish to publicly state their unanimous support and agreement with URANTIA Brotherhood in re-affirming this policy. However, this policy statement does not mean there is nothing for anyone to do. On the contrary, it means that the work of spreading these teachings at this early stage is more difficult. lt is more difficult in the sense that each of us must use our personal resources primarily through the person-to-person approach. This means we must have courage because of the rejection we may frequently encounter; we must have love of our fellows to make the effort to get personally involved with people by being active in the various organizations and institutions of society; and we must have a strong faith in the truth of these teachings because we will not often see the spiritual seeds we are planting bear fruit.
Just as the challenge is difficult, the reward is great. The joy of personally introducing these teachings to someone who will appreciate their value for the rest of his life will produce a warrn glow that wlll always be cherished. We encourage you to share these supernal teachings with those people whom you personally encounter who are searching for truth. While you strengthen your personal efforts, we ask that you avoid the more public means of spreading the teachings. Because there can be no absolute certainty in these matters, we believe it is in the best interests of the URANTIA movement to work in harmony and to follow the course that was arrived at by our collective wisdom.