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Evangelicals Becoming Catholic, why? by Steve Ray on May 10, 2011   Below is an interesting YouTube video (really audio) of an Evangelical Radio show in which two Evangelicals discuss why so many Evangelical Protestants are leaving to join the Catholic Church.The host and guest are trying to be honest in the show entitled  “Why Evangelicals are Returning to Rome.” Although towards the end of the video they are making some statements that are historically inaccurate (about Luther and the Popes); nevertheless, their questioning tries to be honest. It is interesting that they are taking note of a large...

WACO, Texas – A federal judge on Friday rejected a defense motion to throw out a confession from the soldier accused of planning to bomb a Texas restaurant filled with Fort Hood troops. Lawyers for Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo say authorities did not read his Miranda rights or grant his request for a lawyer before he told them of plans to blow up the building and shoot survivors. They also asked the judge to suppress evidence obtained after Abdo was detained in July at a Killeen motel near the Texas Army post. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith rejected the...

.. US filmmaker Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam on Tuesday in Iran, where he is making a documentary, he told AFP. "The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with. It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets," he said in a brief telephone call from the central Iranian city of Isfahan, where he underwent the ceremony. Sean Stone's famous father is Jewish, while his mother is Christian. The 27-year-old filmmaker did not say why he converted. According to Iran's Fars news agency, Sean Stone had become...

Somali Convert from Islam Whipped in Public Compass Woman left bleeding in front of hundreds of spectators for becoming Christian. NAIROBI, Kenya, January 10 (CDN) — A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said. Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on Dec. 22 while jeered by spectators. “Osman was...

The husband and friends of an Iranian refugee missing since last month fear she has been kidnapped by Islamic extremists because of her efforts to convert Muslims to Christianity. Melbourne woman Mandy Ahmadi disappeared from her Dandenong home on December 16, leaving behind her handbag, money and credit cards, The Age reported. Moving to Australia in 1999, Mrs Ahmadi became a Christian five years ago, and her husband Nathan converted from Islam a year later. Mrs Ahmadi became active in the migrant community, helping Muslims leaving detention centres through an agency she co-founded at a local church. "It is so...

He was the local weatherman of a remote community of 442 full-time residents in King Salmon, Alaska. She was a stay-at-home mom who drove their 4-year-old to preschool, sang in the town choir and picked berries with her girlfriends. Now, Paul Rockwood Jr., 36, is a convicted terrorist, serving eight years in a federal prison. His wife, Nadia, is exiled on probation in England after her own criminal conviction. Since their arrest in 2010 - accused by the FBI of drafting and delivering a list of targets for terrorist attacks - friends and neighbors have been left in confusion, wondering...

Texan Barry Bujol, who converted to Islam and sought repeatedly to travel to the Middle East, was convicted of trying to aid al-Qaida terrorists and using a fake identification card to sneak into the Port of Houston. Bujol, who authorities said they feared could have been another "American Taliban," is scheduled to be sentenced in February and could get 20 years in prison without parole. As U.S. District Judge David Hittner announced the verdict Monday at the federal courthouse in downtown Houston, a shackled Bujol sat silently. He represented himself and requested that Hittner, rather than a jury, render the...

You don't often find a Pentecostal preacher who converts to Catholicism, but it does happen. To hear a first-hand account of just such a transformation, you may want to check out a special mission series at 7 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 3601 S.W. 17th. The featured speaker for all three nights will be the Rev. Alex Jones, a former Pentecostal preacher from Detroit who became a Roman Catholic a decade ago after studying the early church. Jones is now an ordained deacon in the Catholic church. After his conversion, 62 people...

Gov. Rick Perry, a no-apologies conservative known for slashing government spending and opposing all tax increases, is about as Republican as you can get. But that wasn’t always the case. Perry spent his first six years in politics as a Democrat, in a somewhat forgotten history that is sure to be revived and scrutinized by Republican opponents if he decides to run for president. A raging liberal he was not. Elected to represent a slice of rural West Texas in the state House of Representatives in 1984, Perry, a young rancher and cotton farmer, gained an early reputation as a...

More news from the USCCB confab in Washington state: As many as 100 U.S. Anglican priests and 2,000 laypeople could be the first members of a U.S. personal ordinariate for former Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington reported to his fellow bishops June 15. Cardinal Wuerl was appointed by the Vatican last September to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church in the United States under “Anglicanorum coetibus,” an apostolic constitution issued by Pope Benedict XVI in November 2009. At a news conference following his...

