The Cosmic Citizen

"It will suck people out of any kind of boredom,  bring them to the edge of their seats and  get them ready for discussion." —Brian McLaren Conversations jumpstart a collaborative creative process: Animate Faith invites practitioners from across the country (and the globe) to develop new resources. In-person. Virtually. Whatever it takes to fulfill their mission. Tony Jones spoke with us Thursday giving us an overview of a new resource from Sparkhouse called "Animate Faith;" a seven-session adult course designed to engage the faith-hungry person. Call in and let us know your thoughts on this progressive program of faith and fellowship encouragement.

Over and over again, people of all colors, creeds, social strata, incomes, political leanings, and genders get caught up in heated arguments because they don’t really understand the comments, behavior and attitudes of others. How can we see the issues clearly when the facts are totally muddled or sensationalized by media? The underlying problem is that we don’t know each other and often assume the worst. Jesus reacted to both friends and enemies by not just giving them the benefit of the doubt but by actually looking for and finding the best in them. What can we learn from this practice to help us avoid those common pitfalls? How can we employ the fruits of the spirit to find and create peace? Right now, around the Muslim world, we see violent acts toward American embassies as a result of a trailer for a poorly made film which would never have had theatrical release. The film was not written, produced or directed by an American, but rather by an Egyptian Coptic Christian, pretending to be an Israeli Jew. It reveals how little is needed to generate worldwide pandemonium and to incite serious violence. The film was created to incite violence and sadly, it succeeded. How often are these same sorts of tactics used to engender the hatred and indignation of one group against another? How often are we ALL guilty of reacting emotionally before we find out the full facts in a given situation? How can we go about finding facts – actual usable data – when attempting to defuse a tense angry, or resentful situation? What sorts of attitudes can we cultivate to become real peacemakers in our own homes, families, groups & communities? Please join us as we explore these issues. We'd love to take your call and hear your thoughts.

This week will be of great interest to Urantia Book readers who wish to share the book's teachings with Christians. The Urantia Book Fellowship has sponsored two Wildgoose Festivals, which are premier Emergent events. Our guests this week were directly involved. Emergent Christians are religionists from many different Christian denominations that have crossed theological boundaries. They seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a "postmodern" society. Those involved tend to be disillusioned with the organized and institutional church. Prophetically, the Urantia Book says that the Christian church is "the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus' concept now slumbers. The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development." Is the Emergent Christian movement the beginning of this long awaited metamorphosis? We have several guests who are eager to discuss this with us. Please join us!    ChChddk

A retuning guest, Allison Zopel has authored a new book “The Angel Inside.” Tune in to hear the amazing story that starts with a terrible car crash on a cold winter's night and chronicles her inspiring return from a level 2 Coma over five years of gradually becoming conscious again. The angel within is what kept her going and recovering.   Her new book is just about to be published (within the next eight weeks) and we invite callers to call and ask her questions about the many states of consciousness she went through on her way back.  She believes that it was her spiritual consciousness which enabled her to write or to communicate and create through music, art and poetry which spoke for her when she could not.  Allison was raised to nuture a relationship with God (the spirit within). This relationship grew profoundly deep as it was her only conscious relationship while she was deeply locked within her mind.  Her hope is that her story will help others understand the different ways people recover from TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). To this end, she has started a non-profit foundation called, The Return To Life Foundation. This will be a most remarkable and informative program with a truly amazing young woman. You won't want to miss it.

This weekend on Cosmic Citizen we will interview Stevie Lynn Welch. Stevie has just returned to the USA from serving in India with the Sisters of Mercy organization, following in the footsteps of Mother Theresa of Calcutta.  Stevie volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity for three months.  Five days a week, sometimes more, most days averaging thirteen hours of hard work and prayer, Stevie found herself relying on her faith and her community to get her through.  Just out of college, she worked as a nurse with the ‘poorest of the poor’ in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), a city known for the widest differential between wealth and poverty in the world. She felt compelled by God to go and work with the homeless, jobless and dying. During her stay, she faithfully recorded her experience via email. Although Kolkata is one of the most over populated cities in India, it is an inspiration to those who have served with Mother Theresa and her loving Sisters of Mercy. For those who have been there, this will be a chance to renew that memory, and for those who never have, Stevie’s stories will bring that part of the world to life for you. Although Mother Theresa passed on years ago, her spirit still moves hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people around the globe who continue to carry on her work.  People like Stevie Lynn, who heed the call to give time, energy, expertise and life serving fellow human beings who are living on the edge.  This will be an inspiring program and we invite you to join, Paula, Christilyn and Andre as we explore this amazing service adventure with Stevie Lynn. Saturday morning from 10-12 Mountain Time: www.blogtalkradio.com/cosmiccitizen 646.716.8158

