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| There is an error on this week’s Study Question for Chicago UBF. The study question is based on Luke 3:1-38. The question 3 reads 3. Read verses 7-9. How did the crowds respond to John's preaching? How did he rebuke and challenge them? (7-8a)…But the verses 7 and 8a in the actual texts do not use the word “rebuke”. No other translations use the word “rebuke” in the verses. They all use the word, “said”. Even the Korean translation uses “이르되” which means “said”. But unfortunately the word “said” turned into “rebuke” in UBF Bible Study Question. This is not right. When one teaches the Bible, he should not teach his own interpretation or his organizational interpretation but the Bible itself. Since the Bibles uses “said”, “rebuke” in UBF Bible Study Question must be an interpretation of “said”. Therefore the question should be “How did he say to them?” One way to look at UBF culture is to see the languages the leaders use. We all know the UBF leaders love to “rebuke”! That is why they think UBF is more spiritual. They think other local churches are less spiritual because they never rebuke their members. So I did just word search with the word “rebuke” on Biblegateway.com. Just looking at the 4 gospels, I see that Jesus never rebuked the crowd. He never rebuked anyone other than his own disciples and the evil spirits and the wind. But he did tell the disciples to rebuke their brothers when they sin. Then I went on to see how St. Paul did. He never rebuked anyone. But he did tell Timothy to rebuke with great patience and careful instruction.The culture of UBF is the culture of “rebuking”. The more you can rebuke, the more spiritual you are. I am 100% sure that if anyone brings up the error in the Q3 during the UBF Bible Study, he will certainly be REBUKED!! | |
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| I like the UBF website. From time to time I get a very good laugh out of it. This new announcement says that one of the purposes of this special Bible study session is to "Provide an opportunity for HS seniors to get to know UBF leaders". It is listed as the first purpose among the three purposes for the Bible study. How about adding the fourth purpose which could be to "Provide an opportunity for HS seniors to get to know Jesus"? | |
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| I just read one of the funniest articles which is titled "Introduction to UBF Publication Ministry Partnership". One of the reasons I visit UBF website from time to time is that I get entertained by some good jokes posted on the UBF site. I don't know who wrote that introduction but I felt like I was reading a script for a comedy movie. Two words stood out from the introduction: Specific and Quality. How do you measure quality if your ministry is so specific? For example, if a sheep asks why he need to follow UBF marriage by faith, his shepherd only has to say "because unlike other ministries, our ministry is very specific or unique" as it happens all the time in UBF. The funniest part was when I read "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship and biblical faithfulness". Whoever wrote this, he surely seems to know how to collect nice words and put them in an orderly arrangement. But without any THINKING!! Writing is not just collecting nice words and put them in some order. Writing requires rigorous THINKING. Before writing about "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship", one should THINK about whether "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship" could be attainable in UBF environment where there is no freedom to rigorously pursue any degree of "scholarship". As discussed previously, a clear commitment to UBF takes higher priority to anything including "scholarship" in UBF. So what if a clear commitment to UBF contradicts the pursuit of excellence in scholarship? What if the preservation of Dr. Samuel Lee's beautiful spiritual legacy contradicts the pursuit of excellence in scholarship? What if the pursuit of excellence in scholarship leads one to leave UBF? Now we can see that even the talk of "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship" in UBF is a joke!! To achieve "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship" requires the highest degree of FREEDOM to do so. In conclusion, the bottom line of UBF Publication Ministry has nothing to do with "the highest standard of excellence in scholarship and biblical faithfulness" but has only to do with money!! | |
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| UBF is holding another discipleship conference. The key verse of this conference is 1 Samuel 13: 14, "The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people…” But the real purpose of this conference has nothing to do with "a man after God's own heart". As it is clearly stated in the application instruction for the conference posted on the UBF website, the real purpose of this conference is all about " a clear commitment to UBF" What is the purpose of the Bible study and numerous discipleship conferences in UBF? It is all about " a clear commitment to UBF". So we see a very clear pattern in UBF: Use the Bible to force " a clear commitment to UBF". So how can one have a heart after God's own heart when everything is about " a clear commitment to UBF"? | |
