Dear “Missionary”,
When I brought to your attention the negative/disturbing things being said about UBF you told me to “judge according to what I see”. This write up is my reply to what I saw and what I see. First off what I saw was a Christian fellowship (on the outside) which at times appeared awkward but I thought it was in my mind, or the devil trying to deceive me. In time I got over those awkward feelings and actively tried to seek out the will of Christ in your “ministry”.
I was excited for a chance to fellowship with believers across racial/national lines. I saw a close knit/family oriented group which I thought was dedicated to family as it was claimed to be dedicated to Jesus Christ. I believe what you [and others] were preaching was the gospel of Christ. Simply put I saw a group of people whom despite our differences I cared about and wanted to struggle with at the time. Even though I’m not the family oriented type I admired UBF for their family type atmosphere because I was shell shocked and excited to see a biblical image of the family, but my hope was shattered when on 03/08/2015 I was moved by what I believed to be the holy spirit (at least I assume) to do some research and see what kind of church I was a part of. The things I discovered were disturbing to say the least.
I found all sorts of claims by ex-UBF members of people who claim your dear leader Samuel Lee destroyed marriages/families, forced women to have abortions as well as orchestrated many criminal acts that have led to sexual abuse as well as suicides. Upon doing research people have had a lot to say about UBF, unfortunately it has been mostly negative. Although the claims made against UBF including the criminal acts have been undocumented I must say I agree when people claim UBF is in 100% denial whenever these allegation are brought up, due to the response I received from you when inquiring about these issues. I will never understand why the constant denial when numerous people in the Christian and secular world have written about their experiences in UBF all over the world via blogs, social media, books etc.
In contrast what I see in UBF now that I have had some clarity is the same thing Jesus Christ saw with the religious rulers of his day. Matthew 23:27 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sculptures, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanliness”. To be honest I don’t see a bible believing church. Instead I see a bible cult who does not have the truth of Jesus Christ but has a form of godliness and denies its power. How else can you teach works based salvation, when the apostle Paul says by grace are ye saved not works; it is the gift of God lest any man should boast. And that is all I pretty much have seen in UBF–boasting and self-righteousness.
As far as the disturbing things I read about this so-called “ministry”, the fact that you–much less the higher ups in UBF–will not give an honest answer about these allegations leads me to believe that you are either assisting in this cover up or somehow involved yourself. But only the almighty knows for sure. BTW before you go into your UBFism pseudo righteous denunciation ritual, remember you asked me what I see and this is my reply until some evidence proves otherwise. [This] is why I have decided to cut all ties to this ministry due to the lack of adherence to biblical principles. I wish to have no further contact with any of you, and if it’s the will of the almighty that we have fellowship or unity it will be in his time and his alone.
Admin note: You can read the entire email exchange here (start from the end of the attachment)
The best this missionary could say is “We are grown up man… bless your life!”.
Dear bible-teacher and friend ! it’s been a long time i haven’t seen you. i hope you are doing well in the Lord, in the midst of all the challenges of life. I thought about you recently, about the times around 1997, when we did 1:1 bible study together. i remember coming to your house between my college lessons very often reluctantly, but going away with a blessing. it sure was not the questionnaire that helped me to ponder God’s word deeply. It was the word itself, and the fact that Jesus loved and loves us deeply. Thanks also for all the lunches you provided for me, with always a little kimchi in addition, the sun shining into the kitchen, between the trees that we could see outside in front. I miss these moments full of God’s grace. I also have not forgotten that you prayed God might use me mightily. It was in these times when i recieved a vision to go to China for the gospel – which eventually became true 9 years later. wow. God is good.
I also remember these moments when your warm-hearted personality seemed a bit fake. For example, when you tried to point me towards “marriage by faith” – me being only 23 years old. These moments did not help me to recieve God’s word deeply, they made me feel there was some sort of hidden agenda. You might have been under pressure as well, by the system established and controlled by Samuel Lee. But let me tell you that i forgive you. Not only because these things are far away now, but because Jesus forgave me my sins also.
The issue of other members having suffered for the cause of UBFism still strikes my heart. Our church went to be CMI, finally. And now i am in a totally different church.
Our church from the 1997/98 days had very nice congregations, Fellowships, meals, music, talks and sports. It breaks my heart that the UBF cultic style gave us so much pressure.
Keep our blessed moments in mind, following Jesus every day in new courageous ways
your sister
Libby
Rocket, Your writing tells me that you are a genuine and sincere seeker of truth. Thanks so much for sharing!
What you wrote here is also somewhat baffling to me: “I will never understand why the constant denial when numerous people in the Christian and secular world have written about their experiences in UBF all over the world via blogs, social media, books etc.”
My incomplete understanding is that in a strong and deeply entrenched honor shame culture that UBF is in, to acknowledge failure, wrongdoing and sin, might feel worse than death itself. So it is not entirely unusual for some to choose suicide rather face the shame of some misdeed that has been uncovered.
I still hope that one day UBF will be able to publicly acknowledge what anyone who cares to read and pay attention already know.
So yes, even though more and more people already know about her problems, it is still baffling and confounding why the leadership is unable and unwilling to simply tell the truth and confess and acknowledge our misdeeds, which honestly is not that much different from the New Testament churches!
Does UBF really think that they don’t have the same problems that the Corinthian and Galatian churches had 2 centuries ago??
Rocket, you’re mentioning 3 things that I felt and experienced very similarly:
1) The “fellowship with believers across racial/national lines”. This was also very attractive to me. It was great that we members could be so close even though our nations and cultures were so far from each others.
2) The disappointment when I learned about all the abuse and started to understand the systemic flaws of UBFism.
3) The second, even larger disappointment when I learned that nobody wanted to do anything and members were indifferent or in denial.
I started to understand that we had never been so close in our mindsets and faith as I had believed all the time.
That still saddens me to this day, although it’s now so long ago already.
Rocket, thank you so much for sharing this. This is massively helpful to share publicly because these kinds of conversations go on almost every week at UBF chapters around the world. Kudos for having the courage to help expose the darkness that is UBFism.