Some UBF leaders continue to live in denial. These are, in fact, the top leaders–those who make the policies and are accountable for the organization. I find it laughable that such people try to cleanse the internet year after year, repeatedly demonstrating their denial of the realities facing their organization.
Denying Wikipedia Rules
I learned quickly that Wikipedia has certain rules. Yes the site is open to the public. But no, you cannot just say anything you want. One of the primary rules of Wikipedia is that you cannot self-publish information about yourself or your group or your company. Wikipedia strongly enforces their Conflict of Interest policies. They value what other people say about your organization more than your own claims. In this way they try to filter out self-aggrandized propaganda.
This poses a problem for UBF leaders of course, since their whole belief system is built on propaganda and self-glorification. As the public can see by the many self-edits to their own article on Wikipedia, UBF leaders care nothing about other people’s rules or policies. They only care about dictating their own rules. Take a look at how “jahnubf” and “ubfwebteam” tried to edit the UBF entry on Wikipedia and judge for yourself.
Denying the Accusations
Instead of answering serious accusations and reports, UBF denied them and was expelled from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) back in 2004. They rejoined later, but never addressed the accusations of many kinds of abuse. Now, thanks to the internet, the public knows the accusations are true– forced abortions happened, suicides happened, sexual abuse happened, physical abuse happened, financial abuse happened and psychological and spiritual abuse also happened.
Here is what “jahnubf” wrote in an edit to Wikipedia on November 8th, 2015:
Current UBF members refute accusations on three grounds: (1) personal experiences or misunderstandings of a few ex-members, (2) misappropriated authority by a few leaders, and (3) natural consequences of faithful preaching and living out the gospel lifestyle in a non-Christian environment (Jn 15:20; 2Tim 3:12). UBF leaders initiated an Ethics Committee in 2012 and encourages each local chapter of twenty members or more to establish elders locally in efforts to safeguard against the misappropriation of authority. [http://www.ubf.org/sites/default/files/ubf_local_chapter_guidelines_2015.pdf]
source: Wikipedia edit log on UBF
This person (who presumably is the real Joseph Ahn) denies the accusations with the typical cult defenses.
Are there only a few ex-members speaking up about the problems? No. Our prior blog, ubfriends.org, generated nearly 20,000 comments and filled a small encyclopedia. Could so many current members and ex-members have the same misunderstandings?
Are there just a few bad apples, a few leaders spoiling the good UBF name? While there certainly are a number of abusive leaders at UBF, the real issue that we repeatedly point out is the harmful nature of UBFism. The system of UBF is the problem no matter how good the leader’s intentions are!
Is being labeled a cult by many former members and 8 cult-watch groups around the world just a natural consequence of obeying Jesus? Are mass quantities of accusations confirmed with facts simply the normal way of Christian life? No!
To believe such bullshit is simply a grand act of denial. Stay tuned folks, there is much more of the iceberg of accusations coming to UBFland…Oh and those shiny new UBF chapter guidelines? They are PROOF that my book, Identity Snatchers, is true.
I believe that many UBF leaders live in denial of their human experience. I believe these top leaders who politicize and manage the organization are the ones deepest in their denial of the spiritual reality of true Christianity. I find it disgusting that such people try to perform a digital genocide of the voices of the oppressed former and current members of the church who try to enact social change. My God will not allow UBF to run away from the harsh realities facing their faulty organization. My God will ensure that these UBF leaders toss and turn in their beds of nails at night until they repent and decide to listen to the voices they have silenced for so long.
I agree that the whole UBF system is foiunded on this myth of propaganda and self-glorification. I find it deplorable that UBF leaders will calculatedly go through Wikipedia entries and edit those articles. That is cultural erasure of the valid experiences of thousands of former and current UBF members and I believe my God will smite the efforts by UBF to culturally erase this rich history of experiences that people try to honestly share on the Wikipedia platform. I pray that God may afflict users like “jahnubf” and “ubfwebteam” with severe mental illnesses until they learn the wrong of their ways. UBF can deny the rules of WIkipedia all it wants as an organization. However, that faulty machination that is UBF stands before a jealous God who will hunt down the witches of UBF leadership until he reclaims the stolen voices of the oppressed people of UBF.