Omar Abu-Namous is the imam of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York and he is encouraging Huma Abedin – a practicing Muslim – to stand by her husband, New York congressman Anthony Weiner. Why would this imam support Anthony Weiner, who was raised Jewish, in a marriage with a practicing Muslim woman? Every Islamic scholar agrees that it is forbidden for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim. Former Muslim Walid Shoebat has translated the Arabic declarations relative to the validity of the marriage between Weiner and Abedin last year. One such publication Shoebat translated was the Al-Marsid newspaper,...

WebToday (June 8, 2011)-- The New York Times reports that Rep. Anthony Weiner's wife – Huma Abedin – is a “practicing Muslim” who was raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2007, the New York Observer wrote – article no longer available but cross-posted at Free Republic – that her mother is a professor in Saudi Arabia and that her father was an Islamic scholar before his death. Islamic law forbids any Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. Weiner was raised Jewish but admitted to growing up in a non-religious household. If Abedin remains a practicing Muslim and her religion...

David Maria Jaeger, a native of downtown Tel Aviv who converted to Catholicism, will become a prelate auditors of the Roman Rota, one of the chief papal law courts of the Catholic church.David Maria Jaeger, a Catholic priest who converted from Judaism, will be installed this morning as a prelate auditor of the Roman Rota, a papal law court that serves as the chief appellate court of the Catholic Church. Jaeger has come a long way from his youth in downtown Tel Aviv. He attended Bilu Elementary School, at that time a school for Tel Aviv's religious Zionist bourgeoisie, studied...

LIVE - Mondays 8 PM ET Encore – Tuesday 1 AM ET & 9 AM ET, Thursday 2 PM ET, Saturday 11 PM ET April 04 Michael Matthews - Former Baptist Minister Michael's conversion story - in pdf format

Jan 20, 2008 — For Americans fighting to outlaw abortion, Paul Schenck is a crusader battling for the unborn. To those who would like abortion to remain legal, he's a zealot who wants the government to force his views on others.Schenck himself says he's addressing the greatest moral issue of our time.Thirty-five years have passed since the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide Jan. 22, 1973, in Roe v. Wade.While abortion remains one of the country's most polarizing issues, the strategy of some activists, such as Schenck, has changed since the days of abortion-clinic sit-ins and blockades of the 1980s and...

The Battle of New Orleans had made Andrew Jackson a national hero overnight. But mere early accomplishments can never fill the void that exists in a lost man's soul. Besides, the humble general had more sense than the editors of Laissez Faire Books concerning the ultimate cause for his victory, acknowledging to a friend, "It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death." Andrew Jackson was better known for his attendance at duels than at...

MILLBRAE, Calif. (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated his resolve to prosecute hate crimes while standing behind the methods used in anti-terrorism cases during a speech Friday night before a Muslim advocacy group near San Francisco. For the rest: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101211/D9K1L4081.html

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.(2 Peter 3:9) Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden...(Matthew 11)We have been taking a look at the impact of John Lennon from a christian perspective. Though he was indeed a very gifted man, obviously he put those gifts to the service of the sexual revolution, as well as Atheism, the plague of the drug revolution, and the sixties rebellion against Judeo Christian standards and norms...

Recently UK Soccer Star Marlon King had joined the enemy, and converted to Islam. To make matters worse, Lauren Booth who is sister in law of Tony Blair, has also converted to Islam. Booth who recently had some kind of Islamic “awakening”, had converted after protesting against Israel with a million hatemongers in Iran.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The mood was light Tuesday evening – thanks to leg-swinging praise music – when Lausanne III participants wrestled with the difficult topics of reconciliation in the Middle East, HIV/AIDS, and human trafficking. Speakers gave hopeful messages of how God is moving and bringing hope despite addressing some of the darkest and seemingly most hopeless situations in the world today. The Middle East, which has become almost synonymous with violence and Islam, is experiencing an unprecedented level of Muslims becoming followers of Jesus Christ, said Sam Yeghnazar, founder of Iran-focused Elam Ministries. There were only about...

