Transcript of Rifqa Bary Testimony 09-24-09

The following is a transcription of the phone call recorded by Right Wing Watch and put on YouTube. It's apparently a telephone prayer meeting that occurred on Thursday, Sept. 24. It's led by Lou Engle and features Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old girl who ran away from her home in Ohio, claiming that her Muslim parents were going to kill her. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Lou Engle heads up a radical Christian (Christianist?) organization named TheCall and is currently joined at the hip with the International House of Prayer movement based out of Kansas City, Missouri. Engle was also a bit player in the documentary Jesus Camp.

[Capitals used for references to deity throughout the transcript Reason: This is how Rifqa thinks of God. Dotted numbers are times within the 9 minute, 3 second video.]

Unknown male: Our little sister is on the line.

Rifqa Bary: Hey, hello?

Lou Engle: OK, we are back on schedule. Everybody on this line, we have a special privilege. You may know the story of this 17 year old girl that has fled under the threat of death, because she’s converted to Jesus. A very precious young lady, named Rifqa Bary. Rifqa is with us tonight, to tell her story and then we’re going to pray for her and this case, court case that’s going on.

RB: Hello, thank you so much. What an honor and privilege. My testimony goes back….I grew up, my family is from Sri Lanka, so my parents were very devout in their faith and very intent on following the original Islam. Uhm, uh, I never really knew I could pray. Prayer in Islam is you physically pray. And I had heard 0.59 somewhere that I could pray, like talk in English. And I cried out to God one night, uhm, I didn’t know who this God was, a lot of things happened at the moment but I asked God this one prayer, I said, “God, if You’re real, show me Who You are and I will follow, I will give my life to You. Stop hiding from me, reveal to me Who You are.” And a couple months later, He, uhm, opened a door for me to go to church without my parents knowing. This was the first time I, I would go to church and I went and I encountered the presence of the Lord and I was struck by His beauty and gave my heart to God. That was when I was 13. At this point, I knew what the consequences were, which was death, uh, my family and I knew it. Of course, I wouldn’t tell anyone, because who would believe me? This is the U.S. I hid my Bible in my house. I would wake up in the middle of the night and cry out to God in the bathroom 1.56 and that’s how God sustained me. I would cry out in there and I would be OK [because He would be enough(?)]. I would pray on a balcony when my parents were asleep. And, uhhh, that’s for four years I hid as a secret Christian and the Lord is simply good in sustaining me and setting my heart ablaze for His Kingdom, every step of the way.

RB: The Islamic community there is very strong and that’s how my parents…I had a Facebook and the community, the mosque had found out that my name was related to Jesus and it had things about God in there, Jesus, and was screaming about Jesus and talked about Jesus and phone calls and e-mails started pouring in and threats were made by my father. That was when I had to make the decision to either leave or denounce my faith. And uh, so I wrote my parents a letter that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and that I refused to deny Him, that I’d pray that they would find His mercy and forgiveness and that I loved them very much. 3.09

RB: I put on a backpack and no clothes. The Lord told me to leave everything behind. So, uhm, I ran for my life and God brought me here to Florida. And now, uh, my dad and the Islamic community want me back home so there’s a whole court proceeding going on in trying to get me back to Ohio. Uhm, so, yeah, that’s my story and but, I’ll go wherever the Lord leads me. Thank you so much for all the prayers of the saints. Like, I’m not supposed to be here (laughs). The Lord is simply good. Uhm, yeah, that’s my…3.49

LE: Rifqa, we are so thrilled that you could join us and there are thousands that are on this phone call. Now, they’re going to want to pray with you and for you. But before we pray for you, you said to me, “This is not about me.”

(RB: Yes, yes)

LE: It’s about millions of Muslims hearing about Jesus. I believe you’re an Esther for such a time as this. I wonder if you would simply lead us in prayer

(RB: Yeah)

LE: that Muslims would hear your testimony and the testimony of Jesus and come to know Je[sus]. Would you lead us in prayer? We’ll join you. 4.20

RB: Certainly. Yeah. Father God, we just thank You, Jesus. We thank You, God. I cry out, God, on behalf of my people, Jesus. I plead Your blood over them, God and I ask [unintelligible] God, would you expose the lies, expose the lies, Father [unintelligible] allowed tonight 4.43 [unintelligible] make us ready to gather tomorrow to pray for Jumuah, Father. I pray that You would encounter them with dreams and visions [unintelligible] where You would break through and break the bonds of generational curses that stand, that the blood of Jesus speak Lord. 5.02 Father, we declare that You are Lord, Jesus, that You are Lord. Father that you send forth fire from heaven, God, on [unintelligible] and break the hardened hearts, Jesus, because I stand [unintelligible] Jesus, I cry out on behalf of my people 5.25, o God that a testimony would arise even tomorrow as we gather for this Father God [unintelligible] plan [unintelligible] Jesus, go forth Father God 5.38, for Your glory, Jesus, for Your glory, God. [stops abruptly at 5.42] [sniff] Jesus.