I think it was a blessing from God to have the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) reject UBF for membership in 2004. I think that until UBF changes its ways and sincerely attempts to evangelize based on principles that come directly from God instead of from humans that they still deserve to be revoked membership to the NAE. I think it is disgusting that UBF forced abortions when UBF leaders hypocritically preach all the time against the sinfulness of abortion. By the way, I am pro-choice and always will be and would advocate that a woman aborts a child she is not emotionally, fiscally, or spiritually able to provide a quality of living for. I cannot believe that suicides have occurred as a cause of the depression brought on by UBF membership and that these leaders in the church take no accountability for it. I believe that these corrupt leaders need to take the responsibility for the voices they have silenced indefinitely due to pushing people emotionally to the brink of suicide. I believe that God will condemn all the UBF leaders who knowingly allowed sexual abuse to occur, including in the form of sexuality abuse. I believe a form of sexuality abuse involves manipulating church members into believing that they are heterosexual, causing these members to deny their true sexual attractions, and coercing members into having committed sexual relationships with people of the same sex. I believe that is is inexcusable that physical abuse occurred and is probably still occurring in an organization where it is preached that such behavior is “sinful.” It goes to show the hypocrisy of the leaders of this organization I believe. I believe that the financial abuse, psychological abuse, and spiritual abuse caused by UBF despotic leaders will be punished severely by the workings of the universe and the wrath of a just God.
I believe that it is shameful that UBF members refute accusations based on “personal experiences” when doing so silences the personal experiences of former members who have an objective perspective of what is going on incorrectly with the organizational structure of UBF. I also think that it is a vast understatement to say that there are misunderstandings of a few ex-members. I believe that to begin with these are not misunderstandings of UBF but valid unique experiences that have been silenced by the political machine of UBF. I also believe that there are not simply a few ex-members who are voicing opposition to the despotic functionality of UBF leadership. I believe that there are hordes of ex-members who would strongly unite if they had the liberative power to deny the false claims of UBF leadership. I believe that my God will destroy the minds of users like “jahnubf” who use their power to disseminate lies. I believe that in UBF too there is misappropriated authority by a few leaders who despotically retain the energy and power of the congregation. I believe my God will reappropriate this power accordingly. I believe that my God will delegate this power appropriately so that true Christians can faithfully preach through their actions and live out the gospel in any environment, Christian or not. I think it is a good effort that the Ethics Committee has since 2012 been encouraging local chapters to establish leaders to serve as a sort of checks and balances on the authoritative structure of UBF as an organization. . Maybe then UBF can function more like an ethical organization and less like a cult.
I believe that UBF is systemically flawed and that a way to fix the system is to fix the leaders in power of the organizational hierarchy to deconstruct it and delegate authority according to God’s desire. I think that it is important critical feedback that UBF has been considered a cult by numerous watch groups. I think this is not a consequence of following Jesus but rather a consequence of abusing divine authority and hiding behind a mask of Christianity to get away with it. I believe that there is a lot of bullshit and denial in the structure of UBF. I believe that the flood of accusations that will come to UBF amidst new chapter guidelines will come from a swarm of identity snatchers in the fore of the spiritual battle against UBF to reclaim what was stolen by tyrannical UBF leaders.
By the way I am using two different accounts because for some reason this site is not very modern and only lets me log in to my other account from my Macbook and not from any other device. Maybe this is something that can be systemically fixed with this website so that contributors like myself are able to submit content from more than one device per account.
John, this website is using the latest and greatest WordPress 🙂 How are you logging in? If you use the “Login” link and type in your password, you can sign in from any device from anywhere. After commenting, do you also click the “Logout” link? If you don’t logout, the security mechanisms may consider your account as spam. Let me know if I can help further and thanks for contributing!
John, I think you once again hit the nail on the head with your comments. I fully concur with your thoughts.
LOL check out the whiny response of one ubf leader:
“Our site has lots of negative things. I just added positive things and refreshed a part of negative things without having references.” James Ahn at jahn120@hotmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jahnubf (talk • contribs) 14:42, 5 November 2015 (UTC)”
Please put back my version …because only jahnubf’s version is the true correct and holy version!
And yes, I point this out because I too made the same mistake back when I was Mr. UBF. I ignored the Wiki rules but have since made attempts to learn the rules (still learning btw).
Perhaps Mr. Ahn should care more about improving his organization and stopping the abuses rather than caring so much about making the group’s Wiki article look better…
It is rather interesting that jahn120 and likely other older ubf statesmen views UBF as “positive” things and “negative” things, rather than whether something is “true” or “untrue.”
