Just so that there is no misunderstanding about my position: I am not in favor of University Bible Fellowship right now. I will not make a career out of criticizing the ministry. But I will criticize when moved to do so. Yesterday UBF ticked off the wrong person, i.e. me. Now I want to make sure my blog shows up in the web searches done by the UBF Internet Committee.

Yes, that’s right. UBF has a committee devoted to promoting UBF in a positive light, and in a positive light only, on the internet. As of September 2011, this committee still scours the web searching for anything negative about UBF. And they will have their lawyers send you cease-and-desist letters if you really say something bad. They will contact the web admins and try to remove negative reports about UBF. I know because I helped do this in the past! I fought hard to keep the Wikipedia article about UBF sqeaky clean, for example. I singlehandedly took down 2 anti-UBF websites at one point.

But I repent of these actions now. Why should anyone be so fearful of a negative report? Shouldn’t people be able to think for themselves and make up their own mind? Even Billy Graham said once that he thanked God for his critics, who kept him accountable. Yet several elders in UBF ministry go into panic mode when they see something negative about UBF.

But this is my domain. I am an American. So for example, if I wanted to say that I think confucianism and buddhism influence UBF practices, transforming a basically sound Christian statement of faith into an authoritarian legalistic regime, could I say it? Sure. And if I thought UBF held to a gnostic belief system (two gods) that resisted, quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit, could I say so? I can and I will.