Usually they claim God blessed the gravesite worship because it was sunny and nice weather. But when it rains they don’t say God cursed them. Just another contradiction to point out to new freshmen students meeting a UBF shepherd for the first time on campus.

Just a couple brief answers to your questions:

“First, how exactly do you know this was the SWS message? The question is there and the website is unfortunately devoid of any situation or date/time for this message, unless I missed something.”

>> This is not a SWS message. This is something given at a SL memorial service, per the website. That is what I meant by “SL worship service lecture”. I was making a play on words. I did not mean SL “worship service” I meant “SL Worship” service. I don’t know if this was on a Sunday or not.

>> btw, this brings up a frustrating aspect of the shiny new ubf website. All the dates are messed up from the articles! They just imported old articles and so now no one know the real publication date. And on most articles, we don’t even get to see the publication date. Nor do we get to see who posted it. So the ubf.org website is now more anonymous than before. Maybe this is just a glitch in the software someone will fix some year.

“Second, the intercultural aspect of this is very concerning. You obviously bristle at most of it.”

>> Bristle is a good word. ubf claims to be such an “cross-cultural” ministry. They are proud of having so many different nations represented by their one family house churches. But this is fantasy. ubf is a “mono-cultural” ministry that I call “hyper-Korean” culture. ubf culture is not Korean culture, but a new kind of culture rooted strongly in Korean culture.

>> I know a Korean man at my workplace. He and his culture is nothing like ubf culture, though both are clearly Korean.

First, how exactly do you know this was the SWS message? The question is there and the website is unfortunately devoid of any situation or date/time for this message, unless I missed something.

Second, the intercultural aspect of this is very concerning. You obviously bristle at most of it. However, there is a thing here to note, that Korean language makes broad sweeping gestures at realities, and very rarely develops fine details. The problems of this are manifold.

Claims that Jesus lived a life of suffering. You found the problem with that. Jesus lived a life of joy, peace, love, and longsuffering. He lived the Human Life perfectly, and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for not suffering enough, or not enjoying it. Jesus didn’t enjoy suffering on the cross. He did it purposefully–but not carelessly.

Even the idea that life is suffering comes directly from Buddhist teachings, by the way.

Then there is also a constant tendency to label things broadly and that’s good enough. Korean verbs and adjectives are not that much different.

That being said, while a gentle person like Ben could see the good in the message, there is an obvious issue that the way the message is presented is extremely likely to make American English speakers very uncomfortable.

With so many Ph. D.’s in our ministry, I find it hard to believe no one could figure this stuff out.

In Korean culture and history as well, great kings who do a lot of good are idolized. They say that if you ask any Korean the best king in their history, they will say King Sejong. He was an amazing and talented person. I almost feel that he is idolized historically and that there is a tendency to idolize leaders in such a way.

All in all, as you’re pointing out Brian, I think this web posting is going to show that the apparent solution to the uncertainty in many respects regarding ministry in UBF is to hunker down in the old soldier mentality. SL may have been a gifted person, but if people equate suffering with success, then what will happen if their own carelessness and ignorance leads them into mistakes that ought to teach them better lessons? They’ll just keep hunkering down . . .

“I was called as a Gwang-ju staff shepherd just after accepting Christ 2 years and 10 months earlier. But at that time I was not mature enough. Thus, God trained me severely. Dr. Lee tried to help my marriage problem and brought a shepherdess from Seoul all the way to Gwangju upon my agreement. But my heart turned cold and I refused to marry her.”

The idea that he was trained by God because he refused to marry a woman that was approved by a religious leader is insane.