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON — A US man has been charged after he compiled a hit list of 15 people he believed had harmed Muslim civilians and deserved to die, court documents showed Wednesday. Paul Rockwood and his wife Nadia were charged with lying to federal investigators about the compilation and content of the list, which Nadia Rockwood delivered to an unnamed individual in April at her husband's request." SNIPPET: "According to plea agreement documents obtained by AFP Wednesday, Paul Rockwood converted to Islam around late 2001 and soon "became a strict adherent to the violent jihad-promoting ideology of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki."...

Catholics aren't the only ones seeing the youth desert them. But Catholics are the only ones who can reverse the process.

Is there a growing trend of Evangelicals converting to Catholicism?  Many think so, including this recent article: [There is a large] community of young believers whose frustration with the lack of authority, structure, and intellectualism in many evangelical churches is leading them in great numbers to the Roman Catholic Church. This trend of “Crossing the Tiber� (a phrase that also served as the title of Stephen K. Ray’s 1997 book on the phenomenon), has been growing steadily for decades, but with the help of a solid foundation of literature, exemplar converts from previous generations, burgeoning traditional and new media...

Pressures appear to be growing from the U.S.-backed government in Kabul against any manifestation of Christianity in Afghanistan by Afghan citizens or by citizens of other nations who are working in the troubled central Asian nation, according to World Magazine's Mindy Belz. Afghan Christians make up a tiny minority of the officially Muslim nation's population. The Afghanistan constitution adopted in 2004 with substantial U.S. input and backing affirms the right of all persons to practice their religious faiths. But the latter is qualified by saying such practices must be conducted within the provisions of Afghan law, which effectively means Sharia,...

Paul Schenck and his family say grace before dinner at their Manchester Township home in 2007. Schenck will become the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Saturday. A former Anglican pastor will become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg's first married priest when he's ordained Saturday in Springettsbury Township. Paul Schenck, 51, of Manchester Township will be ordained by Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine (Fla.) during a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Galeone, a longtime friend of Schenck's, will perform the rite because the Diocese of Harrisburg has...

Hadley Arkes WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic Church’s voice for the littlest among us got even stronger last month.  Hadley Arkes, professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College, and one of the foremost Pro-Life legal scholars in the country, received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and first Communion at the chapel of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. on April 24.  Born and raised a Jew, Arkes said he views his newly-embraced Catholic faith as a fulfillment of his Jewish faith. Rather than a departure, he sees it as accepting Christ as Messiah. More than a...

SEARCY -- Melissa Reeves has been looking for a church where she knew they were there to worship Jesus and would accept her without judging. She found it at St. James Church in Searcy. Unlike most elect and candidates going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process, Reeves chose the Catholic faith on her own, without the encouragement of a Catholic parishioner. "It builds your faith to see their faith grow," said Janet Pace, St. James RCIA coordinator. "A lot of people come to the Church because of a spouse or friend that has inspired them." Reeves is...

Eric Breininger, one of Germany's most wanted suspected terrorists, has been killed in a battle with Pakistani troops in the Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan, according to an unconfirmed statement by a jihadist group. Breininger had appeared in several Internet videos trying to recruit terrorists in Germany. Eric Breininger, a German-born convert to Islam wanted by German police on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist cell, was killed on April 30 in a firefight with Pakistani troops, according to an unconfirmed claim by a Jihadi group on Sunday. Breininger, 22, was a member of the Islamic Jihad Union and had...

New extremists are being created in our prisons, the very institution meant to deter crime. Two stories recently broke about people who converted to Islam in prison that acted in violent compliance with their new ideology. The media, for the most part, dropped the stories, leaving the American people unaware of the growing trend. The October arrest of a man in Ohio named Abdullah Mohammed Muslim, formerly known as Johnnie Clagg, has now come to light. He was pulled over and arrested by a police officer for identity theft in order to get a passport so he could leave the...

Neighbors are in shock after a shooting rampage in Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood left a woman and three children dead overnight. Two others were hospitalized. Chicago Police picked up the suspect on foot without incident a few miles away at 59th Street and Racine Avenue. A weapon was recovered from a car nearby. Family members said the suspect was visiting from Madison, Wis. The big question is what made him open fire on his whole family. "He just went crazy. He shot everybody in the house," said Ella Smith, an aunt of one of the victims. She says while her...