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| Dr. Ben Toh said in his message that Hitler was a man of vision. Dr. Ben Toh also said that Dr. King was a man of vision. "Even a lunatic like Hitler, when he had a vision of a superior German race, was able to shake the world for a brief time."So according to Dr. Ben Toh, both Dr. King and Hitler were men of vision. I am having a great difficulty in reconciling Dr. King and Hitler on the ground of 'vision'. What is more confusing is that Dr. Ben Toh preaches this notion of 'vision' based on Proverbs 29:18a which says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (KJV). How can one say that Hitler was a man of vision, the vision described in Proverbs 29:18a? I want to say that Hitler's vision was a " toxic" vision. But then based on Dr. Ben Toh's world class message, even a "toxic" vision has a merit that can inspire a lunatic to shake the world for a brief time. Clearly, Dr. Ben Toh is confused about the merits inherent in God's vision and the derivatized merits of the ideologically and institutionally conditioned vision such as UBF's vision built on Dr. Samuel Lee's wonderful spiritual legacy. | |
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| Any real, "professional" cult such as Scientology, the Moonies or the Local Church, will use a good part of the money offered by their followers to pay lawyers and threaten their critics with lawsuits - particularly book authors and web site maintainers, who are usually private people (ex members) or small publishing houses (see for example here) who cannot afford such expensive lawyers to defend themselves. UBF now, after years of claiming to be a "manger ministry" and to "follow Jesus who did not respond anything to his critics in court", changed their strategy and now not only invests time and money in many kinds of public relation efforts, but also in trying to silence their critics. We don't need to think in terms of "reform movements" any more, we need to face the fact that we now have to deal with a fully-fledged cult that invests lots of money and manpower to silence any criticism and shape their image in the Internet. So, please understand that we have to shut down some web sites which used to inform about UBF in the past. Unfortunately, our old amateurish web sites, though having been truthful, are not lawyer-proof and up to date any more, giving the UBF attorneys some good targets. We will have to rethink how to deal with UBF now that they reached the level of a professional cult. Please log in and enter comments in a private thread to keep UBF lawyers and lurkers locked out. | |
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| Interesting update in the Apologetics Index entry on UBF:
Oct. 8, 2008 Update -- Please note:
This entry on University Bible Fellowship (UBF) -- as shown below the blue line -- is in need of updating. Doing so is on our lengthy to-do list, and we do not know when we get around to it.
That said, the primary update of note is that on March 18, 2008, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) voted to re-admit the UBF as a member.
Since early May, 2008, we have received emails from a number of UBF members pointing out this fact. Some also point to a handful of endorsements the UBF has received, as well as to its membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Most of the emails make clear that membership in the NAE -- and, to a lesser extend, in the ECFA -- is seen as a stamp of approval for the UBF.
We do take such memberships into consideration, but they do not weigh heavily in our evaluations of groups. Many organizations are ill-equipped to deal with issues surrounding high-demand organizations and cult-like groups. They tend to base their determinations almost entirely on whether or not a movement's Statement of Faith passes their standard of orthodoxy.
Unfortunately, often a group's Statement of Faith does not quite describe what it actually teaches in word and/or in practice. In other words, a church, movement or organization can have a Statement of Faith that is theologically sound -- and yet teach doctrines ranging from aberrant to heretical and/or engage in practices that are sociologically abusive.
Therefore when it comes to University Bible Fellowship, our concerns regarding the organization have not been deminished as a result of the movement's reacceptance by the NAE.
In fact, we consider the group's authoritarian, high-demand nature to be evidence of a faulty understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- and of the Bible's teachings regarding disciples of Jesus.
We do not accept the notion that much of UBF's cult-like ideas regarding authority, submission, obedience and discipline can simply be explained by the group's Korean influences. It is not Korean culture that should influence a Christian's walk with Jesus. Rather, it should be the other way around.
In short, we have seen nothing that suggests University Bible Fellowship's teachings and practices should not -- at the very least -- be cause of concern for Christians. In our opinion, the UBF is an unhealthy organization whose teachings and practices provide a breeding ground for spiritual elitism and abuse.
Theologically, we consider the University Bible Fellowship to be at best an aberrant movement. In Christian theology, aberrant means, "Off-center or in error in some important way, such that the doctrine or practice should be rejected and those who accept it held to be sinning, even though they may very well be Christian."
Our advice to Christians is not to get involved with the University Bible Fellowship.
