Free Republic

GREENSBORO - Let me start off by saying this: I am not the stereotypical gun enthusiast. I don't wax eloquent about the Second Amendment or the National Rifle Association. I don't think Democrats are out to steal my guns. I don't fear a zombie attack (the only reason that I can think of that even remotely explains why a private citizen would need to own an AK-47 or an M16). Actually, I don't even own a gun, which is typically considered an enthusiast necessity. Even so, I have gone shooting several times with my father and had expressed an interest...

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – The U.S. city of San Antonio unveiled a deal on Tuesday that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel. San Antonio residents produce about 140,000 tons a year of a substance gently referred to as "biosolids," which can be reprocessed into natural gas, said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer of the city's water system. "You may call it something else," Clouse said, but for area utilities, the main byproduct of human waste - methane gas - will soon be...

Michael Franzese repented of his mobster ways when he became a Christian, but it took a crisis for him to decide who would be the boss of him. A former member of New York's Columbo crime family, Franzese told members of Longview First Baptist Church on Sunday that he became a so-called made man on Halloween 1975. A made man is a full-fledge member of a crime family, someone whose loyalty to the enterprise surpasses that given to personal family. Fully engaged in enterprises that included multibillion-dollar gasoline tax fraud, Franzese was targeted by then-U.S. Attorney General Rudolph Giuliani who...

Question: What would a baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic need to do in order to join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church? Answer: Allow me to answer you question with a brief autobiographical anecdote. I was born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and educated in the Roman Catholic system. In fact, it was while I was at a Roman Catholic college (of all places) that I was converted by the grace of God. After realizing how different the teachings of the RCC are from Scripture, I joined with a Baptist church. And that church required that I be rebaptized as an adult. So, I...

Her crime? Converting to Christianity. "Saudi man kills daughter for converting to Christianity," by Mariam Al Hakeem for Zawya, August 13:Riyadh: A Saudi man working with the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently killed his daughter for converting to Christianity. According to sources close to the victim, the religious police member had cut the tongue of the girl and burned her to death following a heated debate on religion. The death of the girl sent shockwaves and websites where the victim used to write with various nick names have allocated special space to mourn her, while...

Now, at 30 years old, he attends an evangelical Christian church, Barabbas Road in San Diego, Calif. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and is seeking asylum in the United States. The story of how his life unfolded is truly amazing, whether you agree or disagree with his views. Below is a transcript on an exclusive FOX News interview with Hassan as he tells firsthand how a West Bank Muslim became a West Coast Christian. JONATHAN HUNT: Why, after 25 years, did you change? MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: I believe that all those walls that Islam...

Mosab Hassan Yousef is an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary story. He was born the son of one of the most influential leaders of the militant Hamas organization in the West Bank and grew up in a strict Islamic family. Now, at 30 years old, he attends an evangelical Christian church, Barabbas Road in San Diego, Calif. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and is seeking asylum in the United States. The story of how his life unfolded is truly amazing, whether you agree or disagree with his views. Below is a transcript on...

CALIFORNIA - A moment before beginning his dinner, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates. It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization in the West Bank, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian....

“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” - these words are not something you would expect to hear from a Palestinian, let alone someone who grew up in the family that has led the radical and terrorist Islamic ideology of Hamas. But these are the words coming from non other than Masab Yousef - son of one of the leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Masab Yousef - a Christian convert now living in California - in an interview with Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz talks about the “bottom...

The son of the leading Hamas figure in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) said in an interview with Ha’aretz that he has converted to Christianity and repented of his sins for being an active part of a culture of hate and death that targeted God’s Chosen.

Tony Snow Dead at 53, A Tribute to a Catholic Journalist By Deacon Keith Fournier7/12/2008 Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)"It’s trendy to reject religious reflection as a grave offense against decency. That’s not only cowardly. That’s false. Faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul. So don’t leave home without either one." President George W. Bush (L) and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow return from an event at the Quantico Marine Base to the White House in Washington, September 14, 2007. Snow, who battled colon cancer, has died. CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) – Tony Snow, whose Catholic faith, superb...

