SIGN OF THE NAZARENE

SOLIDARITY

This symbol has gone from a mark of destruction for Christians living in Mosul in southern Iraq to a badge of solidarity by Christians elsewhere highlighting the persecution and killings by the Islamic State Army.

The sign is in fact the 14 th. Letter of the Arabic alphabet equivalent to our letter N, the first letter of NASARA or Nazarene the term by which Christians are called by Muslims. The IS Army scrawled this letter on dwellings occupied by Christians and then threatened the inhabitants to convert to Islam or be killed! 

 

The term intended as a mark of shame by IS but has been taken up by Believers all around the world who are standing up in solidarity with their persecuted brothers and sisters.

Gerard O'Shea

BONO'S ODE FOR BILLY

'VOICE OF THE PREACHER'

Billy Graham has had many  high-profile friends over the years, and among them is U2 frontman and international rockstar Bono.

Bono is open about his Christian faith, frequently speaking on the importance of God in his life and incorporating spiritually-theme lyrics into his songs. And based on a poem  the soinger wrote to Billy Grahamback in 2002, it seems the American evangelical leader has played a important role in Bono's life

The hand-written poem, which is on display at the Billy Graham Library in North Carolina, refers to "the voice of a preacher/loudly soft on my tears" which was the "lyric voice that gave my life/A Rhyme/a meaning that wasn’t there before."

Bono composed the poem in 2002 after visiting Billy and Ruth Graham at their home in western North Carolina. Several years later he  teamed up with pop singer Pat Boone and other musicians to record "Thank You Billy Graham" as a tribute to the preacher.

I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham," Bono says in the tribute's intro. "That clear, empathetic voice of his, in that southern accent, part poet, part preacher. A singer of the human spirit, I'd say." 

 

 

Sojourners writer Cathleen Falsani   spooke with Bono in 2015 on his friendship with Billy Graham and the surprise phone call the musician received in 2002 from the preacher's office. Graham, as it turned out, wished to give Bono and his teammates a blessing.

“I told [my bandmates], I said, ‘This is a big deal. This is BILLY GRAHAM!’ And they all said, ‘That’s great. But we’re in the middle of a tour.’ So I rented a plane and flew there right away in case he might forget. I was picked up by his son, Franklin, and driven a couple of hours up to their house. I met briefly with himself and his wife, Ruth. I think I’ve mentioned to you before that the blessings of an older man mean a great deal to me. Particularly this man. I gave him a book of Seamus Heaney poetry, and I wrote a poem for him in it."

Transcript of Bono’s poem to the Grahams:

The journey from Father to friend
  is all paternal loves end
  It was sung in my teenage ears
  In the voice of a preacher
  loudly soft on my tears
  I would never forget this
Melody line
  Or its lyric voice that gave my life
  A Rhyme
a meaning that wasn’t there before
  a child born in dung and straw
  wish the Father’s love and desire to explain
how we might get on with each other again…

To the Rev Billy Graham (that preacher) Ruth and all the Graham family From Bono (March 11 2002) With much love and respect.

FAME AND INFAMY

  PORN STAR QUITS FOR CHRIST

LOS ANGELES, July 26, 2013  – Brittni started shooting porn practically as soon as she was legal, at the age of 18. One day, while working as a dancer at a local strip club in Santa Barbara, where she was attending college, she was approached by two men who asked her if she wanted to act in “romance movies.”

Brittni wasn’t under any illusions about what she was being asked to do. She had begun stripping while she was still underage, and to her, porn was an easy and logical next step. She agreed to go with the two men to L.A. to film a porn scene the following day.

“I felt so loved that day,” she recalls in “I was putting on hair and makeup. I was told that I was beautiful, I was going to be a star. They sent my pictures to an adult agency that I was with for about two years. The rest is pretty much history.”

In a post-internet world where porn had become mainstream, and porn stars were becoming as celebrated as Hollywood actors, Brittni saw porn as her ticket to fame and fortune.

Her career took off. In 2006, she came in second place on Jenna’s American Sex Star, a reality TV show hosted by porn legend Jenna Jameson. In 2010, Maxim magazine named her one of the top 12 hottest porn stars in the world.

Over the space of her seven-year career, Brittni acted in what she says was literally “hundreds” of porn scenes, and was nominated for numerous industry awards.

But all was not as it seemed. Underneath the confident, devil-may-care exterior of the hardened porn star was a tormented soul searching for peace. 

It wasn’t long before porn took its toll. “Not only does [porn] leave you feeling drained, but I had to start finding ways to be able to do the scenes, because I was so robotic,” she says. “I was like a rubber Barbie doll. I had no emotions. I was plastic.” 

Like many in the industry, Brittni turned to alcohol and drugs - first cocaine, and then heroin - “to numb my pain, to get me through.” This in turn led to other destructive behaviors, like “cutting” and several failed suicide attempts. 

At one point, after reaching rock bottom, she took a year off from shooting porn. During that space of time she underwent a tentative conversion to Christianity under the influence of her grandparents, and cleaned up with the help of addiction recovery groups. 

