Kurt was born and raised in Northern Wisconsin, the oldest of 6 children in a devout Roman Catholic family. He was raised with an alcoholic father in a “hellfire and brimstone” version of Catholicism and therefore had no real concept of a loving God.

This began to change when Kurt went to college in Milwaukee and joined a spiritually progressive Catholic community which began a healing process that continues to this day. It was in his second year of college that he had a profound experience with God on a road one night where he discovered the love of God as a real experience. Kurt came across The Urantia Book shortly after this and what he read resonated as truth. He studied the book for 13 years, during which time he married and raised 3 children. He continued as a member of that progressive Catholic liturgy during this time, and sometimes read from it at the pulpit during mass in this church where his three children were baptized. When conservative elements of the church took control the community was disbanded, so he then found a Urantia Book study group in Milwaukee which he went on to lead before moving his family back to Northern Wisconsin. He became a member of the Urantia Book Fellowship, and has been an active conference participant ever since. He is currently involved in many Urantia groups and activities, of which this group is one.

By trade, Kurt was an architect and held various other jobs. He divorced, remarried, and became active in the Florida society and meetings. After retirement, he dedicated himself to a Urantia-based ministry in 2019 and moved to Wisconsin where he can be close to his children and grandchildren. He has become even more involved in the Urantia community since retiring and is developing service ministries based on the teachings of the Book. 

Kurt says he is “addicted” to listening to the audio version of the Urantia Book (with 40 start to finish listenings). I was listening to the Book on his daily commute to work that he felt he “should be looking for an acronym about religion.” He eventually found inspiration for the acronym ROPE when he heard the quotation, “Jesus founded the Religion Of Personal Experience.” (196:2.6) The word ‘religion’ has Latin roots that mean tying or binding to God. “Our ROPE connects us with God and everyone else.” He sees ropes used for climbing, bridges, on sailboats, and musical strings as material analogies to our personal connection with God and others, and uses these rope analogies to create “visual parables” to help others understand basic spiritual principles. 

It was from one of these analogies that Kurt discovered how God as Mother worked in his life. “I have compared my connection to God as my Father to being connected by a rope. God never forces us into a relationship with him, just as you cannot push anything with a rope. We must choose to take hold of the rope that is offered to us so that God can pull us toward him. But my connection with God as my Mother is different. I don’t have to ask for anything She does for me. It comes to me and to everyone automatically and freely, as if I am connected by an umbilical cord to Her ministries.” 

Kurt realized he needed a ministry background. He attended conferences on Urantia-based ministry, took several related Urantia University Institute courses, and graduated from The Christ Experiment’s School of Ambassadors. He is developing a website based on the ROPE to encourage believers and reach out to those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” to develop their relationships with God. 

He sees ROPE defined by goals rather than belief. “Goals can unite religionists, whatever their beliefs. Beliefs alone end in division. I hope the concept of the ROPE will connect people with God as their divine Parent.”

Kurt now lives near Milwaukee, returning to Wisconsin in 2019 after spending 20 years in Florida.