A couple months ago (in July 2011), I had an email exchange with a UBF elder, along with several other UBF people. I had sent some emails raising some questions and changes to UBF that I thought were important. I concluded by saying: “All I want is the truth and an answer to my question. And I am exhausted from hearing ‘I’m sorry’. I want to hear ‘I will change.'”
How did this elder reply? Eventually he calmed down and we reached an “agree-to-disagree” type state. But his first reply back was this:
I am sorry, but change what? Admitting that we broke into a house 20 years ago and won’t do it again? Admitting all of our sins? Really, what will that do? You really want all my sins or just certain ones? Okay, we broke into a house illegally 20 years ago. I didn’t know about it, but I suppose it is true. Now what?
We really have to cover one another’s sins. This is love too, don’t you think? Do we have to let everyone know all the sins committed by all the members of UBF around the world? Where does it stop?
Honestly, I have too much to worry about in my daily life of trying to serve Jesus where I am to worry about that.
Aside from the obvious points about how a Christian elder should react, this response reveals something else troubling to me. I see a clear lack of respect for the Fourth Amendment and the law of the land in America. His reference above to an illegal breakin is because I recently revealed my role in a breaking and entering situation (My Confession). I don’t want “all people’s sins” to be confessed publicly. What I want is one sin confessed publicly; the sin of how James and Rebecca Kim were treated in 1990 in Toledo. How could an elder American Christian brush off an illegal act so lightly? If the police had been called in 1990, they would not have taken things so lightly.
Soon it will be Constitution Day here in the US. I plan to blog about this amazing document to remind myself and others that we who are living on American soil must abide by American laws. The Ohio breaking and entering law is based on the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution states that people in America have the right to be secure in their own homes. All their belongings belong to them. No on has a right to enter another person’s house, search through their stuff and pack it into a truck.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
(source)