Roman Catholic liberals and their Anglican allies are directing a campaign of propaganda at Anglo-Catholics, telling them that "Rome" does not want them to convert en masse following the vote for women bishops. This is a lie. According to Ruth Gledhill, "an extremely well-connected Roman Catholic friend" reckons that former Anglicans are "the last thing we need" and that the Vatican will not upset liberal Catholic parishes or its relations with Rowan Williams by making special arrangements for them. Alas, Ruth seems to have been taken in by this untruth. In fact, her friend - whom I do not doubt...

A growing number of Christians in Britain from a Muslim background are facing harassment and persecution, warns Release International. They include ‘Yasmin’, whose ex-husband planned to kill her. She’s been attacked in the street, driven from her home and was taken under police protection. Yasmin became a Christian after receiving a vision of Jesus during the difficult birth of her son. She tried to keep her faith a secret from her family, but eventually told her mother. “When my mother found out I had become a Christian she went to the local mosque and told them that I had gone...

Ian Huntley, the killer of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, is considering converting to Islam, it has been claimed. Huntley, 34, serving life at the maximum security Frankland Prison in County Durham, has started reading the Koran on a daily basis after befriending two Muslim inmates, according to The People. The Soham killer is thought to have turned to the small group of Muslim inmates in Frankland after being threatened by other prisoners. He has even asked them to take him to a prayer meeting after finding the passages of the Islamic holy book the Koran are helping his...

A US-born man pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping to train fellow Al-Qaeda agents to carry out bombings in Europe and the United States, after a five-year global investigation, officials said. The targets included European tourist resorts frequented by Americans, as well as US military bases, embassies and consular offices in Europe. "Today's guilty plea brings an end to the long, dangerous career of Christopher Paul, an Ohio native who joined Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and conspired with others to target Americans both at home and abroad," said Acting Assistant US Attorney General Patrick Rowan....

Hello fellow Freepers. I believe this is my first post on the Religion forum. Over the past week or so, I put some thought into something I've been pondering for a while; my spiritual welfare. As it was, I had been part of the 'Sola Scriptua' school of thought (Evangelical Christian). By the Bible and only the Bible. Sounded good enough. Well...what about before the Bible was put into word? It stuck in my head when reading an article earlier on FR concerning a deconstruction of Sola Scriptura and its inherent weaknesses as a foundation for one's faith. This, combined...

Alex Jones: the evangelical who became a Catholic deacon One of the more celebrated Catholic converts -- and a recently ordained deacon, by the way -- is former evangelical Alex Jones. He now spends much of his time traveling the country, talking about his journey back to the Church. And a paper in Fort Wayne, Indiana profiles him this weekend: Ten years ago, Alex Jones was the charismatic preacher of a thriving black independent Pentecostal congregation, Maranatha Christian Church in Detroit. Today, he still preaches, but it’s as an ordained Roman Catholic deacon. Jones doesn’t like to use the word...

A British citizen who converted to Christianity from Islam and then complained to police when locals threatened to burn his house down was told by officers to “stop being a crusader”, according to a new report. Nissar Hussein, 43, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who was born and raised in Britain, converted from Islam to Christianity with his wife, Qubra, in 1996. The report says that he was subjected to a number of attacks and, after being told that his house would be burnt down if he did not repent and return to Islam, reported the threat to the police. It...

Thanks to Libertas, I noticed a New York Times interview in which “Iron Man”’s Tony Stark, Robert Downey, Jr., admitted that though he doesn’t say it too loudly at dinner parties, he’s a conservative. This is a pretty big catch for our side: consider that Downey’s father, who made the radical underground film “Putney Swope,” was one of the most celebrated leftists in the film world in the 60s. Says Downey Jr: “I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a...

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros -- named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid -- has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries -- mostly Muslim converts -- he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance -- free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become...

April 7 - Rosalind Moss Former Jew and Evangelical Christian A rolled-away stone gathers Moss: from Judaism to CatholicismHow does a Jewish person of faith convert to Catholicism? To judge by Rosalind Moss’s eighteen-year journey into the Church, the answer is . . . very slowly. Raised in Brooklyn, in a conservative Jewish home with one older brother and one younger sister, Moss never even considered that she would ever be anything other than Jewish. “It’s what I was. We were God’s people. That was my identity,” says Moss. “We waited for the Messiah to come,” adds Moss, “but...

