Cult Recruits on Campus Part Two: Breaking Away<\/strong>
\nBy Kim Van Bruggen<\/p>\nThe Projector: Student\u2019s Journal<\/p>\n
Date October 10, 1989<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the first part of this two part
\nseries, Cult on Campus, the
\nUniversity Bible Fellowship was
\nattempting to recruit new members
\nfrom RRCC.<\/p>\n
Once approached by a “missionary”
\nof the University Bible
\nFellowship (UBF) the chances of
\nending up at their “church” in
\nFort Garry are very good.
\nThat is where Theresa wound
\nup spending almost three years of
\nher life.<\/p>\n
“There was a- groupof us that
\nall started around the same time,
\nso they trained us as a group. It
\nbecame like a military boot camp
\nfor us,” Theresa said.
\nThe punishment for wrongdoing
\nwas different for males than
\nfor females.<\/p>\n
“If they (the men) disobeyed
\nthem, or had an attitude problem,
\nor just did something that wasn’t
\nright\u2014in full suit they would
\nmake them run a one and a half
\nmile route around the U of W ten
\ntimes.”<\/p>\n
For the women, the punishment
\nwas more emotional in nature.
\nWhen Theresa was first recruited
\nby the UBF she moved
\ninto the communal house and soon
\nafter her sister Lisa followed.<\/p>\n
“I was really close to my sister,
\nbut they got between us by telling
\nher things that I said that I never
\nactually said.”<\/p>\n
Eventually, they split the two
\nup by having them move into
\nseparate apartments.
\n“She had to move in with her
\nbible teacher and I had to move in
\nwith the three others\u2014and we
\nhad to move that night.”<\/p>\n
“We had to obey right away. I
\nkept feeling that if I didn’t obey
\nthey’d ban me from the center.
\nThey had already kicked me out
\nfor seven months.”<\/p>\n
The house on 3 Emory in Fort
\nGarry was bought outright by the
\nUBF in the spring of 1988. The
\nregistered owner, David Jung, had
\nimmigrated from Korea six
\nmonths earlier.<\/p>\n
“Everybody pitches in money
\nat Christmas to buy a bible house
\neach year in different countries\u2014
\nit’s called World Mission Offering.”<\/p>\n
The ultimate goal is to set up
\nUBF ministries in every country
\npossible.<\/p>\n
Don is a former UBF member.
\n“They didn’t care where\u2014
\nanywhere. They’d pray to start
\nup a UBF in every college and
\nuniversity in Canada.”<\/p>\n
“They just wanted to raise up a
\nshepherd for Russia\u2014to pioneer
\nMoscow University.” Don said.<\/p>\n
“The plan is to send all the
\nCanadian students to Russia.
\nCanada is the easiest country to
\nget into Russia because it’s a
\nfriendly country,” Theresa said.<\/p>\n
Audrey was also involved with
\nthe UBF and knew of their attempt
\nto pioneer Russia.<\/p>\n
“Several members of the group\u00a0decided to take Russian so they
\ncould go to Russia\u2014so they could
\ngo ‘fishing’ so to speak,” Audrey
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
One man still heavily involved
\nwith the UBF is enrolled in the
\nRussian language program at the
\nU of M. It is said that he is being
\ngroomed for the job.<\/p>\n
His mother, who wishes to
\nremain anonymous for fear her
\nson might break off all communication
\nwith her, spoke of her fear
\nfor her son.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what these people
\ndid to him. It seems to me they’ve
\ngot him so dependent on them
\nthat he can’t get away,” she said.
\n“These people come and just
\nshower you with love. Within a
\nmonth they had him moved in
\nwith them.<\/p>\n
“I think he was a bit insecure.
\nHe’s the type of person that wants
\neverybody to like him.<\/p>\n
“I will not accept the fact that
\nthey’re not a cult. It’s only cults
\nthat make people move in together
\nand control their whole lives.<\/p>\n
“In their church they start blessing
\nSamuel Lee before they do
\nChrist. Normally, you pray to the
\nLord.<\/p>\n
“He really believes he’s doing
\nthe right thing. He feels you can
\nlie as long as you’re doing it for
\nthe Lord.<\/p>\n
“They sent hime to Korea. I
\ncalled for him and the Korean
\npeople told me he’s gone to Korea.
\nI panicked. I didn’t know
\nwhat to do. They went on some
\ntype of mission of theirs. They
\nspoke to about 10,000 people
\nthere. They’re making him feel\u00a0very important.<\/p>\n
“He’ll go against us before he’ll
\ngo against them.”<\/p>\n
The family has thought about
\ntrying to get their son out of the
\ngroup.<\/p>\n
“You have to have at least
\n$30,000 to de-program them. You
\nhave no guarantee that they’re
\nnot going to go right back.<\/p>\n
“I’d have to rent a house and
\nhave security posted at the front
\ndoor. I could get charged for
\nkidnapping.<\/p>\n
“We’d have to equip the house
\nfor a bunch of people to sleep
\ntheir.<\/p>\n
“My son is a big man and he has
\nTai Kwan Do. You’d pretty well
\nhave to tie him down. The only
\nde-programmer I could find is in
\nthe States. I’d have to pay for his
\nflight to Winnipeg and expenses.
\nIt could cost as much as $50,000.<\/p>\n
“If we tried to kidnap our son
\nhe would lay charges and sue us.
