My new book is free, today only, on Kindle. Here are some quotes from the foreword section. This is what Ben and Joe had to say about the book:
“Brian is a tireless and very hard worker, especially for UBF conferences. He is also the most passionate, zealous and outspoken defender of UBF.” This is what I heard about Brian Karcher during the two decades plus that he was in UBF, though I never knew him personally. My interaction with him began online when he started posting on UBFriends.org. Soon after that, in 2012, we finally met up. We have chatted for hours on numerous occasions when he visited me and West Loop UBF in Chicago several times, when we were part of a six month cohort hosted by Dr. John Armstrong, and when we drove together from Chicago to Minneapolis and back to attend a John Piper conference.
Upon first meeting him, I was rather surprised that Brian is a gentle, soft spoken and mild mannered gentleman. This is because when I read his blogs and comments online, I expected him to be a rough, overly aggressive, bombastic, argumentative and a somewhat intimidating and “in your face” sort of person. But to my pleasant surprise, in person Brian is the very opposite of what I expected!
More importantly, Brian is a genuine and sincere Christian, as well as a man of integrity and honesty. He is also a friend whom I trust. I am sorry when I hear some people denounce him as being bitter, angry, negative, ungrateful and even demonic, simply because he left UBF and because of what he writes about UBF. I am also sorry that some people in UBF refuse to hear him or correspond with him, and they wish to have nothing to do with him, even though he was fully committed and devoted to UBF for 24 years.
Brian and I do not agree about some things. We have had some rather intense but friendly and amicable exchanges. Despite our differences, I can vouch that what he writes is real and authentic. This book is Brian’s account of what he encountered and experienced in UBF during the 24 years that he was in UBF and since he left UBF in 2011. This book is Brian’s story. It deserves to be heard and read.
—Identity Snatchers, quotes from the Foreword by Ben Toh, pg.7-8
In the spring of 2011, one of the staunchest online supporters of University Bible Fellowship went silent. By mid-summer, he resigned as the director of Detroit UBF. By the end of the year, he took his place among the long list of former members who seem to have nothing good to say about the organization.
How could Brian Karcher change so quickly?
And which Brian should we believe? The unwavering apologist who sang the praises of UBF, or the passionate whistleblower who airs its dirty laundry?
There is only one Brian. He went missing for a long time. But now he’s returned to tell us what happened, and his story is not isolated.
Brian was a victim of spiritual identity theft. An organization tried to erase his Brian-ness and replace it with a false religious self. Under the guise of doing the Lord’s work, UBF colonized his life story and molded him to fit its unusual ideas of what a Christian disciple ought to be. In 2011, the real Brian resurfaced and began the long, painful process of recovering his stolen identity. The decades he spent in UBF were an extended interlude of role playing, a long detour on his road to differentiated adulthood.
For most members, the story does not end well. After months, years, or decades of trying to make the mission-thing work, they gradually realize that they are not and cannot be the people that UBF expects them to be. Craving authenticity, they start to become honest about what they think and feel. Questions are asked. Shunning begins. Disillusionment creeps in, relationships turn sour, and the story falls apart.
This crumbling of the UBF identity is not experienced by everyone in the same way or to the same degree. Some can find safe space in the organization where they are (to an extent) free to be themselves, hidden from the watchful eyes of leaders who would clamp down on them. Kids who grow up in UBF are often shielded from the aggressive discipleship techniques that their parents inflict on other peoples’ children. And, oddly enough, some people don’t seem to mind having their identities stolen. For whatever reason, they are relieved to allow someone else to chart their courses and write their life-scripts. God bless those people. I wish them well.
Yes, some will rate their UBF experience as positive.
But that does not discredit what Brian says. The things he writes about did happen, and the stories must be told.
—Identity Snatchers, quotes from the Foreword by Joe Schafer, pg.8-11
Thanks so much for sharing this book free of charge for today on Kindle. I have been reading your ebook on my iPhone’s Kindle app and it is phenomenal. It really walks me through my own experience at UBF and helps me understand where systematically I felt the organization was so faulty while I was a member there. I completely relate with the topic of your book, which is the snatching of identities. I feel that UBF snatched my identity as a queer man and molded me to fit the image that made them most happy, regardless of if I felt like I was not living in my own skin. I think your book accurately also portrays the anxiety of the mission training process in UBF. Although I was not pursuing being a missionary at UBF while a member there, I did idealize going to another country as a missionary one day and lost my sense of self in that ideation. It is through your book, Brian, that I feel like I am reclaiming the stolen parts of my identity that I lost to UBF leadership. I look forward to finishing your book within this week and reflecting on it through the UBFriends forum.
I am glad to hear this John! I will be sharing quotes from my book all month in articles, so feel free to either comment or share your own article (the link is at the top of this page, “Submit an Article”).
NOTE: If anyone does submit an article via the link above, please login first. If you don’t login, the submission page will error out.
I also recommend writing your article in Word or Notepad first, then copy and paste into the submission page. If you want a specific image, upload it on the submission page, otherwise I will choose an image.
“Craving authenticity, they start to become honest about what they think and feel. Questions are asked. Shunning begins. Disillusionment creeps in, relationships turn sour, and the story falls apart.”
describes ubf, nu, etc