LE: 5.51 Come Holy Spirit

RB: [low cry]

LE: We agree [pause] with our little sister’s prayer [background: yes Lord]. We stand with her now, in Jesus’ Name. [more background noise] Ohhhh, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, use Rifqa to be an Esther for His [unintelligible] right now, God, for such a time as this. 6.16

Unknown female: Father, we pray, God, for Rifqa, we thank you that you’ve raised the voice in this hour, God, that you’ve [unintelligible] an Esther in this hour, God, to stand [unintelligible] that Muslims would be saved, God. We cry 6.39 [unintelligible] great awakening 6.45 in the Muslim community. Let your voice begin to thunder and make it to shatter [unintelligible] so the Islamics (?) will be saved. Your name, o God, is above every other name and we lift your name, God, and we say, Come, receive your inheritance today, in Jesus’ name. 7.04

Second female: And, Father, we pray for Rifqa as an Esther, Father [LE: Yes, God, yes, Lord]. And even as Esther had seasoned as Hadassah, Father, this one that prayed in her closet, Father I ask that you’ll turn her from a season of hiddenness to a season of unveiling. Father, I ask that you’ll open doors for her that no man can shut and that you’ll shut doors that no man can open. Father, I ask for media attention on this little Rifqa girl 7.30 that the testimony of Jesus will go out to CNN, will go out to talk shows (LE: Yeeess), that you’ll use this little story all across America, that the Gospel will be preached [unintelligible]. 7.45

LE: Father, we pray that you would expose the hidden darkness that is rolling into the nation through these ideologies. Use her as an Esther, God. Lord, when her whole life is at stake, really, we pray for your protection, Lord. Esther said, pray and fast for me and my maidens will fast. Father, we pray and fast for our little sister tomorrow. We pray, ohhh, that You would protect her, God, would You cover her, would you grant her an open door to speak and preach Your Gospel. 8.15 We pray, God, that You would, God, give her favor with the courts in America, we need to right now, we need to pray for these courts [glossolalia heard in background], we need to pray for the judges, even, even, even now the very family that took her in is being investigated for criminal activity because they simply harbored her because her life was threatened and the emphasis is more on the family than on the threat of death against her. Something’s wrong. We must break through. Would you lift your voices? We’re going to unmute for a moment and we’re gonna pray for protection, pray for the Lorenz family to get a testimony of Jesus, to [unintelligible for the last 10 seconds of recording].

There's just so much I could say in response to this, but I'm actually kind of speechless. However, I will note Rifqa's got the rhetoric common in this particular movement down cold. "Generational curses"? I'm hard-pressed to detect in what I heard any trace of the Muslim that might have been.

Fathima Rifqa Bary

I've been meaning to write about the Fathima Rifqa Bary case for the past month, but the case brings up a lot of emotions in me. That's because I did pretty much the same thing to my parents back in 1977. Thing is, I didn't run away to another state, I became a member of an obscure, very strict, Pentecostal sect. I also became a right royal pain in the ass to my family.

So I think I have a bit of insight into why Miss Bary did what she did, and I REALLY think that's the case after reading this article from today's Orlando Sentinel. Her parents found a flash drive with her writings and the writings of others on it and turned it over to the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Columbus, which provided it to the paper. Here are some excerpts:

A Muslim girl who gave her heart to Jesus and then ran away to Christian evangelists in Orlando is not just any Christian. She is driven to save souls and prays that God will make her a prophet.

That's according to writings she left behind when she fled.

"Lord is preparing me and He has me hidden ... until the time is right," Fathima Rifqa Bary wrote in a computer entry obtained by theOrlando Sentinel. "I am called to the nations. Send me to the deepest darkest places into the pagan land."

[. . .]