The primary question should be “Is what wikipedia writes about UBF true or not?” Instead, jahn120 only thinks about whether it is positive or negative.
To emphasize the positive without addressing the negative is a denial of the truth that we humans are fallen beings with both the image of God (positive) and our sin (negative).
By trying to rid UBF of negative things on wikipedia is basically the refusal to deal with sin in UBF, or to hide the sin in UBF, or to minimize the sin in UBF.
More likely the idea or thought is that the “positive” in UBF outweighs the “negative” in UBF (regardless of whether or not this is true). This is more of a Muslim sentiment than that of a Christian one.
It’s like a husband saying to his wife, “I’m faithful to you 99% of the time. So let’s only talk about my positive (99%) and ignore the negative (1%).”
I wonder how such a marriage will work out.
Thanks Ben. We often have different views, but this time you take the words right out of my mouth.
positives/negatives sounds like a net-gain mentality as in war or business: what strategies are working/are we winning? the adventurous are involved in such things but easily feel it is good desite a lot of bad happening along the way (too off chicken mentality-bawk!-afraid to lose something to do right:)
true/untrue gets more to what is really happening/is it right? the most brave delve into such things, often incurring loss to face wrong/strive for good
Brian,
It was good to get in contact with you. May God bless your efforts to reveal the truth about UBF and the destructive effects it has had on so many people’s lives. I refuse to call such an evil entity a church, since it is CLEARLY NOT, nor will it ever be. To those who claim that UBF can be reformed, my answer to that is a resounding “NO!” You cannot reform that which is rotten, evil, and corrupt to its core. Since their main objective is to deny the work and personhood of the Holy Spirt, you cannot reform an entity that denies one Person of the Triune God, because to reform UBF would require stripping them of their dangerous position of assuming the role of the Holy Spirit.
Once I have prayerfully and succinctly constructed my own story/experience with the Toledo chapter of UBF from 1993-1995, I will post it on this site. My prayer and objective in sharing my experience will be to warn others about the evil machinations of the UBF cult, as well as the common tactics that UBF and all cult-like organizations use as they seek to enslave people and perpetually hold them in bondage.
Welcome Suz! Glad to make contact again. When I last saw you, I was high on the ubf kool-aid… that is to say when Mary and I were arranged married. Feel free to submit an article (or several articles!) if you need more space to share.
I have been interviewed by Steven Hassan. This interview with Hassan is a great link to share on all social media and to send to universities where ubf is located.
You are exactly right–ubf is a cult. They were a personality cult under SLee, but have now morphed into a Korean campus Bible cult.
We would love to hear your story, and your perspective. Even with all we have done, some still claim “only 1 or 2 disgruntled ex-members” are “persecuting” ubf.
My free online companion (restunleashed.org) to my books lists the following reasons why ubf is a cult group, and should be shut down:
1. Arranged marriages exclusively with group members
2. Replacement of identity with the Shepherd X identity
3. Lifelong moral supervision by a personal shepherd
4. Degradation of family as unspiritual
5. Koreanization of host cultures
6. Failure to adequately address various cases of abuse
7. Hagiographical re-writing of their own history
8. Traumatic process of leaving the group
9. Psychological issues found in former members
10. Theological departures from the tenets of Christianity
11. Reduction of the Bible canon to 12 books
12. Toxic leadership styles that foster hypocrisy
Thanks Brian,
I watched your interview with Steven Hassan last night, and will definitely pass along the link and reach out to campuses where UBF chapters are still in operation.
My personal narrative will touch on tenets 1, 2, 4, and especially 8 & 9 from your list of 10. In addition, I will highlight the psychologically predatory tactics that cults use to lure people into their clutches based on my own experience and from what I witnessed of others’ experiences within UBF as well. To prey on the weak, the lonely, the down-trodden, and the fatherless is unconscionable and almost unforgivable. Christ came to “…preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners…” Isaiah 61:1. May those who have greatly suffered while involved with UBF find true freedom and joy in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and may those still ensnared in the bondage of UBF and/or other cults find resolve and courage to break free from such bondage through the true, lasting, and eternal power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen to that Suz!
Also if you haven’t found it yet, here is the first Ubfriends blog where we had over 19,000 comments.
http://Ubfriends.org