Free Republic

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....

Tony Blair joins Catholic faith Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to the Catholic faith. His wife Cherie is a Catholic and there had been speculation that he would convert to Catholicism from his Anglican faith after leaving office. Mr Blair's official spokesman confirmed he had converted on Friday night and said it was a private matter. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he was "very glad" to welcome Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, into the Catholic Church. 'Nutter' fear One of Mr Blair's final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican...

THE STARTLING ARTICLE appeared on Dec. 9, 2004. “A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind,” Richard Ostling of The Associated Press wrote. “He now believes in God — more or less — based on scientific evidence and says so on a video released Thursday. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A superintelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the...

When I was 26, I had never once believed in God. Raised entirely without religion, I was a contented atheist and thought it was simply obvious that God did not exist. I thought that religion and reason were incompatible, and was baffled by why anyone would believe in God (I actually suspected that few people really did). After a few years in the Bible Belt, I became vocally anti-Christian. Imagine my surprise to find myself today, just three years later, a practicing Catholic who loves her faith (I entered the Church at Easter 2007). This is the chronicle of my...

MADRID - DPA - The Spanish judiciary has for the first time recognized the right of a Catholic to stop being a member of the church, radio reports said Thursday. The National Court sided with a person who had taken the Valencia archbishop's office to court for refusing to cancel his baptism certificate. The archbishopric had argued that baptism certificates were not files that could be cancelled and that they did not prove a person's ongoing membership in the Catholic Church. The archbishopric's refusal violated the complainant's rights to protect personal data and his religious freedom, the court said, adding...

Husham Al-Husainy With heads bowed reverently, Democrats were led in prayer yesterday by a Muslim imam who essentially asked Allah to assist in converting the party members to Islam, according to a scholar and author. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Truth about Muhammad," took note of the invocation given at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting by Husham Al-Husainy, imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich. According to a transcript of the prayer, which can be seen on a video clip provided by HotAir.com, the imam said: In...

When Muslims begin the holy month of Ramadan this weekend, Christians worldwide will be praying along with them. But Muslims may not welcome the support. In a campaign called the "30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus," Christians will be asking God to help Muslims accept Jesus. The project is organized by a loose association of evangelical groups that include Youth With A Mission, which works in about 150 countries. In the U.S., the National Association of Evangelicals is asking the thousands of churches and ministries it represents to participate. Lynn Green, international chairman of Youth With A Mission, said organizers chose...

NEW DELHI, MAY 20 The VHP has offered to team up with Pope Benedict XVI to fight their ‘‘common’’ adversary of Islamic terrorism. VHP president Ashok Singhal made this offer to the Pope today, two days after the latter expressed serious reservations about moves to ban conversions in certain parts of India. The entire Sangh Parivar, particularly VHP, would have normally unleashed a no-holds-barred campaign against the Pope. However, Singhal, by courting the Pope, has obviously made a major tactical turn. The VHP chief said: ‘‘Christians and Hindus are both facing the same historical threat of jihad.’’ Drawing a parallel...

India has responded with diplomatic equanimity to Pope Benedict XVI's seemingly provocative remarks condemning attempts to ban religious conversion in certain states. The pope had told India’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Amitava Tripathi, on Thursday that the country should "firmly reject" attempts "to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right to religious freedom". He had also taken note of the "disturbing signs of religious intolerance which had troubled some regions of the nation". New Delhi responded on Friday with a statement, reiterating the constitutional "freedom of conscience" and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion. "It...

January 22, 2006 The Presence of God Within a Rogue River farm shed, the beauty of the temporary chapel of St. innocent’s Russian Orthodox Church has brought some of those who enter to tearsBy JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune Plain, heavy doors on a former storage building open to reveal a Russian Orthodox sanctuary complete with religious icons following the Church’s spiritual traditions. (Mail Tribune photo by Denise Baratta) Tucked away up a dirt road on a farm north of Rogue River is a dazzling treasure of sacred art. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary, two-story storage...

More Hope in a dark time Meri Burlingame Mar 29, 2005 More hope in the midst of the storm--------- Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad (about the demise of Saddam Hussein) and The Last Days (about the demise of Yasser Arafat). His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out in August 2005, from Tyndale. An evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, his grandparents escaped from Russia. Joel has served as a senior advisor to Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky...

