Wednesday, May 03, 2006

UBF and human rights

(Related: 1, 2)

The right to make your own decisions is a fundamental human right. It is the pattern of all cults and abusive groups to attack this fundamental right, subtly, relentlessly, from the start of your recruitment process. Here's a comment on UBF and the concept of human rights, which was prompted by the report of another UBF message that tries to erode respect for the concept of human rights:

31st-Mar-2006 02:51 am (UTC) - Jesus' lordship as dictated by a UBF leader

"The author claims that 'But we cannot talk about our human rights with Jesus.' ”

This just continues a pattern established by Sam Lee in his sermons for many years. He consistently disparaged the concept of human rights in his sermons. The motive was obviously to erode respect for human rights so that many kinds of abusive training could be justified. So, here is more evidence that UBF continues or wants to continue to employ abusive training.

A Christian ministry knows and teaches that our fundamental rights and value as human beings come from God's image in us and God's absolute moral character. UBF evidently does not have a clue about that. They never have.

The sick thing is that they try to bring Jesus down to their level. Jesus did not operate that way. As Chris has said, because a UBF leader is the one who dictates "Jesus' lordship" to you in your life, it's easy to see through the statement, "But we cannot talk about our human rights with Jesus."


Here's another important observation made by someone else:

31st-Mar-2006 03:51 pm (UTC)

UBF seems to want to present the notion of human rights as a concept invented by men (for example, the founding fathers of the U.S.). Every other Christian organization I've been a part of has specifically acknowledged human rights as something that flows out of humans' special creation by God; therefore, each one of us has individual freedom of choice, worth, and purpose.


This has prompted me to add the following to my "statement on reconciliation":

5. They continue a system of authoritarian shepherding ... As has been their decades-long habit, they continue to disparage any notion of human rights, rights which might restrict or moderate the totalist nature of UBF "training."