The writings reveal a young woman who has embraced fundamentalist Christianity, who has stood outside an abortion clinic, duct tape across her mouth, alongside other protesters, and who has dreamed about Armageddon.

She must convert her family to Christianity, she wrote, including her older brother, Rilvan, 18, who worships "demonic music." She must approach strangers and talk about Jesus. She saved a list of tips on how to do that:

"Do NOT be sneaky," she wrote. "Sit down ... get to know them ... [Ask] would you mind for 5min if I share the gospel with you."

She compared herself to the Old Testament heroine Esther and wrote out or saved religious pep talks.

"What does it take to be a prophet?" she wrote. "If I am a friend of God I can be prophetic. ... You have to want it. Everyday pray for prophesy."

Wow. I know of only one group whose members make a practice of standing outside of abortion clinics with duct tape across their mouths, and that would be Lou Engle's TheCall, which is currently joined at the hip with the International House of Prayer located in Kansas City, Missouri. What's ironic to me is that the Islamophobes are talking about how radical Miss Bary's father is, how radical her mosque is, etc., etc., etc. (None of this is proven, by the way.) But they fail to look at the people she's hanging out with and seeing how they're involved in movements that are even more inimical to American democracy than the alleged Moooooooslim threat, because these people are insinuated right in our society.

And if you think that I'm crazy, let's look a bit at the writings of her mentor, the guy who baptized her into Christianity, Brian Michael Williams, aged 23:

Williams prays with people by "laying my hands on the [computer] monitor and prophesying," Williams wrote. He calls Planned Parenthood's founder a racist Nazi, does not believe in evolution, speaks in tongues and criticizes mainstream Christians as following a "demonic doctrine" for being spiritually lethargic and failing to evangelize.

Williams baptized Rifqa in a creek near her home in June, he said, and helped her run away — unwittingly, he insists — by driving her to the Greyhound bus station in downtown Columbus.

To Rifqa's father, Williams is a Christian extremist who turned Rifqa against her family and put lies in her head.

Like I said, I really think I have a fair amount of insight into what's motivating Miss Bary, because I believed similar kinds of things back in 1977 (not the Planned Parenthood are a bunch of eugenicist Nazis, but similar). I remember having a prophetic dream when I was in this church, believing I'd been left behind at the Rapture and begging God when I awoke to "please take me." (I also worried that the Rapture would come and I would have never experienced "adult" things like marriage and a family. Thirty-two years have passed and I'm still not married and my family consists of two furballs. Oh yeah, and no Rapture.)

[Question: Why isn't Brian Michael Williams in jail for aiding and abetting a runaway, along with Blake Lorenz? Oh. It's because he's a member of the dominant religion, and there's nothing to keep them from doing what they're doing, short of actually killing someone.]

I have more to say about this, but I have to go to work to keep a roof over the heads of the aforementioned furballs that let me be their personal valet. Laters.

Church fail, crash & burn

No matter what you think about abortion, which is a hugely touchy subject in the USA, some things are beyond the pale. Like this:

(The Wichita Eagle/Orlin Wagner, photographer)

(Spirit One Christian Center is located in Wichita and the pastor, Mike Holick, has been active in pro-life circles there.)

So I wrote a letter to Spirit One Christian Church.

To whom it may concern:

I saw the sign (and, in my Googling, other signs used in the past) that you all put up in the wake of George Tiller's murder. And I have to ask, why are you ignoring the plain words of Jesus?

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." - Matthew 5:44-45

Or, in light of your pastor's reported remarks about "why was George Tiller allowed in a church?" we have these words of Jesus:

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. -- Mark 2:16-17

What I'm trying to get across to you is independent of my views on abortion. What I'm trying to say here is that you all and your allegedly pro-life fellow travelers is that you're not following the words of your Savior. Instead, you're acting out of your very human and very vindictive natures. You love that vengeance has been visited upon George Tiller, forgetting the following:

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. -- Romans 12:19

Your triumphalist attitude betrays you; from my perspective it doesn't appear you all are much into following Jesus. I guess I can mark you all Exhibit #1,319,407 as to why left the church.

Regards, blah blah blah (but I really did send off the e-mail)

My mom wonders why I stopped going to church. Do I really need to explain it further? If you're going to follow Jesus, then follow Jesus. But don't be celebratory about your enemies being murdered and then claim you follow Jesus. It just doesn't work.

[Edited to include Mark 2:16, which gives a bit more context. It was not included in the original e-mail.]