Indeed. - Mood:amused
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| Here is a typical passage from a UBF lesson (quoting from "Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy", UBF Chicago Sunday sermon 02/14/1999): Once a renowned journalist interviewed Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham: "What would you do if you lived once more in this world?" Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham answered, "If I could live again, I would study the Bible quietly and teach the Bible person-to-person." We are doing what the famous evangelist is aspiring to do, even in his dreams. This rumor is certainly going back to Samuel Lee who liked to make up such things. In this case Lee wanted to show how UBF 1:1 evangelization is superior to mass evangelization, and claimed even Billy Graham envied UBF for their style of evangelization. Others then simply copied Lee's sermons, without ever checking. Typical for a UBF lesson is also the vague formulation "once" and "a renowned journalist", and emphasizing the Ph.D. title of Billy Graham. As has been mentioned before, this is far from being true. Billy Graham consistently only regretted that he did not spend more time with his family, something that is considered a cardinal sin in UBF. I quote from an interview on the occasion of his 90th birthday yesterday: "Do you have any regrets as you look back on your life?" "I regret that I didn't spend more time with my family; I'm sure Ruth and the children paid a heavy price for all the times I was absent. I always tell younger evangelists not to feel like they have to accept every invitation they get, or be absent from home so much." Billy Graham also added that he wished he had studied more, but I'm sure he didn't mean UBF style Bible study or even "one-to-one" with that. | |
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| It's another year and another UBF "Founder's Day" celebration, this time involving the Russian UBF (maybe some people there need some "reinforcement" or "re-education"). I'll link to last year's post on Founder's Day: http://community.livejournal.com/rsqubf/126910.htmlLet me add a link to an article on narcissists as natural leaders: http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/005609.html . It's something that's been discussed before. Samuel Lee was a pathological narcissist, as a host of former members who were around him can testify. His narcissism is reflected in UBF's own narcissism. They glory in themselves, they call themselves "the work of God", as insignificant as their accomplishments really are. It's hard to find a church or organization today that talks about themselves as much as UBF does. Lee's narcissism reached a peak toward the end of his life. As an example, here's a link to the letter he wrote in October 2001, on the 40th anniversary of UBF's founding. At the time, the last UBF reform movement was on-going. He would die in the fire at his house in January of the following year. As was his custom at the time, he signed his letter "Samuel Lee, UBF Director, Ph.D., Litt.D." I've taken the liberty to run this letter through Wordle, and with some large common words (the, and, in, of, to) taken out, here's what the "word cloud" looks like:  To Samuel Lee, the history of UBF was largely about "I". The same pattern can be seen in many other letters he wrote. Here's a portion of the actual word count: the, 330 to, 209 and, 205 of, 169 I, 162in, 140 a, 117 was, 81 that, 76 they, 57 this, 54 God, 52 for, 52 had, 50 is, 47 It, 45 UBF, 44 We, 42 my, 41... Not, 28 me, 28At, 27 ... kingdom, 8 Jesus, 8history, 8 ... | |
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| Today I read a great speech by Elli Wiesel on the perils of indifference. Before I get misunderstood again, I don't want to compare UBF with the Nazis. But one point that struck me was the indifference of the UBF members towards the reports of abuse in their own group, even when they did not only hear about it from others, but witnessed it themselves. I remember how after the first reports about Samuel Lee's wrongdoings a UBF member asked me why I looked so worried. He suggested to accompany me home, and while we were walking, I told him all the awful things I had read from beatings, misappropriation of money up to forced abortions. I had to make a long way round because it was such a long story. At the end, when we arrived, all he had to say was: "Chris, why are you so angry?" I was flabbergasted. But even many dropouts who have turned away from UBF because of abuse they experienced themselves, even many of those, simply want to forget and don't talk about their experience. And there are also these cult apologists who don't care to investigate when people repeatedly report about severe abuse. I also remember the response of a UBF Korean when he was confronted by Amy. He covered his ears and shouted "I do not care!" This indifference is what is still cannot understand. Ellie Wiesel is right when he says that such people who do not care have lost their humanity: "In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil." | |
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| I don't know of how much use the following link is going to be since it's a Russian translation of an English testimony by Joe and Cathy Calabrese (spelling?). All the ingredients are there like racism, dictatorship and humiliation of those unwilling to follow the "party line".
