Me and The Urantia Book – I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, 1 of 5 children, the oldest Girl. My family was never very religious. I think my Dad (Dick Johnson) was agnostic, and my Mom (Peggy Johnson) just went along with that. We only went to church on Easter and around Christmas. My Dad was raised in the Mormon Church, but I don’t think he ever embraced it. I used to go to church with some of my girlfriends, one being Catholic, and the other Born Again Christian. I enjoyed going with them, but never really “got it.”
When I was a pre-adolescent child, my dad came home one day, sat us all down and said, “Your mother’s an alcoholic, and if she doesn’t quit drinking I will leave her.” My childhood memories are somewhat sketch, so Dad if you ever read this article, you may find some inaccuracies in it. We were all devastated, and I was clueless about her drinking! My dad starting going to Al Anon meetings, and a lot of them! He brought home brochures and literature on the disease for my mom. I don’t know exactly when Mom decided to give it a try, but if you’ve ever heard her story, you’d know it was that or death. Apparently she was quite the drinker (probably to cope with us kids).
We children started going to Al-A-tot, then Al-A-teen. We loved it, finally Church People to call our own. Several months after they embraced the 12-step lifestyle my Dad found the Urantia Book. He had found God and he wanted to know more about him, so he started reading every spiritual book he could get his hands on. He read it for a long time before my Mom would. He taped the whole thing for her and she voraciously looked forward to listening to those tapes while going about her daily chores as the mother of 5. My Dad tells a funny story in the Jesus Papers about when Jesus was always ready and willing to stop a sermon or detain a multitude while he ministered to the needs of a single person, even to a little child; but in Dad’s recording you hear a click in the middle of this sentence. He said the click between the two parts of this sentence is him stopping the recording . . . “Shut up out there you brats, I’m trying to record the Urantia Book.” . . . then he would resume where he left off. Guess his spiritual transformation was not instantaneous. I always love to hear him tell that story.
Eventually Dad started sharing stores with us. I remember Anon & Fonta, Adam & Eve and the Lucifer Rebellion to name a few. It was like our Religion, and I would invite my girlfriends to attend the readings, just like I’d go to church with them. Back then I was a teenage girl, in High school, and understanding the teachings of the Urantia Book were not a priority over Boys, Gymnastics, Boys, School, Boys & Dance. . . but I eventually knew I would embrace it. I adored my parents and knew that my Dad was the smartest man on the planet, and the most handsome!
Life progressed and I did not pick up The Urantia Book and actually study it until one day back in 1988 when I met Tom Allen, my now husband. My Mom was getting ready for a Urantia Conference to be hosted by the Arizona group and I was helping her. I had just returned from living in England for a couple of years in a co-dependent relationship. I had given my boyfriend of 3 years an ultimatum and moved back to the states. That was January, I met Tom in February and it was, for me love at first sight. I knew I had to know more about the Urantia Book and its teachings. The rest is history, so for me the book completed transformed my life (twice).