Overview of Attempts to Reform UBF
Since 1961, the UBF organization has endure four times of reform (or crisis) depending on how you look at it. Here are some of my observations about each event.
First Attempt: 1976
UBF was founded in 1961 in South Korea. In 1976, after the letter of reform sent by seven Korean UBF staff shepherds, UBF was founded in the USA. In just 15 years, UBF had serious issues that needed reformed.
The first reform attempt was by Koreans from Korea UBF.
Second Attempt: 1989
In 1989, James Kim (Director) of Toledo UBF helped lead another Korean shepherd reform movement, which resulted in the Kim’s family being driven away from UBF with a secret pact.
The second reform attempt was initiated by Koreans from Toledo UBF.
1.3. Third Attempt: 2001
In 2001, Jimmy Rhee of Chicago UBF and other Korean shepherds, missionaries and directors led another Korean shepherd reform movement, citing the same kinds of reform that were needed in 1976 and 1989. The result was the founding of Campus Ministry International (CMI) and another exodus of UBF leaders from places like Toledo UBF (USA), Chicago UBF (USA), Korea UBF and Germany UBF. Even the first UBF USA sheep from Toledo UBF, left UBF at this time and were labeled as enemies.
The third reform attempt was initiated by Koreans from Chicago UBF.
1.4. Fourth Attempt: 2011
In 2011 and the years prior, reform movements were sparked around the world. The notable and most vocal movements were in: Toledo UBF (USA), Penn State UBF (USA), Westloop/Chicago UBF (USA), India UBF, Kiev UBF, Russia UBF and Hong Kong UBF. The result was a mass exodus of dozens of long-time UBF leaders. One result was a large exodus of longtime UBF native (national) leaders. Another result was a large number of UBF leaders (Korean and native/national) who decided to remain as members of UBF in order to initiate new reforms internally. The fourth attempt was initiated by native (national) UBF leaders around the world.
What was your experience during any of these reform movements? What do you think of this summary? What information needs to be added or changed to make this a better summary?
Thanks for mentioning the history of UBF the reform movements. Unfortunately, these movements have been covered up in UBF with the shroud of silence or vilified as the act of “rebels” who liked to engage in unfounded “personal attacks” and “slander”.
Therefore it’s understandable that many details are not understood even today.
For instance, the third reform movement did not start 2001 in Chicago UBF. That’s a very US centric view. In fact it started in Korea in April 2000. Many Korean UBF chapters joined that movement. The movement pointed out some of the highly visible wrongs in UBF and demanded change. It grew really strong, though the leaders claimed it reached only the chapters in the Korean “province” which were regarded as inferior to the headquarters.
From there, the reform movement spread to outside Korea, to Germany, the US, and many other countries, since missionaries who had been sent out by the reform chapters heard what was going on in Korea and agreed with the movement’s goals and demands. Particularly, the majority of German UBF chapter directors joined the reform movement, built a committee for reform, and sent a letter to the German national director Abraham Lee already in December 2000. In the US, they also built a national reform movement with a committee around that time. In Korea, there were several reform websites like ubfnet.com, ubfhope.com, ubfcamp.net (similar to ubfriends) and ubf.tv. The German reform UBF had ubf-reform.de and ubf2000.de, and the UBF USA reform movement had reformubf.org. They all discussed on web forums like ubfriends, communicated with each other and supported each other.
The tipping point was when the top reform leaders came from Korea to visit Samuel Lee in Chicago in early 2001, but Lee rejected even talking with them with the famous words “God will punish me if I did anything wrong” (i.e. refused to be accountable to any fellow Christians, but claimed to be only accountable to God).
Throughout the year 2001, the reform movement still struggled to get their voice heard in UBF, but they were increasingly silenced, demonized and rejected. Finally some reform leaders were officially expulsed from UBF in Korea end of 2001. The remaining leaders were officially expulsed beginning of 2002. Only then, the reform UBF stopped trying to reform UBF and started to work under the new name “CMI”. But until they were expulsed, they had the hope of staying united in a reformed UBF. It is a myth that they “left” to form CMI, deliberately told by the UBF leadership in order to disguise the real events and their responsibility for the division. The reality, again, is that they were officially and legally expulsed as members of UBF for “not following the traditions of UBF.” Even the Christian media in Korea reported about the expulsion, because it was a big event there. Unfortunately, nobody in the official UBF in Germany or the US heard about it.
So your phrase “the result was the founding of CMI” is a bit misleading. I would rather say “the result was that they were officially expulsed and thus forced to minister under a new name separately from UBF.”
