Appreciation for the Foundations
Joe Jesseph
12/1/99

I, like Tom Whitmore and many others, received the annual letter inviting contributions to the fund for translating "A Course in Miracles" into twenty different languages. Included with this letter was the news that translations into six of those languages are now complete. I understand that yet another translation (Dutch) has also been completed and is being distributed in the Netherlands. As a long-time student of the Course, I appreciate that there are many levels of understanding the Course and that each level of understanding is accompanied by a level of misunderstanding. I know from my own experience how difficult it is to fully apprehend the deepest levels of meaning in the Course and that intellectual comprehension, while very important, is merely a necessary first step in the process of undoing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence which permits one to be an instrument of forgiveness within the dream of separation.

Therefore I am quite impressed with the dedication and the enormous personal and technical undertaking which is represented by each of the translations. I am more than "quite impressed," I am astounded! And I am deeply grateful for the foundations' staff supervisors and for the translators who will now become teachers and shepherds of the Course in foreign cultures. As an indication of my appreciation, and in response to the kind of criticism represented by Whitmore's letter, I doubled my contribution to the translation program this year. (Anyone interested in contributing to this fund can find information on the FIP website at www.acim.org .)

I am also appreciative of the very helpful websites sponsored by each foundation and was particularly interested to read the interviews with translators that are published on the FIP site.

While I know that the accomplishments in translation and publishing of the Course this year have been rewarding for those involved with the foundations, I am also aware that this could have been a very difficult year for them with respect to the copyright controversy, the misinformation, mischaracterization (even outright disparagement of character), and the criticism that have arisen. I would not be surprised if those who have been entrusted with the copyright have experienced feelings similar to those which Matthew described for Jesus' agony in the garden at Gethsemane: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." Fortunately, as students of the Course, they know that sacrifice is only one of the illusions of the ego as are the attack and victimization that opponents of the copyright seem to embrace. Instead they can view the controversy surrounding the copyright as offering lessons in forgiveness. Members of the foundations can go about their work as extensions of the Love which Jesus symbolizes and they can see those who would oppose the copyright through the eyes of one who could have said, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. "They can go about their worldly efforts in the spirit of: ". . . the most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, does not matter. As the world judges these things, but not as God knows them, I was betrayed, abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was clear that this was only because of the projection of others onto me, since I had not harmed anyone . . . " (T-6.I 9:1-3)

Yet, in my humanness, yes, in my wrong mindedness, I have ached for Judy Whitson, Robert Skutch, Ken Wapnick and other foundation members when I have observed some of the uninformed, outrageous statements made about those who have so generously given of their time and personal resources to make the Course available in the world and to safeguard its integrity as the sophisticated, multilevel thought system that it is. I imagine that when they began their efforts on behalf of the Course they might have expected that those who undertook to study it would be inspired by gentleness and the search for peace rather than motivated to appropriate the Course in the name of their own specialness and, indeed, to do the very things the copyright was intended to prevent: to plagiarize, abridge, rewrite, exploit, falsely portray and misrepresent it.

While I regret the conspiracy to overthrow the copyright, I also hold the confident knowledge that the Truth is not threatened and that, indeed, the dream of separation is already ended. However, while I seem to be alive in this illusion, I do wish that those who have put so much of their time, effort and money into opposing the copyright would recognize how much easier it would have been, and still could be, to cooperate with the copyright policies. It seems to me that copyright opponents would find it relatively simple to free themselves of the burden of opposition. They would then be freer to go about the much more difficult and challenging work of fulfilling the function of forgiveness in their personal lives in the name of accepting for themselves the eternal truth of the Atonement principle.

I find it ironic that so much of the money that might have been spent on translating the Course has had to be spent on lawsuits just as it is ironic that those misguided souls who think their function in the world is to do the foundations' work for them could have purchased and given away numerous copies of the Course with the funds they have spent reproducing portions of it to give away in pieces while fighting the copyright in court.

It is even more ironic that the most recent lawsuit was intentionally provoked by a man who obtained his first copy of the Course as a gift from the Foundation for Inner Peace in response to his request!

But, I do understand that setting up websites which violate the copyright is far less arduous than undertaking the personal vigilance and honest self-examination required by the undoing process involved in practicing forgiveness. I have, myself, found it much easier to talk about the Course, to quote it, and to offer it to others than to truly integrate its principles into my daily life. I understand the attraction of the idols which have sung their siren song to those who seek to oppose the copyright.

