gA few years ago, I hinted that I was working on a new website, sort of a mega-anti-ubf site. This is moving forward, and today’s article is a taste of the content I plan to publish. My tagline for the new site is this: examine, expose and exert. I plan to examine many aspects of the UBF group, to expose their abuses and to exert continued pressure on the group leaders to step down, shut down or otherwise overhaul their seriously flawed campus ministry. What gives me the right to do this? Why am I qualified to do this? I am in a unique position, first of all. I spent 16 years as a ubf shepherd, 8 years as a ubf chapter director and 5 years as a former member. During this time “out” of the group, I have become a sort of amateur exit counselor for dozens of ubf members. I have written four books about my insider experiences. I have helped build the ubfriends websites, making a major contribution to the 20,000+ comments and the 700+ articles (perhaps exceeded only by Ben Toh!). Here is my summary I’ve been working on. For decades, ubf leaders told me to examine myself. Now it’s my turn. Now I examine them. For decades. ubf leaders told me to expose my sins. Now it’s my turn. Now I expose their abuses. For decades, ubf leaders exerted undue religious influence on my life and their high-pressure authoritarianism ruled my life. Now it’s my turn. Now I exert massive pressure on them.

SUMMARY OF UBF VALUES

The value system of the group stems from a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. These value systems have much good in them, but when mixed together they produce odd results.

Value 1: Heritage
If there is anything the group values, it is their heritage. The fastest way to get ahead in the group is to praise this heritage and help justify it. They even created a website to, in their words, “guard Samuel Lee’s legacy“. Many older members have pictures of Lee on their walls at home, treating him as a Buddha-like historical figure. In Korea, they built a museum dedicated to Lee and his legacy.

Value 2: Sacrifice
Right from the start, new recruits into the group are challenged to give up something. It begins with the challenge to give up one hour per week to attend the group’s weekly session, called one-to-one Bible study. This one hour quickly explodes into many other sacrifices of time, money, relationships, and even jobs. The group values those who sacrifice for the group’s sake. Typically, those who make a sacrifice for someone or something besides the group are rebuked and/or trained to make sacrifices only for ubf.

Value 3: Loyalty
The gospel in the group is taught as loyalty. Being loyal to the group and to your appointed personal shepherd is of utmost importance. This loyalty to person and to ideology is the glue that keeps the group together. Such loyalty allows them to weather storms of criticism that flare up from time to time. Due to this high value placed on loyalty, most of the members, and especially the ubf leaders, are well-versed in how to spin up implied commands for students. Instead of openly admitting and documenting their teachings, they cleverly hide behind hagiographical narratives meant to promote loyalty. This makes criticizing their teachings difficult and often results in a Stockholm syndrome effect on new recruits. Leaders will cover up abuses of many kinds in order to remain loyal to the group and it’s doctrines.

Value 4: Honor
To show respect to elders is a deeply rooted cultural aspect of the group. They go beyond the typical Korean sense of honor, however, and bind honor with the Christian concepts of holiness, righteousness and peace. They strive to “keep face” at all costs. They typically dislike public interactions, except when they can use public interaction to protect the honor of the group. The latest tactic by “native” (non-Korean) members of the group is to pretend to not be Korean. They want to distance themselves from the Korean aspects of the group and do not want to be associated with the cult label that plagues them decade after decade.

Value 5: Repetition
The entire system of UBF is built upon repetition. Meetings are repeated each week, the group’s stories are repeated from generation to generation and the new student recruits are kept in check by repeated status updates on their private lives. The Bible is not so much studied as it is memorized, repeating the same verses over and over again. Those who can endure the repetitious lifestyle are praised as strong. Those who cannot keep up are shunned as weak.

SUMMARY OF UBF PERSUASION

Persuasion plays a major role in any community. Scholars have historically identified three aspects of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos and Logos (http://pathosethoslogos.com)

The ethos of UBF – “We are God’s servants doing God’s mission!”

What is the ethical appeal of the group? What means do they use to convince an audience of their credibility and character? Typically, the ubf group appeals to God as their supreme justifier. They are allowed and commanded to go to college campuses (and not other places usually) to recruit college students because God told them to do this. They proof-text this ethos with Bible verses about God’s anointed people. In the last decade, the group sought out recommendation letters from some American Christian authors and pastors. They invited these people to special meetings where they put on their best show to gain their recommendation. The group also joined several organizations, over 20 in fact, to gain credentials in America, such as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Rarely will ubf people tell the whole story though. They joined the NAE in 1998, were expelled in 2004, and rejoined in 2008. Those who expose them or criticize them are said to be starting Korah’s rebellion against God’s servants.

The pathos of UBF – “We gave up so much! You should too!”

What is the emotional appeal of the group? What means do they use to appeal to student’s  emotions? The group evokes sympathy with stories of leaving Korea. They love to tell students about how  much the missionaries gave up to come to America. They claim they had such a good life with high-paying jobs in Korea, and gave all that up to live so poorly in America. The fact is many ubf leaders live very well off behind the scenes. They put on a “poor face” but are in reality very well off in America. The emotional appeal of ubf is the call to sacrifice. The implication is that the group is on a noble cause, and any sacrifice is worthy of that cause.

The logos of UBF – “Incurvatus in se”

What is the appeal to logic used by the group? What means do they use to convince an audience by use of logic or reason?  The group often turns the tables on members, causing them to look inward and to see themselves as the source of their problems. This seems logical because humans are often our own worst enemy. This self-deprecating, self-fulfilling logic is seen as something to be praised by the group, to the point that those most inwardly focused are called most holy. This logos stands in stark contrast to the Christian tradition. Such inward obsession is called “incurvatus in se” and labelled as harmful by both Augustine and Luther. The logos of ubf might also be called self-flagellation due to their obsession with self-discipline. The leadership of the group suffers from this logos. The group promotes leaders only from within, encourages the clever spinning of events to conform to the group’s internal ideology and often uses abstract and theoretical language to retell narratives that place burden on each individual member.

My new website will also feature the following and much more:

SUMMARY OF UBF STRATEGY

SUMMARY OF UBF DOCTRINE

SUMMARY OF UBF DOGMA

SUMMARY OF UBF LIFESTYLE