"WE MUST HATE THE ENEMIES OF GOD!!!"

In the Spring of 2001, during the heat of the third reform attempt in UBF, at a time when I began to see that he was even worse than what I had come to consider him, Samuel Lee said this through his messenger, Ron Ward, during a Romans 12 “message” one Sunday when I was in the pews:

Fifth, we must love others in Jesus. (9-13) Look at verse 9. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Many people think that because we are Christians we must condone others’ sins and evilness. But they are greatly mistaken. Our love in Jesus must be sincere. Paul says, “Hate what is evil.” We must hate the enemies of God. Those who do not hate the enemies of God reveal that they do not love God. If we love God we must hate God’s enemies. If we love God we must love those who love God as our own brothers. The single most important factor in the body of Christ is love. But love must be sincere. When we want to love others with sincere love we must learn how to love others in Jesus.

Just the words, “We must hate the enemies of God,” do not convey what Samuel Lee was saying. He had Ron Ward scream those words at the top of his lungs that Sunday. As usual, Ward was miked. The effect was blood-curdling. That word, “HATE”, was the peak of the crescendo of that whole “message.” I could remember nothing else of what was spoken.

Of course, Samuel Lee was referring to the would-be reformers of UBF as those we should “HATE!!!”, those whom he referred to at other times as “barking dogs” or “crazy dogs” or “rebels.” So in UBF, you must “love others in Jesus,” but you must “HATE THE ENEMIES OF GOD!!!”, where the “enemies of God” are always those who would speak up about UBF, even those who gave their all to UBF and wanted to reform it. Love is “HATE!!!” It amuses me when certain UBF people talk about UBF’s critics as “hateful” people.

An example of this “hate the enemies of God!!!” mentality is the paranoid assumption on the part of current UBF leaders (both senior and junior leaders) that behind any criticism of UBF–even calls to set up a real system of accountability and discipline to address the sins of leaders–is the desire to “destroy UBF” on the part of those who are “out to get UBF,” i.e., the “enemies of God.”

Here’s an earlier comment by someone else on this savagely misinterpreted passage:

Who wrote that message? I don’t know how the writer goes from Paul’s words “Hate what is evil” to a distortion like “Hate the enemies of God “. It says “hate what is evil” not “hate those who are evil”. He is trying to redefine the word love. Instead of love you have “love in Jesus” which he redefines to mean a love reserved only for good Christians. I don”t know how anyone could so completely misinterpret Paul’s meaning. In the same chapter (verse 14) he says, “Bless those who persecute you”. It would make more sense to shout, “Bless the enemies of God!” In verse 20 it says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to dr ink”. Maybe they should shout, “Feed the enemies of God!” or “Give the e nemies of God something to drink!” Sin is a disease. We shouldn’t hate people suffering from this fatal disease. We should have compassion on t hem as Christ had compassion on the leper. We should, “Love the Enemies of God !” as Christ loved us. –UBFSoul

The Bruised Reed And The Smoldering Wick

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;” – Isaiah 42:1

Someone at some point described UBF this way: In UBF are those who trample the bruised reeds on their way to fulfill their “great and holy mission.” UBF snuffs out the smoldering wicks and claims to be in the light.

So, what is an asian blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery)?

Some sample before and after photos of the grotesquery known as asian cosmetic eyelid surgery can be found here. The procedure has to be performed under general anesthesia (they put you to sleep since they have to slice into your eyelids, obviously). I can remember vomiting during the drive back due to the effects of the anesthesia (I wasn’t driving). I had to go back to the “doctor’s” office a week later to have the stitches removed. [after a week of jury duty] And then I had to endure the wacked compliments of UBF members telling me how much “better” I looked. I had looked just fine the way I was, thank you; It’s called self confidence, good self esteem. One of the first things UBF teaches you is Genesis 1:31, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” But they could force me and many others into such a petty and unnecessary thing as eyelid surgery because, apparently, what God saw as very good wasn’t good enough for Samuel Lee.

I remember that Samuel Lee’s youngest daughter was among the first to get eyelid surgery done. I remember the excuse given for her undergoing this petty and unnecessary procedure: Her eyelashes were bothering her eyes.

Update: More excerpts from “Utter Biblestudying Futility”:

– Koreans are apt to notice my double eyelids. These are apparently a desirable physical trait to them. Probably millions of Korean women have undergone cosmetic surgery to get them. How weird and stupid. What they don’t know is how I, a Korean male, got this “desirable physical trait.” It was Samuel Lee’s idea one day to give me double eyelids. And my parents didn’t leave me alone until I “obeyed his direction,” even if it meant that they would be paying for this expensive, unnecessary and stupid surgery (with virtually no income as a grad student, I certainly wasn’t going to pay for it). I gave in to them (and in effect, to Samuel Lee) out of a misplaced desire to be a good son. On the day of the surgery in Northwest Indiana, my mother and David Choi drove me to the doctor’s office. I don’t know if my mother was capable of driving on the expressway at that time or not, but I suspect that David Choi’s presence served a double purpose: 1) To drive us out there to the doctor’s office and 2) to make sure I obeyed “God’s servant’s direction” in case I got cold feet at the last second. I was (and continue to be) ticked off about this absurdity, this “mark of the beast” etched on my eyelids, this sign that Samuel Lee’s control of UBF members’ lives extended even to their bodies. (Ask me about the circumcisions and abortions he ordered.) When I expressed my displeasure to my mother, she would say that I looked “better.” She would even go so far as to say that my “new and improved” look would improve my job prospects, as if any American employer would even notice or pay attention to double eyelids. I can say without a doubt that obtaining a Ph.D. and two jobs after that were not helped in any way by these stupid double eyelids. My parents can’t understand what an affront this surgery was to my life, these parents who were taught from the beginnings of their involvement in UBF that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”