Pope Benedict’s choice to publicly baptize the most prominent Muslim in Italy, Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, highlights a quiet worldwide exodus from Islam. In recent years, millions have moved on. With this high-profile action, Pope Benedict demonstratively blesses this massive conversion from the highest levels of the Church. Interviewed by al-Jazeera in 2006, Ahmad al-Qataani, leader of the Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, explains the decline: Islam used to represent … Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished...

Last week I received the following e-mail, and I felt it would be best to share my response here on the blog. Dear Mr. White, For someone considering converting to Catholicism, what questions would you put to them in order to discern whether or not they have examined their situation sufficiently? Say, a Top 10 list. Thanks. When I posted this question in our chat channel a number of folks commented that it was in fact a great question, and we started to throw out some possible answers. Here is my "Top Ten List" in response to this fine inquiry....

<p>DIAMOND BAR, California (AP) -- In what some may consider an unexpected move, rap artist "Snoop Dogg" has reportedly converted to Mormonism after nearly a year of study with the fast-growing, Utah-based faith.</p> <p>Snoop Dogg says he "can't get enough of the Book of Mormon."</p>

http://joshuafund.blogspot.com/2008/03/big-untold-story-in-middle-east-2008.html THE BIG (UNTOLD) STORY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Muslims converting to faith in Jesus Christ in record numbers -- 2008 Update "I will build my church," Jesus said, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) The lead story on Drudge over the weekend was the Pope baptizing a prominent Egyptian author who converted from Islam to Catholicism, and for good reason. It's a huge story in Italy and the Muslim world, especially coming as it did the week that Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of waging a "crusade" against Islam. But this particular...

ITALIAN editor and critic of Islamic extremism Magdi Allam, who converted to Catholicism from Islam and was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI, today branded his former faith as intrinsically violent. "I had to do this (abandon Islam)", Allam wrote in a long letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "Beyond ... the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam," wrote the Egyptian-born journalist, who says he has received death threats and is under police protection. One of seven adults baptised during an...

My conversion to the Catholic faith began in the world of Protestant fundamentalism. After being brought up in an independent Bible church, I attended the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. While there I became an Anglican; later, I went to England to become an Anglican priest. My pilgrimage of faith came to a crisis in the early 1990s as the Anglican Church struggled over the question of the ordination of women. By instinct I was against the innovation, but I wanted to be positive and affirm new ideas rather than reject them just because they were new. I decided to put...

The Story of a Convert from Islam – Baptized by the Pope at St. Peter's His name is Magdi Cristiano Allam. For five years he has lived under guard, threatened with death. But his baptism has raised harsh criticism, against him and against Benedict XVI. The complete text of the accusation written by Aref Ali Nayed, architect of the letter of the 138 by Sandro Magister ROMA, March 28, 2008 – Three days earlier, in an audio message released over the internet, Osama bin Laden had accused "the pope of the Vatican" of having "a significant role" in fighting a...

On the world stage, and under the auspices of Pope Benedict, Magdi Allam, a staunch Egyptian critic of radical Islam, became a member of the Roman-Catholic faith. The significance and symbolism of this conversion cannot be understated, particularly in the current climate of Islamic-Catholic affairs. In embracing Roman Catholicism and rejecting Islam, Mr Allam (a formerly self-avowed secular Muslim) breached one of the most fundamental precepts of traditional Islam by committing the “crime” of apostasy.

Of all the conversion stories I've read over the past couple of years, none have resonated with me more deeply or had a more powerful impact on me than that of author John C. Wright. A former atheist, he is able to articulate what it's like to go from content atheism to deep belief in a way that I cannot. I've been toying with writing my own conversion story before I enter the Church at Easter, but the thing that keeps hanging me up is explaining what it feels like to believe. I'd like to describe it in a...