http://prosvetitel1.narod.ru/dokumenti/16.01.08-NAW-BOG-VLADIKA.html
One question I've been asking myself during all the 12+ years since I left the gang group was, what can I do about it? | |
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| My name's Alexandre Repkine, and I'm somehow not ashamed of it nor am I afraid to reveal it. Or is there a ubiquitous UBF hand whose wrath is going to demolish me for posting here?? This skirmishing in opinions is really reminding me of the Soviet era when lots of words would be exchanged with little or rather no real meaning conveyed. Let's say I repent of my stubborn unrelenting attitude and agree to everything that has been said here about the illegitimate government of China and the evil influence of Confucianism on the UBF formation. | |
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| Unfortunately, many ex-UBFers, especially those from the West, tend to project their rightfully negative view of the UBF practices on Korea and on the Confucian countries in general, mainly China where Confucianism takes its roots. Let me suggest that this is as narrow-minded a point of view as the one propagated by the UBF leaders. Theirs is the us-versus-them mentality: if you're not with us, you're against us. Automatically then, as if adhering to the UBF morale they criticize so much, the ex-UBFers are essentially doing the same by saying things like "the Chinese are copycats", "Confucianism lacks inventiveness", "the Chinese regime is not legitimate since it is not a democracy" and the like.
I really hate to have entered a discussion on mostly political and moral issues on China recently, but then again, I did not start making outrightly racist statements like "the Chinese regime is not legitimate" and the like, in the first place.
Blaming Koreans, Chinese and Confucians proper is probably the easiest way to shift the responsibility for having made one's own mistakes, for one's own inability to deal with the post-exit trauma. However, is it really the best one? All of the ex-UBFers, including my humble self, are the only ones responsible for ones' own lives and their future. I for one won't get down to the level of blaming the not-so-insignificant part of human civilization for my personal problems. | |
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| After "Business Mission" and "Internet Mission" now UBF's newest campaign: Medical Mission. Of course, they don't do it without ulterior motives. "Medical care is the doorway for evangelism" as they admit. Plus, this will be a new instrument for them to gain reputation, and blinding people about the true nature of this organization. Who can blame an organization that is doing such things? And last but not least, this will surely become a new justification for fundraising. | |
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| Recently I read an article about China that made a connection between the phenomenon of copyright infringement by Chinese manufacturers and their Confucianist background. It mentioned that in a Confucianist society, learning means copying the behavior of the master unto perfection. Creative and original thinking is not practiced, only copying. Even school and university is mostly memorizing stuff, not working and thinking on your own, or even critical thinking.
In fact, I suddenly noticed how much UBF is about copying behavior. I was always amazed about the amount of copied behavior in UBF. For instance, most missionaries even copied the strange way how Samuel Lee used to clear his throat and similar mannerisms. Maybe it's true that this copycat mindset has something to do with the Confucianist background. | |
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| Go to http://www.pennstateubf.org and click on the story about honoring the life of "Dr." Samuel Lee. All that's missing is the description of how he separated night from day. All you can do is hope that the author of that little hagiography will come around and see that he's under as much influence as I was during my boozing days. | |
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| From following parts of the on-going tug-of-war of the UBF article on Wikipedia, I've learned a few things. For instance, a new word: hagiography. An outsider noted the "obvious hagiography", for example, the need on the part of certain UBF contributors to precede every "Lee" with "Dr." and to write things like "The absolute, dedicated and energetic nature of UBF's co-founder Dr. Samuel Lee and the sacrificial, hard-working and nurturing influence of Sarah Barry affected much of what UBF members did and believed". Another outsider notes the attempts by certain UBF contributors to "whitewash" UBF's controversial history, for example, the recent attempt by a UBF contributor to change the "Controversies" section to "Reviews and reactions" (ha!). "Hagiography" and "whitewashing" are good summaries to me of UBF's approach to its history. Because of all the back and forth on the article, it has come under the attention of Wikipedia admins who are discouraging editing of the article by people who might have a conflict of interest (such as the aforementioned UBF contributors and probably people like me). It looks like they want a "disinterested third party" to clean up this article. So let me take this opportunity to discourage editing this article and encourage people to leave it up to outsiders who seem to recognize the need to clean up the hagiography and whitewashing that is present in the article. Wikipedia, being what it is, has to limit sources to those that are "verifiable", that is, sources like media reports, books and other publications. Fortunately, the admins seem to be aware that sources like http://rsqubf.info/documents/external/external.html are chock full of verifiable sources. | |
