Well it’s been more than ten years since the ubfriends blog started. It began in 2010 as an initiative led by a few leaders at University Bible Fellowship, including myself, with the purpose of discussing Christian theology. Almost immediately, the blog received pushback from senior UBF leaders and was soon deemed “poisonous”. 20,000+ comments and 600+ articles later, here we are.
Why am I still blogging here?
Good question. Perhaps it is because I was trained with “absolute faith” 🙂 Seriously though, I am restarting this blog in its fourth revision because people still contact me about UBF. Parents and friends of UBF members, and UBF members themselves still want information about the group. I’ve been interviewed by media twice, and more interviews are potentially coming soon. So as the self-prescribed missionary to UBF, I am taking up blogging about the group again.
Still preaching UBFism propagandaÂ
Out of sheer curiosity (and a bit of rum), I decided to scan through a few UBF Sunday lectures. Have they changed? Would they be publishing sermons about the gospel? Not surprisingly, the answer is no. The Sunday lectures I read from last week included the main Chicago lecture and a few satellite chapter lectures. Same format. Same UBF slogans. Same cringeworthy side comments that distract from the indoctrination exercise they call “preaching the gospel”. I may include a few reviews of Sunday lectures to show what I mean. So I’m blogging again with another purpose–to share the Christian gospel with UBF folks. They still don’t get it; they still cling to Samuel Lee’s ideology (called UBFism) instead of repenting.
Wikipedia updates
Another reason I want to blog is to express my concern over what’s going on over at Wikipedia regarding the UBF article. More than 30 times over several years, UBF members have attempted to wipe out any negative statement about the group from the article. WikiAdmins have preserved the article, thankfully. In 2019, UBF renewed its “Internet Committee” which intends to cleanse the internet of any negative material about the group and promote only a positive, sun-shiny viewpoint. They do these things instead of renouncing their human shepherding and arranged marriage process.
Thanks for reading. We’ve typically had thousands more silent readers than commenters, and that’s fine with me. Share a comment by registering or submit an article to me and I’ll consider publishing it. We’ll categorize everything by tags. I plan to release several articles each month.
Getting the site ready for publishing articles and commenting safely.
In regard to Wikipedia, here is the report that mentions the UBF Wikipedia committee. I wonder what their purpose is? lol. “Before testimony sharing in the evening, we heard various reports on preparation for ISBC 2023, the formation of the third Emerging Leaders Cohort, UBF’s online education, the Wikipedia project, and a certificate program on cross-cultural relations from Wheaton College available to UBF members.” (UBF Report)