Thousands of Dalit Christians "Reconverted" to Hinduism in India, Hindu Group says Saturday, 19 February 2005 (3 hours ago) By BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau Chief Vishal Arora NEW DELHI, INDIA (BosNewsLife)-- Indian Church officials on Saturday, February 19, dismissed reports that a militant Hindu group "reconverted" thousands of India's most impoverished Christians back to Hinduism, as an attempt

The Egyptian Christian director of a home for troubled Coptic girls goes on trial January 16 in Cairo on charges of holding a 16-year-old Coptic girl against her will and without her parents’ permission, and also of trying to rape her. Shafik Saleh Shafik, 57, claims the case against him is an attempt to close down his recovery ministry among Coptic girls who are being enticed to leave their Christian families and convert to Islam. “The state security police wrote on their report about me that I am a ‘very dangerous man,’ because I am preaching Christianity,” Shafik told Compass....

KONIGSTEIN, Germany, November 16 (CNA) - There are practically no conversions to Christianity in the South West Indian state of Kerala, according to Bishop Peter Thuruthikonam of Vijayapuram. Although Kerala does not have a formal anti-conversion law, "the state government discourages conversions simply by not granting benefits to converts," said the prelate. "As a consequence, nobody dares to become Christian." In a recent visit to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the bishop was asked about the current challenges and priorities in his diocese. "Our faithful are low caste people and very poor," he said. "What...

The Khmer Rouge followed a harsh brand of communism, killing nearly two million people in their bid to return Cambodia to Year Zero. Now they have a new faith: evangelical Christianity. Hundreds of former fighters have been baptised in the past year. The Khmer Rouge's mountain stronghold, the town of Pailin in south-west Cambodia, has four churches, all with pastors and growing congregations. At least 2,000 of those who followed Pol Pot, the guerrillas' former leader who died six years ago, now worship Jesus. Many new converts were involved in the bloody battles, massacres and forced labour programmes that led...

Few people have ever loved or respected the Catholic Church more than I.  As we lived just a stone’s throw from St. Dominic’s Church and school, my sister and I were raised in the church.  The Krause family, as far back as granddad could remember, were all good Catholics.  We had a proud tradition to follow and the baton had been handed to me.  In no way would I let our tradition down.  What confidence I had in this awesome religion.   Why, I thought, was everyone who claimed to be Christian not a Roman Catholic?  This was my heart-felt belief. ...

By Sampath Kumar BBC correspondent in Madras     In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Jayalalitha has withdrawn a series of political decisions taken in the last two years. The move comes after her party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazakham (AIADMK) suffered a huge defeat in recent national elections. The policies axed by Jayalalitha include a controversial ban on religious conversions. The one year old law is strongly opposed by religious minorities. Voters 'alienated'It gave the authorities the power to impose penalties and jail terms for those involved in religious conversions through "coercion" or...

In May 18, 1905, Frederick A. Kerry, a 32-year-old Viennese, arrived in New York City by steamship, the Königin Luise, with his wife and 4-year-old son, hopeful that his new country would bring him the success and social acceptance that had eluded him in Europe. Mr. Kerry probably could not have imagined that within a century a grandson, John Forbes Kerry, would find himself the Democratic candidate for president. Frederick Kerry brought with him a secret: he was born a Jew, Fritz Kohn, in what is now the Czech Republic, but he and his wife, Ida, had converted to Roman...

May. 20, 2003 Eitam calls on PM to revoke Int. Minister's authority on conversions (UPDATE) By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF</P< Construction and Housing Minister Effi Eitam (NRP) on Tuesday called on the prime minister to revoke Interior Minister Avraham Poraz's authority on conversions to Judaism and the granting of Israeli citizenship, after Poraz announced he would stop the automatic granting of citizenship to converts to Judaism in Israel. "Citizenship will be granted based on humanitarian concerns such as uniting families, identification with Israel, or an ability to concretely contribute to Israeli society, in the case of artists, scientists or...

CHICAGO, August 27 (IslamOnline) - British journalist Yvonne Ridley has announced that she plans to convert to Islam. IslamOnline talked to Ridley about her religious background, her encounters with the Taliban, and her decision to convert to Islam. Ridley made international headlines last year when she entered Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban. She was eventually released and went on to write about her experiences in a book entitled In The Hands of the Taliban published by Robson Books in the U.K. Ridley told IslamOnline, “I was brought up a Protestant, in the Church of England. I sang...