Muslim-Born WSJ Writer Converts to Catholicism; Announces New Faith After ISIS Kills French Priest

CP World ^ | September 30, 2016 | ANUGRAH KUMAR

[MichaelCorleone]

Welcome home, Mr. Ahmari.

May God give you the strength and utterance to spread the Gospel to others who are lost.

[quesney]

Ahmari gradually began to recognize the significance of Judeo-Christian foundations of the West, but that didn't make him a Christian. "But it helped," he writes. "If I enjoyed the beauty and ordered liberty I saw around me, then I had to give credit to the ideals that gave birth to it. You couldn't have one without the other. The beauty and order reflected an underlying truth. It wasn't my truth, but I no longer lightly dismissed faith." "I could have told you all about Caravaggio's tumultuous life, spoken at length about why the painting is considered a masterpiece, and recounted the basics about the events he was portraying," he writes. "But then I came to understand why any of this mattered: that the Person whom St Peter is denying isn't just his great friend and teacher, but the very God Himself, God from God, who has entered our fallen world. And whose greatest act is to endure humiliation, be spat upon, crucified and even denied by his friends."
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Boom - he gets it. Last paragraph explains why Christianity tends to get stronger when it's under attack. Yesterday, the Roman Empire. Today, Marxist liberals. There's nothing new under the sun.

[wardaddy]

This is the money shot about this guy

He says he thought, "If Shia Islam, with its rich iconography and theology, was all hypocrisy, then Mormonism and America's Protestant ethic and cheerful consumerism were even more contemptible – and equally repressive in their own way."

I'll be blunt....this guy is full of crap ....and I know you guys like to toot your horn but this guy ain't worth your effort

Protestants are not equally repressive except to nut job lefties and btw Mormons ain't Protestants ....they are an outside the boundaries sect.....and they haven't been repressive in over a century

[Mrs. Don-o]

I didn't catch that he was noting the typical Catholic failure to evangelize as a "plus". It was more of a wry, maybe puzzled observation.

Of course Catholics should evangelize. We have, after all, received the Great Commission.

[ealgeone]

Of course Catholics should evangelize. We have, after all, received the Great Commission.

It never ceases to amaze me the catholic always identifies with a church and rarely, do they refer to themselves as Christian.

[BlackElk]

This Catholic has nothing against Evangelicals. Thank God for the Evangelicals among us. We Catholics would have no chance to overturn Roe vs. Wade on our own. Although many Catholics participated, it took Evangelicals to organize Operation Rescue. Evangelicals are allies on many other moral issues as well.

Evangelicals are often scrupulous about living upright lives. I have never met a Catholic who would not gladly live among Evangelicals.

That is not to say that there are not dogmatic differences between Catholics and Evangelicals. Our basic beliefs as Christians are close on most but not all things. We all believe in the Trinity, that Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary and had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. We agree on much but not all of Scripture.

Important areas of disagreement (good faith beliefs on both sides) include whether Jesus Christ instituted the papacy with Peter and what powers resulted for Peter and his successors (for good or for ill), the Mass, what we see as seven sacraments and similar matters. However, if you disagree with me on such matters, that does not make you my enemy nor does it make me reject you as my brother in Christ.

We do evangelize in our own way. First and foremost, we evangelize our children and our relatives, our co-workers and our friends by persuasion. I have learned that many more Evangelicals than Catholics as a percentage, have substantial knowledge of Scripture but we also have Catholic Tradition or the Teaching Magisterium of the Church to supplement our knowledge. As an example, the Bible has little to say about abortion, as such, but The Didache, published around 120 AD by St. Ignatius of Antioch, a successor of St. Peter as a bishop in Syria and who is believed to have been baptized by Peter, was very definite and specific in its condemnation of all forms of abortion. The Didache is in print to this day.

May God bless you and yours and may we meet in heaven if not earlier!

[ealgeone]

Your post is one of the more reasonable ones from catholics I have seen on these threads.

>snip<

As an example, the Bible has little to say about abortion...,

I would point out on the issue of abortion the Bible does address this topic.

Thou shall not murder.

[BlackElk]

I had said that the Bible did not address abortion AS SUCH. It not only explicitly prohibits murder but also provides for damages to be paid to a husband where a third party causes his wife to miscarry.

Our baby-killers will deny the obvious which you state. Thou shalt not murder is not limited to those who murder those who have been born.

[Mrs. Don-o]

What? I was specifically asked about Catholics, so I was writing about>< Catholics. Specifically.

Context, my friend. Context.

[ealgeone]

Yes I understood the context. I rarely see a Catholic identify as a Christian.

[ebb tide]

I rarely see a Catholic identify as a Christian.

Only Catholics are Christians; I'm a Catholic. All others who claim to be "christians" are either heretics or schismatics.

Please, Don’t Call Protestants Christians

[Albion Wilde]

His favourite painting, mentioned in the article as "a work that can bring me to tears" is The Denial of Saint Peter (La Negazione di Pietro) by Caravaggio, 1610

John 18:
15 And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another[a] disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest.
16 But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought Peter in.
17 Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, “You are not also one of this Man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.”
18 Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself.

[Tax-chick]

One could look at St. Peter’s face forever! One of the other performers in the Spanish music program at my church does a song called (in English), “Peter, You Are Weeping,” that refers to this event. It’s very touching.

Regarding the art, it seems very interior, but I suppose they could be close to the wall/gate.

St. Peter looks old, to me. When I read the Gospels, I think of him as about Jesus’s age, which would be early 30s at the relevant time. He was old later, of course, but I don’t see him as old now.

[Vision Thing]

Thanks! Ever since reading this article earlier today, I’ve been meaning to look up this painting online, so you read my mind.

Sorry, King David, King Solomon, and Saul/Paul, but Simon Peter is the greatest person in all the Bible behind Jesus Himself.

Simom Peter is so human, yet Jesus sought him in so many ways: at the start of His ministry, during His ministry, on the day of His ressurection, and post-ressurection when Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him.

So many of us Christians, including pastors during sermons, bash Peter because of his spiritual and social clumsiness, but mainly it is because Peter exemplifies so many of us in our walk with Jesus.

The person who is the subject of this article is yet another example of someone who sees himself in Peter.

God bless Simon Peter!

[Vision Thing]

Yes, when Jesus approached Peter, it was while Peter was slaving away in his fishing boat. I imagined him to be much younger than Carravagio portrayed him.

[ealgeone]

Sorry, but anyone who worships idols as catholics do is not a Christian.

A Christian is a follower of Christ.

[ebb tide]

Catholics follow Jesus Christ; they don’t follow heretics like Martin Luther.

[ealgeone]

I’m not following Luther. I know that’s hard for you to understand. I follow Christ.

[ealgeone]

Roman Catholics claim you have to go through Mary to get to Christ yet this is denied by Christ Himself in John 14:6. The observant reader will note there is no mention of having to go through Mary in this, or any other passage.

[Biggirl]

Evangelize anyways, regardless of what the hierarchy say.