I am deeply appreciative of the efforts of foundation members over the last twenty-five years. In the name of that support, in addition to contributing to the translation fund, I am making a donation to the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. I wish that my donation could be used for purposes other than paying lawyer's fees, as I am sure they do, but I understand the necessities which accrue to those who would shepherd the truth into a basically hostile world.

As far as I am concerned, the Course should not belong to the world to do with it as it sees fit (surely the threatened ego's intent to crucify the message is still alive as we enter the third millennium). I am pleased that the Course is the sacred trust of Ken and Gloria Wapnick, Judy Whitson and Bob Skutch, and that it can be offered to the world through the agency of their loving hands -- through their diligent caretakership in the name of a sacred trust. In this, as in all things, it is necessary to be in the world but not of it and to understand that the world does not know what is genuinely loving and what is not. I have confidence in the inner guidance of the foundations' staffs and know that they have consistently sought Divine Wisdom to inform them in their practical work.

The opportunity to perform miracles is all around us, as it always has been, in this nightmare dream of separation; in this seeming battleground where "good intentions" seem to be enough to those who avoid questioning their own motives. I am grateful for the Course and I am grateful for those who have made it available over the years. Within this illusion of time and space where error reigns and attack seems real, the Truth of Christ does need protection: ["This Child
needs your protection. He is far from home. He is so little that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in you still abides His sure protection. You will fail Him not. He will go home, and you along with Him." (W-pI.182.6:1-6).

In gratitude, Joe Jesseph

joejesseph@instruction.com

---

Subj: A Letter to Judy and Bob
Date: 11/24/99 2:28:57 PM Central Standard Time
From: Tom Whitmore

November 24, 1999

 

Judith Skutch Whitson
Robert Skutch
Foundation for Inner Peace
P.O. Box 615
Tiburon, California 94920-0615

 

Re: Adopt A Language

 

Dear Ms. Whitson and Mr. Skutch:

 

Recently I received two copies of a solicitation for contributions to the Foundation's Adopt A Language program which, it seems, is intended to facilitate the translation of A Course in Miracles into additional languages.

For my standpoint, as a serious student of the Course and a somewhat more than casual observer of recent goings on in the Course Community, the current solicitation for funds comes at an awkward time. Normally, I would make a contribution to any effort to spread awareness of A Course in the world and to aid in dissemination of its message of love and healing to all people. I find that my feelings are mixed about supporting a further entrenchment of those that would seek to make the book a mere article of commerce and exploit the teachings therein, to all appearances, for their own personal profit.

 

I am familiar with issues that have been raised in the pending lawsuit brought against the New Christian Church in the Southern District of New York and I have read the denials of Jesus' authorship of the Course in depositions taken in that case. The cock crowed once. I have spoken often with Robert Perry, and read with sadness and dismay the pleadings in that case, both the Petition and the Answer filed on your behalf, which likewise denies Jesus' authorship of the material. The cock crowed a second time. Yesterday I received word that a young student had been sued by your sister organization for $11 million because of materials that he made available on a web page in an act of civil disobedience. The cock crowed thrice.

 

Many students of A Course in Miracles are aware of the campaign by nameless representatives of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles that has had the effect of removing or eviscerating numerous (24 by my count) web sites that had been devoted spreading the teachings of the Course at no cost to recipients of the message and by gift of labor and talent of the authors of the web sites. By and large we are a docile and loving group and, as we have been taught, we forgive, we love, we choose for our peace, and we seek only neutral thoughts.

 

Once the principals of FIP and FACIM were revered as leaders and hallowed as teachers by the Course community, but it seems that you have squandered your status by participating in this shallow commercialization of our holy book. These days I hear more and more former Course students abandoning the teachings and moving on to other disciplines, sickened by the secularization and commercial exploitation that A Course has suffered at the hands of its proprietors.

 

In this context, Foundation for Inner Peace is inviting people to contribute funds to create new proprietary works and , I suppose, file new copyright applications and trademark claims with which to oppress students of A Course in more languages still.

 

I am sorry. My contribution this year is going to the defense fund for those oppressed by your actions in respect of the copyright and trademark, which seem to me and to many others to be most ungenerous and unloving.

 

May God bless you and keep you safe.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Thomas E. Whitmore

 

/TEW