\n“A bunch of his friends tried to
\nkidnap him in 1987. They had
\neverything arranged. They went
\nthere at night, but he fought them
\nall off.<\/p>\n
“These are the kinds of things
\nthat you see on T.V. You don’t
\nthink they’ll happen to you.”
\nFor the members who managed
\nto get out of UBF, the break from
\nthe cult was difficult.<\/p>\n
“The more I tried to get away,
\nthe harder they tried to get me
\nback in,” Don said.<\/p>\n
“She (his “shepherdess”) would
\ncome to my apartment; she’d
\nphone me at work. She even
\nphoned me at a restaurant once.”<\/p>\n
Don became wary of the UBF\u00a0 after a lengthy article about the
\ngroup appeared in the Free Press.<\/p>\n
“The newspaper story came out
\non a Saturday when we were
\nhaving a bible study. Nobody
\n(out of the leaders of the group)
\nsaid anything about i t even though
\nthey knew about the story.”<\/p>\n
Don found out about the article
\nthat evening after bible study.<\/p>\n
“The next day at the Sunday
\nservice the message was made to
\ncounteract everything in the article. I began to get suspicious
\nwhen Esther Kim, the leader of
\nthe group, wouldn’t speak to the
\npaper.<\/p>\n
“What’s she got to hide if everything’s
\nlegitimate.”<\/p>\n
For Audrey, her involvement
\nwas gradual, but no less intensive.<\/p>\n
“I kind of became more inolved
\nwithout realizing it. At first when
\nI got there everyone was really
\nfriendly and I felt good about it.
\nThe only thing I didn’t like was
\nthat they gave people titles.”<\/p>\n
The bible study teachers are
\nknown as ‘missionaries’ and
\n`shepherds.’ The young students
\nare called ‘sheep’ and are also
\nknown as `the Young Bisons.'”<\/p>\n
All three former members agree
\nthat the basic strategy used to
\nkeep them involved with the group
\nwas guilt.<\/p>\n
Audrey experienced feelings of
\nguilt after repeated gifts of food
\nand free lunches.<\/p>\n
“I began to feel guilty because
\nthey were constantly being nice
\nto me. The guilt kind of stuck at
\nme. When I started going to service
\nthey’d start asking me to do\u00a0things like write letters to other
\nmissionaries.<\/p>\n
“They wanted me to go to a
\nconference which cost about
\n$500. When I told them I didn’t
\nhave the money they found a job
\nfor me,”<\/p>\n
For Don it was much the same
\nfeeling.<\/p>\n
“My shepherdess would always
\nbuy me lunch and sometimes
\ndinner. They’d always take
\npeople out for lunch,” Don said.<\/p>\n
“It was like their sacrifice to
\nyou. Instead of spending money
\non themselves they’d spend it on
\ntheir “sheep.” They’d tell you
\nthis at the service.”<\/p>\n
There is also another very
\nominous tool that makes these
\nyoung students vulnerable to the
\nUBF\u2014once involved they are
\nasked to write what are known as
\n“sogams.”<\/p>\n
These are pages of written testimony
\nof the student’s life history,
\nincluding all of their shortcomings
\nor negative feelings
\nabout people or things.<\/p>\n
With Theresa, the “sogam”
\nproved to be her ultimate reason
\nfor obedience–always living with
\nthe fear that they would release
\nher “sogam” for everybody to
\nread.<\/p>\n
“They would continually put
\nyou down. They would pull things
\nup from your past, which you had
\nprovided for them through the
\n“sogam.” At the same time they
\nwould convince you that this is
\nthe only place to know God,”
\nTheresa said.<\/p>\n
Don was one member that refused
\nto write a “sogam.” Students
\nwould be expected to read
\nwhat they wrote to the group and
\noften it would be very negative.<\/p>\n
“They were reading their
\n“sogams” putting themselves
\ndown and talking negatively\u2014
\nthey were putting a guilt complex
\non themselves. Then they’d say
\n`thanks to UBF I’m becoming
\nmore worthy.”<\/p>\n
“I went once to one more meeting
\nand it was really awful, so I
\nnever went back. I just saw it in
\na different way and I saw how
\nridiculous it all was,” Don said.<\/p>\n
“I wrote three to five of them
\n(sogams),” Audrey said.<\/p>\n
“As a Christian myself it keeps
\nyou in touch with the direction
\nyour walk is taking. But what I
\ndidn’t like was they were constantly
\ndwelling on the bad and
\nthe criticisms. It’s as if that was
\nthe only thing that mattered.<\/p>\n
“It ends up plaguing you more
\nthan helping you,” she said.
\nIn reflection, Audrey gives this
\nfinal comment about her involvement
\nwith the University Bible
\nFellowship.<\/p>\n
“If you really don’t have a good
\nhead on your shoulders, you can
\nreally get lost in that group.”
\nNote: Some names have been<\/em>
\nchanged to protect their identity.<\/em><\/p>\nSource:\u00a0http:\/\/rrcsa.ca\/archives\/October10_89.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before proceeding check out part 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,1,124,86,13,147,132,141,138,151,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abuse","category-article","category-cults","category-denial","category-emotions","category-evidence","category-history","category-info","category-injustice","category-spiritual-abuse","category-testimony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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