According to this post at CNN, Christians are being encouraged to adopt terrorists! No, not you would adopt/sponsor a child through World Vision or Compassion International. This adoption process only means that you would make an effort to pray for a specific terrorist…

Like this man, Mustafa Ali Salat…

Could you pray for people who planned bombings, carried out shootings and terrorized civilians? A movement in the U.S. is asking Christians to do just that.

At atfp.org, Christians are asked to “adopt a terrorist for prayer.” A quote from the Bible on the site urges visitors to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“Where is the Christian response to terrorism?” the site says. “If the struggle against violence done in the name of Islam is primarily spiritual, then defeating it requires a spiritual response.”

Adopt a Terrorist For Prayer (ATFP) spokesman Thomas Bruce tells CNN the site’s main goals are to teach people how to pray for their enemies and to spiritually reform the terrorists.

The site was launched in 2008, with the interactive adoption feature being added in 2009. Bruce says 603 people have registered to prayerfully adopt a terrorist.

While the idea of praying for your foes isn’t new, Bruce says his team created the site in hopes of transforming the war against terrorists.

“We’ve been fighting this for about 10 years with material means, and it hasn’t really changed the nature of it,” Bruce says. “By bringing spiritual perspective to it, and as the Lord answers some of those prayers, it could and should hopefully have a profound change on the viciousness of the conflict we’re in.”

The ATFP site lists 165 people available for “adoption,” most of whom are designated by the FBI and State Department as terrorists or sponsors of terrorism. Just sign up, scroll through the list and choose which individual you’d like to pledge to transform through prayer. CNN could not verify the authenticity of all the names listed on the ATFP site. READ THE ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Prayer is a good thing. And I suspect that praying for a terrorist on a regular basis might have a bigger impact on the pray-er more than the pray-ee. I could be wrong. You know that old saying…  “Sometimes the answer to prayer is not that it changes life, but that it changes me.”

And I admit… prayer does change me.

Sent to me by Jessica.

More from Beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad