I’ve noticed there is an undue amount of fear among people in UBF and sometimes among people outside of UBF. I think we all need to remember that perfect love drives out fear.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

I posted earlier about the fear of UBF leaders who found an old article on the internet and got UBF people to remove it.

I found the full article recently, and am posting it here. This article is obviously negative and obviously written by someone not in UBF. But it is filled with issues UBF leaders must address if they want to find God’s healing and slow down the exodus of people from UBF. Attempts to remove such material from the internet only breeds fear and suspicion.

Those who would claim to be full of God’s love should be openly discussing these issues and working to bring about actual changes so that leaders are held accountable.

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Here is a link to the original article:

Urban Dictionary: UBF entry

University Bible Fellowship. Evangelical Korean-American church, headquartered in Chicago and Seoul with chapters in all major cities around the world.

UBF targets “lost” undergraduates to turn them into future UBF-proselytizers . College students who are lonely, depressed or in trouble may be attracted by UBF warm welcome, their Christian faith, and supportive UBF community. A new-comer to UBF is called “sheep” who is usually at a troubled period of their lives and can be easily molded into UBF ideology, as he or she gets “social” and “spiritual help” from the group that seems to understand his or her life problems.

UBF members are are expected to follow the hierarchical Korean Confucionism traditions as well as very conservative Christian values. After about a year or two of attending most UBF meetings and performing some UBF activities and acknowledging to the group how his or her life is better than in the dark day they joined UBF because they are now a saved born-again Christian, the new-comer is now called a “Shepherd” or “Shepherdess”.

Most “sheep” leave after a couple of months after learning about the closed-mindedness the group. Other people may stay in order not to hurt the feelings of the their UBF “shepherds” who gave them too much attention. For “shepherds”, strict obedience to the values of the group is expected. Among the very conservative rules of UBF are strictly forbidden dating, very time-demanding UBF activities (missing a meeting, for example, is not an option), life style and dressing style that are also closely monitored by the group.

At UBF — given the no-dating policy — marriage is considered a prize offered by a UBF leader to faithful UBF single “Shepherds” or “Shepherdesses”. UBF members are expected to marry exclusively to other members of the group and only to those indicated by the leaders of UBF . Since there is a “no dating” policy, the maximum freedom a member has is to “decline” or “accept” the offer. Declining a partner is considered desobidience and lack of faith, since this UBF form of marriage is often described as “marriage by faith”. Partners do not have a chance to see if they are compatible with each other and in extreme cases do not even speak a common language. Most couples obey their leaders and accept the arranged marriage — that happens within a very short time to make sure they do not date before the wedding. The new couple is called a “House-Church” and reports to a UBF leader, that sometimes also decides on private matters.

Many house-churches dedicate their lives as volunteers to proselytize for UBF . They live a simple life near a major campus and invite students to their homes for Bible-study meetings and even perform worship services on Sundays. And This perpetuates the UBF cycle.
Typical approach near a major campus:
“Do you wanna study the Bible?”
“What? Where are you from?”
“We are from UBF …”