Protestant Organist Finds Musical Home in the Catholic Church April 6th, 2010 by Patricia Coll Freeman On the third Sunday in Lent, high in the choir loft of Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, a born and bred West Virginian Baptist directed a group of Catholic singers and worshipers through the prayerful notes of the Latin Agnus Dei.But at Pentecost, Gary Marks, the cathedral’s new music director and Baptist-turned-Episcopalian with a Methodist divinity degree, comes home to the Catholic Church guided by the Holy Spirit along the mellifluous thread of sacred music.God’s Musical Direction“The church and music have always been tied together for...

ROME – On Good Friday, two days before Easter, a prayer titled “Let us Pray for the Conversion of the Jews” was recited in Latin by traditionalist Catholic congregations in Italy, plus 16 sections of the Society of Saint Pius. The ultra-conservative society, whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI last year, has yet to be fully reintegrated into the Catholic Church, because of its refusal to accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In 2007, in an effort to bring the traditionalist elements of the Church back into the fold, Benedict issued a “Motu Proprio” declaration allowing...

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- This Easter, thousands are planning to become Catholic, including a man who almost lost his life five times. The U.S. bishops' conference shared the story of Jeremy Feldbusch, 30, from Blairsville, Pennsylvania, who is among the thousands preparing to enter the Church Saturday evening. Feldbusch was in the armed services in Iraq, and on April 3, 2003, he was wounded with shrapnel from the conflict, which resulted in blindness in both eyes and traumatic brain injury. He was expected to die shortly after, or if he lived, to sustain extensive brain damage. Doctors put...

Mezhgan Hussainy's family wants music mogul Simon Cowell to convert to Islam before he marries her, says a report. The 'American Idol' judge had proposed to Hussainy last week. 'They're very westernised, but no one in their family has ever married a non-Muslim - and they're not willing for their youngest daughter to become the first,' digitalspy.co.uk quoted a source as saying about Hussainy's parents Mary and Sayed. Hussainy's sister-in-law Erlene Garcia was also asked to convert before marrying her brother Wahid. According to Hussainy's friend, 'Mezhgan is very reluctant about asking Simon to convert...and she knows how controversial it...

For many years I was a zealous Muslim, as were my wife and children. I was born in the UK, but during my life I have travelled a lot in Muslim countries. I knew both British and Muslim culture. I lived in Saudi Arabia, where I studied theology and contributed to the Muslim mission among foreign laborers. I also spent time in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, in Pakistan, and in the Pakistani part of Kashmir. I also spent time in Bosnia. In recent years, I’ve been living with my family in London, where, some time ago, I...

NO PRICE TOO HIGH  (1 hr) The profound conversion story of a Protestant minister who brought his congregation with him into the Catholic Church. The viewer will discover the sacrificial yet triumphant journey of a man of deep integrity and love for Christ.Wed 3/3/10 10:00 PM ET / 7 PM PT Sat 3/6/10 5:00 AM ET / 2 AM PT Pastor and Flock Convert to CatholicismJUDY ROBERTSWhen Pentecostal minister Alex Jones came into the Church this past Easter he was not alone. He brought much of his congregation in with him. When Pentecostal minister Alex Jones came into the Church...

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned. Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures. The exclusive story will appear in this Friday's Haaretz Magazine, and Yousef's memoir, "Son...

Newt Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism last year, plans to share his conversion story with business executives at a Catholic conference in California this weekend. The former Speaker of the House has participated in various Catholic forums recently, fueling speculation that began with his conversion in March that he intended to develop a base of support within the Catholic Church for a run for president in 2012. The conference, in Dana Point, Cal., is being held by Legatus, a group of Catholic business executives. The group is honoring former President George W. Bush, who is to receive the group’s Cardinal...

After reading some more Koran tonight, I had an epiphany. I realized that some of the worst parts of the Koran were similar to worst parts of the Christian Bible. I now believe many parts of both were misinterpreted. While I realize that Islam has been violent throughout its history, so has Judeism and Christianity (think Crusades). I'm not sure I believe in the 72 virgin promise, but I am starting to get Mohammed's believe in a better after-life. I need to read more. That said, our world has gone to shit. There can be a better place for those...

January 28, 2010 (InsideCatholic.com) - Of all the things I remember about the Texas March for Life in Austin last January, the memory that stands out the most is the look on the faces of the counter-protesters who followed us along Congress Avenue and down to the capitol that frosty morning. When I glanced over to see the source of the epithets that were being screamed at us, I met the eyes of one young woman wearing a black bandana over the bottom half of her face. She happened to look over and meet my gaze, and in her...