ROME (CNS) -- The Muslim-born journalist baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Easter Vigil said he wanted a public conversion to convince other former Muslims not to be afraid of practicing their new Christian faith. But a representative of a group of Muslim scholars who recently launched a new dialogue with the Vatican said the prominence given to the baptism of Magdi Allam, a frequent critic of Islam, raises disturbing questions. Allam, 55, was one of seven adults baptized by the pope March 22 in St. Peter's Basilica. Aref Ali Nayed, a spokesman for the 138 Muslim scholars who...

Magdi Allam Recounts His Path to Conversion Benedict XVI Baptized the Journalist at Easter Vigil VATICAN CITY, MARCH 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Magdi Allam’s account of his conversion to Catholicism. The Muslim journalist was baptized by Benedict XVI at Saturday's Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. An abbreviated form of this account appeared as a letter to Paolo Mieli, the director of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Allam is the paper’s deputy director. The Italian version of the complete text is available at magdiallam.it. * * * Dear Friends, I am particularly happy to...

Muslim Converted by Pope Says Life in More Danger ROME - An outspoken muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who converted to Christianity at the hands of Pope Benedict said on Sunday he realised he was in greater danger but he has no regrets. «I realise what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith» said Magdi Allam. In a surprise move on Saturday night, the pope baptized the 55-year-old, Egyptian-born Allam at an Easter eve...

Muslim Converted By Pope Says Life In More Danger March 23, 2008 By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - An outspoken Muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who converted to Christianity at the hands of Pope Benedict said on Sunday he realized he was in greater danger but he has no regrets. ADVERTISEMENT "I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith," said Magdi Allam. In a surprise move on Saturday night, the pope...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator converted to Roman Catholicism on Saturday during the Vatican's Easter vigil service presided over by the pope. Italian journalist Magdi Allam attends a meeting in Milan in 2005. An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim, Magdi Allam has infuriated some fellow Muslims with his criticism of extremism and support for Israel. The deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Allam often writes on Muslim and Arab affairs. He told the Il Giornale newspaper in a December interview that his criticism of Palestinian suicide bombings generated threats on his life in 2003, prompting the...

Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator is converting to Catholicism by being baptized by the pope at an Easter vigil, the Vatican announced Saturday. Magdi Allam is the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. Born in Egypt, he has described himself as a non-practicing Muslim. He has long spoken out against extremism and in favor of tolerance. Pope Benedict XVI was baptizing seven adults during the service, which marks the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus' crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico...

VATICAN CITY - Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator, a journalist with iconoclastic views such as support for Israel, converted to Roman Catholicism Saturday when the pope baptized him at an Easter service. As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Magdi Allam's head and said a brief prayer in Latin. "We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another," Benedict said in a homily reflecting on the meaning of baptism. "Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close." Vatican...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict led the world's Catholics into Easter on Saturday at a Vatican service where he baptized a Muslim-born convert who is one of Italy's most famous and controversial journalists. The German-born pontiff, marking the third Easter season of his pontificate, began the service in the atrium of a darkened St Peter's Basilica where he carved the Greek letters Alpha and Omega on a large candle. The basilica became a sea of flickering flames as thousands of faithful inside lit candles before the lights were turned on in a ritual symbolizing the darkness in the world...

Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator is converting to Catholicism by being baptized by the pope at an Easter vigil, the Vatican announced Saturday. Magdi Allam is the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. Born in Egypt, he has described himself as a non-practicing Muslim. He has long spoken out against extremism and in favor of tolerance.

Washington DC, Mar 16, 2008 / 04:04 pm (CNA).- Tens of thousands of people around the United States will be received into the Catholic Church in less than a week at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, March 22.  The Easter Vigil is the most important ceremony of the church year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and is also the time when catechumens, those who come from a non-Christian background, are baptized, confirmed, and receive Holy Communion.  Prior to becoming members of the Catholic Church, potential converts will usually have undergone the Rite of Christian Initiation for...

A former US navy sailor has been convicted of spying and supplying a pro-al-Qaeda website with information on American warship movements. Hassan Abujihaad, 32, was found guilty of providing material support to terrorists and disclosing secret national defence information. He was arrested last year in Phoenix, Arizona. Abujihaad, a Muslim convert previously known as Paul Hall, faces 25 years in jail when he is sentenced on 23 May. He showed no emotion as he was convicted of passing classified details of US navy ships to Azzam.com by a jury at the US District Court in New Haven, Connecticut. Azzam was...

