(Originally posted on the comments page of the Diamondback Online article on UBF.)
Eddie
posted 6/28/07 @ 2:26 PM EST
I had a run-in with UBF back in the summer of 2003, right after my Freshman year when I was taking summer classes at UMCP. A nice little Korean lady approached me outside the Bio-Psych building and invited me to Bible study at their building. Curious and with time on my hands, I accepted. Once or twice a week we went to the UBF building for 60-90 minute Bible study sessions (we studied the book of Matthew at my request), and I also had homework study assignments [assigned by the UBF person]. While I learned many interesting (and sometimes disturbing) things about the Bible during my time with the lady, she became increasingly intolerant of my questions and criticisms as time passed, and I started to see the underlying irrational and fanatical aspects of her personality that also formed some of the foundations of her religiosity. After a couple weeks, I realized that the studies were bringing me no closer to Christ or Christianity more broadly, and I politely ended our sessions, concluding that my Agnosticism had only been strengthened by the experience.
I never saw any other UBF people around during our sessions, but I started quietly paying more attention to their missionaries on campus. They do most of their "recruiting" in front of the Bio-Psych building and in the food court, and yes, many or most of them are Korean (not that that's a bad thing in any way). Since 2003, I have repeatedly run into my past "mentor" on campus and she used to email me with requests to resume our sessions up until 2005. I can't judge them all from my experiences with one UBF person, but I think students should be on guard anyway and ask a lot of questions of these people if they decide to experiment with the group.
