The OUSA Executive have rejected a proposal to affiliate a club on the grounds that the club is simply a rehash of a previous club that was disaffiliated in 2017 for “bringing OUSA into disrepute, ignoring OUSA directives and breaching [OUSA’s] constitution”.
In 2017, the Elohim Bible Academy, the Otago student wing of the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCG), which is a Korean-based religious movement that has been called a “cult” by many ex-members, was disaffiliated from OUSA after reports that the group was going round to people’s houses and pretending to represent OUSA to get students to complete “surveys” and watch videos which mostly consist of religious propaganda.
Lachy Stark, a student who encountered the group in 2017, said they were “pressuring people into uncomfortable, and in some cases unsafe situations. Even trying to identify which church they belonged to proved almost impossible. They repeated certain phrases and answers and the repetition made it feel as though they were unwilling to leave until I was 'converted'.”
Another student, who was pressured into being “baptised” by them and giving them her contact details, said she didn’t initially “realise how an innocent conversation with them could turn into something quite pressured and hard to escape from”.
In June 2018 a new group, “Save the Earth from A to Z” which apparently goes by the initials ASEZ, tried to affiliate to OUSA. ASEZ is also affiliated to WMSCG and was described by OUSA President Caitlin Barlow-Groome as “the same people in the same positions”. Caitlin said that the group “didn’t acknowledge the reason they were disaffiliated,” and showed no indication of changing their operation. The OUSA Exec voted unanimously to reject the affiliation.
Lisa Shin, President of ASEZ, told Critic that “I think there are some misunderstandings of the club. ASEZ has nothing to do with bible studies or surveys at all. It's just a volunteering club cooperating with UN Sustainable Development Goals. I hope no students will suffer from hate speech in doing good deeds.”