Another Special Life in Christ

These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model!
These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

Leonard Pitts, Jr:

I've enjoyed his "op ed" newspaper pieces for at least 5 years, and I suspected that he was a believer. He writes out of the Miami Herald. And he said this in a Sept. 5th, 2003 column:

"Paul Hill died happily Wednesday night.

"He went into the afterlife with taxpayer-supplied poisons leaking into his veins. In the hours before his execution, he told reporters he expected to receive a grand reward upon arrival in Heaven because he had done what God told him to.

"I am a religious man, and it is pretty common in my circle for people to report conversations with the Almighty. One friend says God told him to organize a crusade to stop people in his city from killing each other. Another says God steered her away from making $8,000 a week as a television writer and told her to study for the ministry instead. My mother used to tell us how God consoled her when doctors said my sister, a tiny infant, prematurely born, was probably going to die. Mom said she stopped weeping immediately. My sister will be 39 this year.

"So I'm used to God talking to people. Still, I am, shall we say, perturbed by the idea that He told someone to procure a 12-gauge pump action shotgun and commit double homicide.

"But that's how Hill -- a former minister turned anti-abortion extremist -- always justified his actions in July of '94. He said he killed an abortion provider, Dr. John Britton, and his bodyguard, James Barrett, outside a Pensacola clinic because the Lord wanted him to. The Lord ordered him to whack a guy.

"Sounds more like the Godfather than God.

"I'll tell you something else that strikes me as strange. Every person I've ever known who says God told them to do something has struggled with it, usually because what God wanted was not what they did.

"The guy who leads the anti-violence campaign dithered about it for years, concerned about how much of his life it would consume. The woman who turned her back on TV riches revisited that decision when overdue notices began piling up in the mailbox.

"Small wonder. You feel that nudge at the rim of consciousness compelling you to take a leap, pushing you toward something you could never have conceived on your own, and it's only natural to feel stirrings of doubt. To say, Hey, God, is that really you? Are you sure about this? 'Cause it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

"Hill, however, seems to have been a stranger to doubt. The idea of committing the murder first came to him shortly before he actually did it, he told a reporter once, ``and as each day passed, I became more certain.''

"Indeed. Certain enough that he shot two men to death to express his reverence for life.

"Now Hill is gone to what he was sure would be a great reward. And one wonders if it ever occurred to him -- if it occurs even now to those who seek to wrap his corpse in a martyrdom flag -- that his reasoning is identical to that of a Palestinian suicide bomber, those pious lunatics who commit murder in the assurance that they will be awarded virgins in Heaven.

"As if God were not just a hit man, but also a pimp....etc."

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And here is another piece that I liked a lot, September 2006: Following an appeal last week by a Muslim fanatic for Americans to convert to Islam, Pitts wrote:

"Join your cause? Thanks, but no thanks"

"An open letter to Azzam:

"I must admit I'm intrigued; no one's ever invited me to become a fanatic before.

Of course, it wasn't just me, but all 299 million Americans you were addressing in the video posted last week on a militant Islamic website. You were featured with al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri. ''Azzam the American,'' read the caption.

"Al Qaeda apparently gave you that nickname, but according to the FBI -- which would really like to chat with you -- your real name is Adam Yahiye Gadahn. You're 28, a Californian who has trained at al Qaeda camps in Pakistan. The group is believed to regard you as someone who can speak to Americans in their own idiom.

"You lived up to that billing in the video, advising that any unbeliever who dies in battle with Muslims is bound for hell ''without passing Go.'' Bet it took you awhile to explain that reference to your al Qaeda pals. Most, I suspect, haven't played much Monopoly.

"The gist of the video is that, instead of following the ''incoherent and illogical beliefs'' of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and atheism, non-Muslim Americans need to join your faith while they still can. ''Instead of killing yourself for Bush,'' you say, ``why not surrender to the truth (i.e., Islam), escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. Time is running out, so make the right choice before it's too late.''

"At one point, you address American soldiers directly, telling them they are only cannon fodder for a president who ``couldn't care less about your safety and well-being.''

"Credit where it's due: You somehow refrain from threatening to bring down a jetliner if Americans don't convert to your model of Islam. But then, you don't have to threaten, do you? You're al Qaeda, after all.

"I've got to say, your pitch could stand some work. You should know your fellow Americans well enough to know how unlikely it is we would be coerced at gunpoint into choosing your religion. Especially the perversion of it you represent.

"It's always been my experience that the best advertisement for a faith is not proselytizing and certainly not threats. It is, rather, the adherents of that faith observing its rituals, finding comfort in its Word, struggling with its commandments, living settled and centered in its promises. To see some Jew at peace in the face of reversal, some Muslim content in the presence of want, some Christian singing praises in the valley of the shadow, this is what sells a faith. This is what makes a nonbeliever, looking on, say, I've got to get me some of that.

"You and your kind don't have that sort of allure, Azzam, being, well, you know . . . evil fanatics and all. Frankly, it's hard to see any upside in pledging allegiance to your version of Islam. It's not like doing so would make anyone safer. Indeed, I find it interesting that you condemn President Bush for not caring about American soldiers.

"Do you know how many Muslims were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks? Me neither. As far as I know, there's been no official count, though former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a speech, once put the toll at 500.

"That's as good a figure as any, I suppose. Five hundred Muslims killed. By a group that purports to fight the oppression of Muslims. You want to talk ''incoherent and illogical beliefs''? Start there.

"Azzam, Lord knows the ''War on Terror'' has been ineptly and inefficiently prosecuted. But that's OK. Presidents come and go. The national will, especially on a matter such as this, endure.

"Because I know that, I can make you this promise: We will live to see you die. So thanks for the offer to join up. In response, I'd like to say, please stick your offer where the sun don't shine.

"There's another Americanism you can explain to your friends."

***give me your comments about this page***

(posted 17 September 2003; latest addition 10 September 2006)

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