{"id":1099,"date":"2016-03-22T07:05:50","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T12:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubfriends.net\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2016-09-22T08:28:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:28:47","slug":"a-word-for-current-members-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/a-word-for-current-members-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Word for Current Members"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ltr\"You may be wondering what will happen if you read this book<\/a>. Maybe you are confused about what I am doing. Should you believe the Brian who once spoke glowingly about our ministry? Or should you believe the Brian who now bashes and criticizes our ministry unceasingly? Should you believe the Brian who prayed so much and sat quietly in meetings, enabling our country to become a priestly nation? Or should you believe the Brian who now slams Korean missionaries at every turn?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I would ask the same questions of you. Which UBF should I believe? Should I believe the UBF that claims to be a mainline evangelical church and Christian missionary-sending organization? Or should I believe the UBF that is a chaotic network of self-supporting businesses? Should I believe the UBF that claims to be making disciples of Jesus? Or should I believe the UBF that shreds peoples\u2019 lives with invented disciplines like dead dog training? Should I believe the UBF that praised me for two decades? Or should I believe the UBF that says I am demon-possessed after sharing my honest feelings?<\/p>\n

You may not believe the things I write about here in this book. That\u2019s ok. I am not asking you to believe anything. I am not asking you to agree with me or to leave the ministry. I understand that this section is all that you may read from this book. It may be too fearful, too emotional or too difficult to keep reading.<\/p>\n

If there is one thing I want to say while I do have your attention, it would be this: I loved UBF once just as you do. I am not some outsider who speaks from observation. I am a true insider who once stood with you in your mission. I believed in the mission UBF teaches. I believed it so strongly that I gave over my life decisions, like who to marry, to the ministry. I gave my youth, my adult years, my time, my money\u2014I gave everything for the sake of our vision for a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.<\/p>\n

As I mention in the opening of this chapter, one day in 2006 I was shocked to hear a student tell me he would not join my Bible cult when I approached him on campus. I did not even say anything, but he knew what I was doing. In my mind, I was obeying Jesus. In his mind, I was recruiting for a cult. How could this be? Did he not know I was a holy servant of God appointed to change the nation into a holy nation? I pondered this man\u2019s words for years. It was one of many reality checks that helped set me free from a subtle yet powerful Bible-based delusion. In time, I began to see the growing disconnect between my perception of UBF and the reality of UBF. I came to terms with two realities in particular: I am living in a fantasy. I am seen as a cult leader by the outside world.<\/p>\n

I understand that you may question my use of the term cult. That\u2019s too harsh isn\u2019t it? Yes it is too harsh. But that is not my term. When I use the word cult to describe the ministry I once loved, it means I am accepting the reality around us. The world, the Christian world, sees this ministry as cultic. That label was given to us and has stuck for decades. Shouldn\u2019t someone address this label? We love Jesus and are seeking to bring His kingdom to earth. Why should we have to endure the accusation of being a cult?<\/p>\n

Our leaders don\u2019t seem to care. In fact, some of them wear the cult label almost as a badge of courage. They say that if you are being criticized, you must be doing something right. Well I want to point out that it may also mean you are doing something wrong.<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading this far. If you can bear with me and hear me out, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what I have to say. It is painful to deconstruct the beliefs I once held so dear. Yet such deconstruction is necessary, healthy and highly beneficial for our faith.<\/p>\n

I hope you will see that I have a much higher goal in this book than merely deconstructing ideologies. I want to show how my identity changed over the past three decades. I want to show how we can all walk the path of redemption. I want to share with you the amazing, all-surpassing gospel\u2014the gospel of peace and grace, the gospel of the glory of Jesus and the kingdom of God\u2014the gospel of salvation that leads to freedom and life to the full.<\/p>\n

For many years, I heard my fellow shepherds at UBF tell me, \u201cThere is always another side to every former member story!\u201d I agree. The problem is that our side of the stories are silenced and dismissed as lies or spiritual poison. I don\u2019t know your experience at UBF. But for me and hundreds of others, UBF stole our identities. Now I tell our stories.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from Identity Snatchers: Exposing A Korean Campus Bible Cult<\/a>, pg.14-16<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may be wondering what will happen if you read this book. Maybe you are confused about what I am doing. Should you believe the Brian who once spoke glowingly about our ministry? Or should you believe the Brian who now bashes and criticizes our ministry unceasingly? Should you believe the Brian who prayed so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}