This week's Cosmic Citizen is all about Urantia study groups and outreach. Our guests this week will include Canadian, Gaetan Charland. Gaetan is the President of the Urantia Association International. He started attending Urantia study groups regularly in 1987 and has pioneered a model of training study group leaders in Montreal. The UAI has made the creation and maintenance of study groups their primary mission and Gaetan has been an instrumental leader in that effort. Also on the show we will Buck Weimer and Andrea Barnes. For many years Buck Weimer has been the Chair of the Urantia Fellowship's International Fellowship Committee. He began to read the Urantia Book in 1972 and has been an active study group leader/participant ever since. Buck has devoted his life to traveling the world helping groups in developing countries acquire and study the book. Andrea Barnes is the Urantia Fellowship's Volunteer Coordinator. She also has devoted the last 30 years of her life to the study and dissemination of the Urantia Book. Andrea's enthusiasm is infectious and she ignites interest in the revelation everywhere she goes. The Urantia Book tells us that always was Jesus' invitation, “Whosoever will, let him come.” Whether they are online or in somebody's living room, diverse and autonomous study groups form the primary social infrastructure for students of the Urantia Book. Successful study group hosts have found that the basic keys to success are consistency, dedication, patience, understanding, love, and effort as they share a common goal, to explore the advanced truths and cosmic concepts contained in the Urantia Book. Please join Paula, Christilyn and Andre as we explore these topics with our guests!

Grab a cup of coffee or tea; a piece of toast with marmalade, some pancakes, or maybe just some raw fruit or veggies. Sit back and get comfortable and turn on ‘Cosmic Citizen’. www.blogtalkradio.com/cosmiccitizen   Please call in and share at least one of three thoughts with all the cosmic citizens today in the spirit of this remembrance "Birthday Brunch:" •What teaching of Jesus most speaks to your soul? •What vignette of Joshua ben Joseph's life is most vivid for you? And the most challenging of all— •What, if you were alone with the Master, would you most want to ask him today? Let's just enjoy communion together brothers and sisters in the Spirit of Truth and in memory of our Father-Brother's beautiful and good life. 99:5.10 Jesus did not require of his followers that they should periodically assemble and recite a form of words indicative of their common beliefs. He only ordained that they should gather together to actually do something — partake of the communal supper of the remembrance of his bestowal life on Urantia.  179:5.7 After they had engaged in meditation for a few moments, Jesus continued speaking: “When you do these things, recall the life I have lived on earth among you and rejoice that I am to continue to live on earth with you and to serve through you. As individuals, contend not among yourselves as to who shall be greatest. Be you all as brethren. And when the kingdom grows to embrace large groups of believers, likewise should you refrain from contending for greatness or seeking preferment between such groups.”

In our continuing series on why we need to socialize our religion with others, we will focus this weeks program on why we gather on a regular basis to share our ideas and spiritual experience?  We will tune in live to some of the activities happening at the Summer Study Session in Chicago (SSS12) at Techny Towers.   Paula is there onsite, and Andre and Christilyn will run the board and the phone lines.  For those who have not attended a Summer Study Session (they are held every year that there is not an International Conference event) we invite you to tune in online for the first live program streaming online.  Mark Erickson, our resident film maker and photography expert, has set up equipment onsite to allow us to listen in on the plenary speeches each day, along with a few of the workshops as they occur. The YaYas have had a pre-conference retreat and will share some of their experience with us during the program, as will other folks who are attending.   Please feel free to call in and share your own best memories, or special moments, of conferences or study  sessions, or retreats you have attended.  We welcome your calls.  Our call in number is 646.716.8158

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people? Are you dealing with a crisis? Do you sometimes feel like the wheels are coming off of your life? Are you grieving the loss of a loved one or dealing with a debilitating illness in yourself or in someone you love? This week’s show is about how to cope with sorrow and adversity. The Urantia Book is full of thought provoking insights concerning the value inherent in human adversity. Consider this quote: “Much of what a mortal would call good luck might really be bad luck; the smile of fortune that bestows unearned leisure and undeserved wealth may be the greatest of human afflictions; the apparent cruelty of a perverse fate that heaps tribulation upon some suffering mortal may in reality be the tempering fire that is transmuting the soft iron of immature personality into the tempered steel of real character.” (118:10.9) And this: “The measure of the spiritual capacity of the evolving soul is your faith in truth and your love for man, but the measure of your human strength of character is your ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Defeat is the true mirror in which you may honestly view your real self.” (156:5.17) The Urantia Book also says that the, "ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable." What value does spiritual community have in these matters? In the last two weeks we've discussed religious community, let's take it deeper. Join us and explore how to get through bad times together with faith and dignity in tact.

This week we continue our topic from last week and will focus our discussion on the benefits of socialized religion.   Why do we crave human contact, socialization and association?  Why do people want to worship together or study a religious text, such as The Urantia Book, with a group of like-minded individuals?  We'll be reading the sections from the Religion Papers that expound on the values of socialized religion and the pitfall of institutionalized religion. And we will also consider:  The dangers of personality isolation, something that the Urantia Book offers serious warnings about. We're hoping to discuss these matters with YOU too. So don't be shy, give us a call. Do you attend a Urantia study group, a Bible study, church, mosque, synogog or temple or worship regularly with a group? Why? We'd like to hear about your experiences.