Another detail: The committee of the UBF US reform movement consisted of Paul & Pauline Sung, Abraham & Sarah Lee, Peter & Diligence Chung, Joshua & Joan Lee, Mark & Vision Hong, Jacob & Rebekah Chung, Peter & Lois Lee. Only later the committee asked the “veterans” of the 2nd UBF USA reform movement to support and advise them. These were people like Jimmy Rhee, James Kim (former Toledo director) and Peter Chang (former Columbus director). In fact the veterans were pretty reluctant to join in the beginning, because they were tired of UBF and had little hope for change, but when they saw the dynamics of the movement, they started to support it and shared articles and the letters that they wrote a decade earlier.
(By the way, don’t get confused by names like James Kim, Peter Chang and Abaraham Lee – there are dozens of people with these names in UBF, and some were standing on the opposite sides of the division.)
Nearly at the same time with the UBF USA reform movement, there was also the “RSQUBF” website by former non-Korean American UBF memers. This was more like an exit movement than a reform movement, as they had little hope for reform. They thought of the practices and teachings of UBF as fundamentally flawed, and believed the first thing UBF members need is help to come out of the cult mindset. The “voy discussion board” in the following years was kind of a continuation of RSQUBF. RSQUBF never was an official organization or group, just a website visited by like-minded people. Still, these people also supported the reformers and shared their views. Maybe that’s why reformers and RSQUBF were lumped together in UBF and branded as “R-Group” by UBF in the US. But probably it’s just because hardcore UBFers hated the word “reform” and did not even want to speak it out. Sarah Barry admittedly deleted all emails from reformers without even reading them. The vocabulary of hardcore UBFers contained only words like “obedience”. If anything, they called it a “rebellion”, and that was always considered something negative, violent and disgraceful.
It’s important that everybody understands the history and dynamics of these movements. Nobody should think “we are the first who are noticing these problems” or “we are the first who are addressing them in the right way” or even “these problems are only caused by cultural differences in the mission field” (when all earlier reform movements were started by Koreans in Korea).
It’s also important to understand how strong the 3rd reform movement was. I estimate that about half of the chapters worldwide joined reform or sympathized with reform. It failed only because the headquarter chapters in Korea, Germany and the US and the top leadership (including Sarah Barry!) adamantly refused any talks about reform, vilified and demonized the reformers and finally pushed them out by legal action. It also failed because the majority of UBF members where deeply rooted in a cult mindset and/or Confucian mindset where obedience and loyalty to the leadership is paramount and their leadership can never be questioned, and never even informed themselves on the websites that were available during that time, believing reform was like a “spiritual virus” that would infect them when they talk with reformers or visit reform websites. You may lough, but that was claimed in a letter written by a UBF USA member which our chapter director had read out in the staff meeting.
It’s also important to understand the amount of injustice and hurt done not only to non-Koreans, but also to Koreans who were pushed out of UBF after spending decades giving their lives for the ministry, some of them even leaving their home country and struggling to live under difficult circumstances. When they started to see problems and speak out, they were pushed out without any compensation and even demonized.
Thanks for all these details Chris. While I am for the moment burned out in regard to the ideological aspect of UBFism, I am very interested in the theological and historical aspects. Talking about the four important events that UBF leaves out of its history is helpful for all of us, especially for newcomers.
It is highly interesting to learn that ubf.tv was a reform website. I always liked that site, but unfortunately the best parts were password protected or in Korean. For a while, there was a new ubf.tv site, but both are now gone: ubf media sites
being expulsed is obviously traumatic but in retrospect it is ultimately less traumatic than staying aboard the sinking “Titanic”, or flying “Kamikaze” into enemy ship (said another way: invested losses may be great but avoided losses immeasurable)
hallelujah:)
All the years in UBF, never knew about the reform movements until after I got out. It is hard to imagine that so much info is kept from you in the name of loving God.
Indeed, Freedom, information control is and has been a major problem at cult groups. But now there is an open door to all information.
And yet the BITE model continues to be executed by cult groups even in this age of the internet. Information given by anyone not “in” the group has been labeled “spiritual poison” and “rebellious” and “unspiritual”. And so even with so many testimonies, facts and information, cult groups live on.
secrecy fosters delusion/hollow growth while openness fosters reality/supported development
people want to belong/believe which can make prey to aberrant group/closed to change, so best to develop healthier approach/ideas as necessary alternative
Hey ubfers! Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I for one will be enjoying the game as a happy family centered man.
Hope you have fun with you Super Prayer activities as you continue to isolate yourselves in your cult ideology.
If you don’t want to watch the game, fine. But maybe you could study your own history and learn from the four reform events in ubf’s short span of existence?
Can PaulLee or someone tell me if PaulLee wrote any other Operation #exposeUBF articles?
Hi Beka, I think you are referring to this article on the old ubfriends, right?
Part 1 Operation #exposeUBF
As far as I know, there is no followup article. But I’m not sure the followup is another article. I’m not sure how much Paul can share here publicly.