But Brittni wasn’t prepared to give up her work as a porn star, and instead attempted to forge a strange truce between her new Christian faith and her day job: preaching Christianity during appearances on the raunchy Howard Stern Show or to fellow actors in porn films that she herself was starring in, while volunteering at worthy causes in her spare time. To those who criticized the contradiction in her life, she would point to Jesus' treatment of Mary Magdelene and the Bible’s strictures against judging. 

Eventually, however, something had to give. 

A crucial turning point came when she encountered missionaries with XXXChurch, a radically unconventional Christian group that, as part of its ministry, sends its staff to porn conventions. There they set up booths where they hand out Bibles emblazoned with the slogan, “Jesus loves porn stars” and offer to do makeup and hair for the actors and actresses while talking to them about Christianity. 

Finally, last November, Brittni gathered the courage to leave the industry once and for all. She shot her last porn scene, and has since found a job with a limousine company. She hasn't looked back.

In a letter to XXXChurch since leaving, Brittni thanks Rachel Collins, a XXXChurch staffer who she came to know and admire during her time in the industry. “I don’t know if she realizes how she impacted me or not,” says Brittni. “But her being so kind and nonjudgmental always felt so good.

“I never felt love in my life and was looking for it in all the wrong places,” she says. “It felt great to speak to a woman as beautiful as Rachel who would tell me that I was her favorite, and to just have a regular non-porn girl talk. Please tell her that I thank her from the bottom of my heart.” 

When asked what she would say to other girls who are tempted by the allurement of the porn industry, Brittni minces no words. She recalls feeling “empty” and “hopeless” and living in a “hole of self-pity” where she couldn’t care if she lived or died: “The feeling that nobody loves me except for these fans, who I’m actually kind of really disgusted by, because they see me in my most personal moments.” 

“I believe as women we are worth it, we are worth love,” she says. “And we are worth real love, and they’re not going to get that from the industry."  

“It’s not worth it,” she adds. “I would give it all back.” 

In the testimonial video produced by XXXChurch, Brittni says that it has been a “long seven-year journey of porn, prostitution, stripping, drugs, alcohol, and several failed suicide attempts.” 

“But,” she says with a smile on her face, “I made it.” 

LIVING WITH CANCER

DONAL WALSH is 16 and at 12 was diagnosed 
with a tumour on his leg. As part of a longer
interview in which he talks of facing up to terminal,
here he speaks of the part his faith in God has played. 

 

 CLIMBING GOD’S MOUNTAINS

I live in a part of the world that is surrounded by mountains. I can't turn my head without finding a bloody hill or mountain and I suppose those were God's plans for me. To have me grow up around mountains and grow climbing a few too. And that's exactly what I've done, I may have grown up in body around them but I've fully grown and matured in mind climbing his mountains.

He's had me fight cancer three times, face countless deaths and losses in my life, he's had my childhood dreams taken off me but at the end of the day, he's made me a man.

I am always called brave, heroic, kind, genuine, honourable and so many other kind compliments, but I have to try and explain to everyone why I seem to reject them. I have never fought for anyone but myself, therefore I cannot be brave or heroic, I've only been kind because my religion has taught me so.

What impact could I ever make on the world if I was fake or how could I ever be honourable if I was not honoured to be here.

I am me. There is no other way of putting it, little old Donal Walsh from Tralee, one body, one mind with a few other cobwebs and tales thrown in.

I've climbed God's mountains, faced many struggles for my life and dealt with so much loss. And as much as I'd love to go around to every fool on this planet and open their eyes to the mountains that surround them in life, I can't. But maybe if I shout from mine they'll pay attention.

If I start to accept these compliments, I'm afraid of what I'll become. Will I be braver than YE? Will I be kinder than YE? More genuine than YE? Or more honourable than YE? Better than YE? No. I can never accept that there is a YE. We are all the same, we are all given one body, one mind. The only difference for me is that I'm looking from the mountain.

Donal Walsh

CHEAPENING OF SEX

 

 SACRED TO PROFANE

Action star Liam Neeson has said he regrets the loss of the sanctity of sex in modern day culture and continuously struggles with the the sexualized nature of society.

The 'Taken' star said he blames the cheapening of sex for ruining loving relationships.

Speaking to the 'Catholic Herald', Neeson, who has two teenage sons, Micheal, 17, and Daniel, 16, explained: "I'd hate to be a kid now, because we're all inundated with so much information about sexuality, coming at us from everywhere – the media, the advertising billboards, just everywhere – and it must be so confusing for them."

 "There's a problem that, if you become over-familiar with something, it moves from the sacred to almost the profane," he said.

"The act is very, very special. It's full of mystery and wonder, and I'd hate us all to get to the stage where we just treat it lightly, because it deserves more than that."

He added: "Times have changed since I was young, no doubt about it."

When the 6ft 4in movie star was described as a sex symbol in the past, he quipped  that he was past his 'sell-by date.'

The 60-year-old Oscar nominated actor lost his wife Natasha Richardson three years ago when she died after suffering a head injury while skiing in Canada. The daughter of the actress Vanessa Redgrave and the director Tony Richardson, Richardson had been married to Neeson for 15 years.

He briefly dated Freya St Johnston, a public relations executive, before the relationship ended as Neeson reportedly wanted to spend more time in New York with his sons.

from www.irishcentral.com