Once a Southern Baptist pastor, Michael Cumbie converted to Catholicism in 2001 and has since been traveling far from his hometown near Pensacola, Florida, to preach his new faith to the nation. At Saint Therese Catholic Church in San Diego for a "renewal mission" this April, he spent three evenings speaking about his conversion, Catholic worship, and the Eucharist. About 200 hundred came to listen the last evening's talk. While he gathered his materials after his energetic presentation, I asked him some questions on the same topics. Can you say something about the experience of the Holy Spirit in your...

NEW HAVEN — - The U.S. Navy would have immediately changed plans had it known that details of ship movements had been leaked to suspected terrorism supporters, a top Navy official testified Wednesday at the trial of a former Navy sailor on terrorism charges. Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 32, of Phoenix, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging that he provided material support to terrorists and disclosed classified national defense information. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. Abu-Jihaad, an American-born Muslim convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall, is accused of leaking information that could have doomed...

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia (Reuters) - The chief torturer under the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime wept and prayed on Tuesday as he led the judges who will try him for crimes against humanity around the mass graves for some of its victims. Duch, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, accompanied 80 judges, lawyers and other officials of a U.N.-backed tribunal to the 129 graves, uncovered after a Vietnamese invasion sent the Khmer Rouge back to the jungles in 1979. "I saw Duch kneel in front of the trees where Khmer Rouge soldiers smashed children to death," a policeman told reporters...

Hundreds have taken a long path to churchBy Ed Langlois Jeff Gurske of St. Edward Parish, Keizer, stands at Rite of Election.Sentinel photo by Gerry Lewin When it came to faith, Lisa Snook had more than 40 years of unanswered questions.A personal trainer and bookkeeper, she had been raised a Presbyterian, but never baptized. She had tried many churches over the years and felt underfed, spiritually speaking. Then a friend invited her to Mass.“From the moment I walked in, I felt at home,” she says. “I felt like I belonged. The community was amazing. It means a lot to me....

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations. For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on interviews with more...

I know that I was not the first Protestant to learn the truth about the Catholic Church; I am sure that this is a story you could probably hear from countless other people, changing only the names and places. I know that many have walked the road that I have; that road which leads home, to Rome! I was born in 1975 to two God-fearing Southern Baptists in Dallas, Texas. My father had grown up Methodist, but became Baptist when he married my mother in 1968. From what my father has said, his family was mostly Methodist. His father and...

A convert to Islam stands an election victory away from becoming the second Muslim elected to Congress and a role model for a faith community seeking to make its mark in national politics. Political newcomer Andre Carson is the Democratic nominee in a March 11 special election to succeed his late grandmother, Julia Carson, representing Indiana's 7th District. She died in December of lung cancer, and her grandson is seeking to fill out the rest of her sixth term, which expires at year's end. If Andre Carson wins the Democratic-leaning Indianapolis district over a freshman Republican legislator and a long...

Muslim in-laws seize his wife, kill his young son. ZALANGA, Nigeria, February 7 (Compass Direct News) – A little over a year after becoming a Christian in Ngudungudu, Chad in December 1995, Jeje Nehamiah Baki left the town to meet up with his nomadic family in the wilderness. His wife had already returned to her parents and their nomadic lifestyle, and Baki, a former Muslim and nomadic Fulani of the Bororo dialect in Chad, was looking forward to reuniting with her and their two children. But he said his father-in-law, having learned of his conversion, seized his wife and would...

A US soldier in Afghanistan said he converted to Islam Monday at a ceremony in a remote area near the rugged border with Pakistan. Sergeant Wallace Nelson, 31, told AFP his interaction with his interpreters and other Afghans had persuaded him that Islam "is pretty much the only religion that makes sense to me." They had explained that the extreme Taliban religious movement "takes things way out of proportion," Nelson told AFP by telephone from his base in the eastern province of Kunar. "I really wish everything would stop and we would be able to live together and be happy,"...