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| (This is a repost of an old thread at http://rsqubf.info/discuss/archive/7568.html, on the occasion of another UBF international self-glorification conference coming up this month.) Date Posted: 21:45:25 07/15/04 Thu Author: Noony Moose Subject: UBF international conferences: prime time for abuse These UBF international conferences are prime times when it comes to spiritual abuse in UBF. This is the time when UBF leaders and members won't take no for an answer. The "registration battle" is in full tilt. People have to pay out of their own pockets to register their "sheep" who may not even plan to attend or who have little interest in attending despite UBF members' assurances that the conference is like a "preview of the kingdom of God". The registration charts showing who is "working hard" and who is "lazy" cover large sections of UBF center walls. People are being forced to take time off from their jobs to attend this conference, even if their bosses have already said no, even if they could jeopardize their jobs, to attend this conference to "encourage" someone; for people overseas, this time off could be a week or two weeks. People overseas who have been turned down for visas repeatedly are being ordered to apply again and again at their own monetary expense to attend this conference to "encourage" someone. Basically, sacrifice everything to go to this conference by any means. For what? To "encourage" whom? Isn't it to "encourage" the UBF bosses who seem to have a pathological need to congratulate themselves through artificially generated numbers? This is a definition of spiritual abuse from the book, "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse", and it applies to these UBF bosses: "There are spiritual systems in which. . .the members are there to meet the needs of the leaders. . . These leaders attempt to find fulfillment through the religious performance of the very people whom they are there to serve and build. This is an inversion of the body of Christ. It is spiritual abuse." These are times when the spiritual abuse in UBF really stands out. I hope the people who are forced, coerced, guilt-tripped and deceived into attending this conference can see that. | |
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| (From http://ubfhistoryx.livejournal.com) Some have identified a cause of UBF's problems to be "ingrown leadership" This is an assessment of UBF that UBF leaders are reportedly "not defensive about at all". Yet, their seeming lack of defensiveness in front of those they are trying to impress (those whom they deceived into endorsing them) does not equate to an actual recognition of the problem of ingrown leadership. Here are some of UBF leader John Jun's "prayer topics" given at the Feb. 2008 UBF staff conference as reported by a Chicago UBF honcho:
4. Education direction:
a. From now on everyone (including missionaries from Korea) who wants to be a missionary should receive Chicago HQ's intensive training for one month to get missionary certificate.
b. Intern shepherd training will be for one year in HQ too
c. Chicago area Staff shepherds have two Bible studies every other Monday. They finished 1, 11 king, Colossians and now they began 1 Corinthians. Let each region have its own Bible study following the example of Chicago area UBF.
Let's go back to the Bible study. [Funny how they're always having to "go back". Maybe they should study why they keep drifting away.] Without deep Bible study we can not make disciples.
5. Public relation.
We are spiritual special task forces who fight spiritual battles. Senior staff shepherds will engage in public relations. Junior or new members may stay inside of UBF meetings to avoid confusion.
What do we see here? It's a committment to more ingrown leadership. All "education" is to be done in HQ, following the Chicago HQ "example". The occasional paid speaker from outside of UBF will be dutifully listened to and honor-bombed for "public relations" purposes, but all real education will be the usual "intensive" HQ-model Bible study. Nowhere else in John Jun's prayer topics is there a hint of trying to tackle the problem of ingrown leadership. Then there is the decision that "Junior or new members may stay inside of UBF meetings to avoid 'confusion'". Real relationships with other churches will be discouraged, lest the "sheep" find the grass to be greener elsewhere (and less accompanied by attempts to control their lives). This, again, contributes to ingrown leadership. It's the same old UBF insularity and exclusivism. | |
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| From the same blog as before comes a post-abusive church essay on tithing: "The good fruit of NOT tithing". I post this because of a recent incident in which I heard a UBF parent tell one of their children that God would protect their family from harm because they tithe 10% of their income. The logical conclusion is that when they stop giving 10% to God (to UBF), then God withdraws this "protection". Is this an unusual teaching in UBF in which offerings and tithing are driven by compulsion? No, we know it is not. This is a core teaching of many abusive, allegedly "Bible-based" groups and churches. | |
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| Recently a Russian ex-member very aptly summarized UBF's mission statement as:
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare that you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare that you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare that you are a chosen people, ...
Distressing, but to the point. | |
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| The essay "The Person Formerly Known As Your Leader" is a genuine repentance, and therefore, not from any current leader of UBF, where leaders only repent for lack of performance or for sins that they conveniently can't remember committing. (Though it's not unheard of for former UBF leaders to repent, after leaving UBF.) Read the essay in the comments. | |
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