A:  I identified the passage that you cite as the following, from Paper 52 , PLANETARY MORTAL EPOCHS:

“It is neither tenderness nor altruism to bestow futile sympathy upon degenerated human beings, unsalvable abnormal and inferior mortals. There exist on even the most normal of the evolutionary worlds sufficient differences between individuals and between numerous social groups to provide for the full exercise of all those noble traits of altruistic sentiment and unselfish mortal ministry without perpetuating the socially unfit and the morally degenerate strains of evolving humanity. There is abundant opportunity for the exercise of tolerance and the function of altruism in behalf of those unfortunate and needy individuals who have not irretrievably lost their moral heritage and forever destroyed their spiritual birthright.” (52:2.12)

On the face of it, it does appear somewhat of a harsh statement, I agree; however, there is no mention, or even a hint, about God’s love being restricted to only “evolved beings.” From the revelation of God given us in The Urantia Book, it is impossible for me to imagine that God’s love CAN be restricted from any being, unless that being deliberately removes him/herself from that divine love. Such a being may be unsalvable, but making such a determination would be quite risky and presumptuous, in my opinion.

When one reads the entire paper, one can easily see that the authors are informing us of the seven levels of human progression on an “average inhabited world.” Our planet is far from average, I think you will agree. On Urantia, these seven levels of normal planetary progression have been modified by the unfortunate mistakes and partial failures of previous revelations of God to our planet. For example, our planetary Prince defaulted, our Adamic Son defaulted, and we have yet to receive a Magisterial Son. While it is good to know what life looks like on an average planet, we really cannot compare our progression to these average milestones, except to say that we have not, and probably will not, progress in these normal ways.

As is pointed out in the passage that you cited:

“There exist on even the most normal of the evolutionary worlds sufficient differences between individuals and between numerous social groups to provide for the full exercise of all those noble traits of altruistic sentiment and unselfish mortal ministry without perpetuating the socially unfit and the morally degenerate strains of evolving humanity.”

Again, Urantia is not one of the “most normal;” in fact we are described as being “backward and confused.” Even with the incredible blessing of Michael’s bestowal, many of the benefits that accompany such bestowals on normal worlds have not yet come to pass here. Consider this statement from the section titled: “URANTIA’S POSTBESTOWAL AGE:” :

“If you could be transplanted from your backward and confused world to some normal planet now in the postbestowal Son age, you would think you had been translated to the heaven of your traditions. You would hardly believe that you were observing the normal evolutionary workings of a mortal sphere of human habitation. These worlds are in the spiritual circuits of their realm, and they enjoy all the advantages of the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity services of the superuniverse. ” (52:6.8)

On such a world, it is probably easy to identify those who are hopelessly out of step with progression—those who are degenerated or abnormal. And when this can be rightly determined, I can see the wisdom of the author’s advice. But we here on Urantia are not even close to achieving such a state. We are not in the spiritual circuits, nor do we receive universe broadcasts, to cite just two major differences between normal planets and Urantia.

So, while that troubling statement may be sound for the normal worlds, it has to be understood in context, and not taken as an excuse to fail to minister to even the least among us, as Jesus did. As we are, our spiritual development is so retarded, our races are so admixed, and our perceptions of “normal” and “abnormal” are so tainted by misinformation and misunderstanding, we might do well to take these admonitions with a grain of salt at this point in our development—perhaps we might take this statement as more informational rather than advisory at this point in our development. Who on Urantia can rightly make these judgment regarding who among us are “degenerated human beings, unsalvable abnormal and inferior mortals.”?

Even so, it is hard to imagine that even such abnormal beings will be forsaken by God without a final opportunity to progress in eternity. At times in Jesus’ ministry, he was able to identify such beings, but I think we would do well to treat all of God’s children as our brothers and sisters as Jesus advised until such distinctions become more apparent in the ages to come. In the meantime, I think it is safe to say that we can still practice our own “noble traits of altruistic sentiment and unselfish mortal ministry,” while we pray for wisdom and discernment in these matters, and do our part to help our backward planet progress.

Again, thanks so much for this interesting question. I hope that my reply has been helpful to you. Please write back any time…”