Former Protestant Pastor Helps Shepherd Catholic Converts Marcus Grodi's Coming Home Network Focuses on Inquiring Clergy ZANESVILLE, Ohio, OCT. 8, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Every year, about 100 clergy from dozens of denominations make a step toward the Catholic Church by contacting the Coming Home Network International. The network, which has 800-some clergy members who have converted or are still discerning their conversion, connects those inquirers with others from the same background who have converted to Catholicism, and provides them with prayerful, moral and sometimes financial support. Marcus Grodi, who was a Congregationalist and Presbyterian pastor before coming into the Catholic Church...

Brit HumeBrit Hume stated: “If Tiger WoodsTiger Woods made a true conversion we would know it. It would show through in his being and he would know it above all. And he would feel the extraordinary blessing that that would be. . .It would be a shining light. It would be a magnificent thing to Woods.”

28-year-old Christian man's funeral took a surprising twist at the Helsinki Malmi cemetery when the deceased's Muslim relatives arrived at the grave and took the lead in the funeral. - Upon reaching the gravesite all of a sudden Muslim men jumped out from the thicket and replaced the Finnish pallbearers and the Imam began to lead the service, "the pastor, Jukka Simoila said. The 28-year-old deceased became a Christian in December 2008 and got married last summer in a Christian ceremony. His father was a Muslim. The deceased died of serious illness in September and had hoped for a Christian...

1st Lt. Marjana Mair is confirmed as a Catholic at Tigris River Chapel in a ceremony presided over by Chaplain Maj. Tyson Wood. You could call it something of a religious trifecta for Marjana Mair. The soldier from Albany was among seven service members with the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade who just six days before Christmas were confirmed as Catholics while serving in Iraq. 1st Lt. Mair was also baptized and received her first communion.She was a Muslim for many years but wanted to become Catholic after studying the faith."I grew up (Muslim) for 18 years, but when I...

SNIPPET: "It may have been one of the coldest days this season, but that did not deter angry protesters from gathering at the residence of Youssef Al-Khattab, a Jewish convert to Islam who has been tagged as an Al-Qaida sympathizer." SNIPPET: "Sunday’s protest came after Al-Khattab posted comments on his website, revolutionmuslim.com, supporting the Fort Hood attacks and other violent acts of radical Muslims. He also has made several anti-Semitic comments on his site, including saying he wants liquid drain cleaner to be thrown in Jews’ faces, and calling for the outdoor huts some build during the holiday of Sukkot...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio judge has ruled that a runaway Christian convert is not required to meet with her Muslim parents as part of a possible reconciliation plan. Magistrate Mary Goodrich of Franklin County Juvenile Court on Tuesday denied the request of Mohamed and Aysha Bary to undergo mediation with 17-year-old Rifqa. A case-management plan filed last month says the girl and her parents must listen to each other's views about religion if they are to reunite.

Father John Lipscomb was the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida. He converted to Catholicism in 2007, a few months after his retirement, and was ordained a priest this week. LUTZ — John Lipscomb, the married, 59-year-old former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, was ordained a Catholic priest Wednesday.The morning after, he expressed joy and a sense of relief. He’s at peace, spiritually. He’s just a priest now. He’s not the boss.“The part of the job that never fit was sitting in judgment of other people’s lives,� he said. “I’m at a point in my...

The 15-year-old daughter of well-known Egyptian convert Maher el-Gohary has written a letter appealing to President Obama to help her father who is in danger of being murdered or imprisoned for becoming a Christian. Dina el-Gohary, who also converted from Islam to Christianity, has been on the run and living in hiding with her father, who is the second Egyptian to legally request to change his religious status. In her handwritten letter in Arabic, posted on Coptic Web sites, she writes: “Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim...

Cairo (AINA) -- 15-year-old Egyptian girl Dina el-Gowhary, who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation. "Mr President Obama," she writes, "we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Rifqa Bary’s custody battle is now in the hands of the Columbus, Ohio, court system. She will make her first court appearance there next month. The 17-year-old ran away from home after her Muslim parents discovered she had become a Christian. Her story has gained international attention, and on Monday, supporters filled the Columbus court house square to make sure it is not forgotten. More than 100 people filled the square outside the Columbus Juvenile Court to show support for Rifqa Bary, whom most have never met. Nonie Darwish traveled from Los Angeles. What will be Bary’s...