As 2023 draws to a close, here in New Zealand we have finally got a government, after a few weeks of intense negotiation between the three parties who together gained enough votes to form a majority. The Urantia Book has this to say about elections: “Popular elections may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing.” (71:2.2) This paper, Development of the State, makes very interesting reading in the light of the unsettledness obvious in various countries around the world today. While New Zealand enjoys relative stability and peace, compared with many other countries, there is still strong division in society on a number of issues, which show no signs of being resolved any time soon. People take strong positions and increasingly do not listen to others with different opinions and viewpoints, and there are topics which simply cannot be discussed at family or social gatherings, or even Urantia Book study groups, because such discussion will result in heated arguments with consequent damage to the sense of cohesion in the group.
The interesting thing about this is that such variance in opinions would appear to be part of the overall design for the universe!
The religion of the spirit requires only unity of experience – uniformity of destiny – making full allowance for diversity of belief. 155:6.9 (1732.2) emphasis added
You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. 141:5.1 (1591.6) emphasis added
The Urantia Book encourages and supports diversity in all areas of human activity, which of course requires ‘forgiving tolerance’ (one of the fruits of the spirit) to enable ongoing communication and cooperation among people with different points of view. The new government in New Zealand is representative of this diversity, and they appear to have considered very carefully how they can work together over the next three years, with compromise and respect some of their stated guiding principles. We can only hope that the angels of nation life (114:6.4) can gain traction in New Zealand, and indeed across the world in “the overcontrol of international relations” and that 2024 sees some progress towards light and life, no matter how small.