Runaway Christian Convert Allowed to Live Apart from Parents

Last year on a Sunday morning at church we watched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne0MdUyJ1GU] this YouTube video of Rifqa.

I was saddened. Rifqa is a child, who has been elevated to Christian Celebrity Of The Month. She is not spiritually mature, and her fall off the pedestal that she has been placed on is coming, I suspect sooner rather than later.

She should be obedient to the Scripture that commands honor for parents and return to her home. God can protect her in her parent’s home as well as he can protect her anywhere else. And if death comes as the result of her return (which I seriously doubt will happen) how is it a bad thing for a believer to enter the presence of God.

[JohnBrian] Last year on a Sunday morning at church we watched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne0MdUyJ1GU] this YouTube video of Rifqa.

I was saddened. Rifqa is a child, who has been elevated to Christian Celebrity Of The Month. She is not spiritually mature, and her fall off the pedestal that she has been placed on is coming, I suspect sooner rather than later.

She should be obedient to the Scripture that commands honor for parents and return to her home. God can protect her in her parent’s home as well as he can protect her anywhere else. And if death comes as the result of her return (which I seriously doubt will happen) how is it a bad thing for a believer to enter the presence of God.

That’s pretty cold, so Biblically, she should honor her parents belief of honor killing which is unbiblical? Let’s see how you would react to this situation should it be one of your nieces. Would you tell her to go home and be murdered in order to “honor” her parents?

[WilliamD] That’s pretty cold,

Based on the information I have read and seen, I am not convinced that she would have been killed, which I stated in the parenthesis of my comment.

If it were an aberration for Muslim men to kill their wives and daughters, I could understand the skepticism. Unfortunately, it is all too common for Muslim men to kill their wives and/or daughters for dishonoring them in some way- I’ve read many news stories about men convicted of murdering their wives and daughters for everything from becoming too ‘westernized’ to converting to Christianity. They’ve axed them to death, set them on fire, and run over them with their cars.

I’m not buying the “if they’d’ve just been submissive he wouldn’t have had to kill them” theory, which is a kissin’ cousin of “if she hadn’t been wearing those tight clothes she wouldn’t have been raped”. If you examine these cases, it is quickly apparent that these men have serious issues with manipulation, domination, and control; and it has nothing to do with being honored as a father, or in the case of a rape victim, it has nothing to do with sexual gratification. These are some seriously screwed up people. They have adopted a religion that allows and even encourages them to be Ted Bundy in the comfort of their own home.

Also, I don’t see any Biblical principle of submission that requires a woman or child to physically remain in a situation where their life is in danger.

[Susan R] If it were an aberration for Muslim men to kill their wives and daughters, I could understand the skepticism.

Here is what I knew about the story before watching the video linked above.

A young girl, the daughter of Muslim parents, professes to be a Christian, meets a pastor online, leaves her home somewhere in the midwest and goes to FL to live with the pastor’s family. She claims that her father is going to kill her because she is a Christian.

BUT, she lives in the US, NOT the Middle East. I have not heard on the news or read about “honor” killings being common in the US, but have heard about them in the Middle East. Up to this point the story is sad - that a teenager leaves home because she is afraid her daddy will kill her.

THEN I WATCH THE VIDEO!

I see an immature teenager (as all teenagers are, and as I was ), who is giddy about some dude she is in love with. The only thing is the dude is not Charlie, or Sam, or Bob, his name is Jesus! Her story becomes a cause celebre for Christians - a Christian girl facing death at the hands of a Muslim father, and we know how really bad those Muslim fathers are because some of them (in the Middle East) kill their female relatives. She has become a Christian martyr even before she is killed! And there is some celebrity that goes along with that (Can we STOP with the Christian Celebrity-ism anyway!).

So here is what I do know about her: She is not obeying the Scriptural command to honor her parents. What I do not know is that her father intends to kill her. She is given a PASS on the honoring parents command ONLY because SHE has said her daddy wants to kill her. Maybe it’s true, maybe not. What other non-obeyed commands are we going to give an indulgence for, solely on the basis of the claim that “I will be killed” if I obey this command.

AND, back to my original point: if it is true that her daddy will kill her, how is death for a Christian a bad thing?

Honor killings do happen in the US- http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-29-honor-killings-in-the-US…

Death for a Christian is not a ‘bad thing’- but are you seriously suggesting that because death for a Christian means heaven, we should never defend ourselves or other Christians from danger? So if someone walks into a church with a gun, we should all just welcome him and stand in line- women and children first?

I agree that quite often the Christian media elect a new ‘champion’ and ignore all the flaws in the story, but that does not negate the fact that honor killings happen, this girl’s father is Muslim, and she has converted to Christianity. I also think we disagree about what it means to ‘honor’ one’s parents, because there is sprinkled all through Scripture the idea that God is always the higher authority that trumps unGodly man’s authority when they cross that line- or explain to me why Peter, John, Paul and company were always defying the gov’t and ending up in jail, with God himself busting them out on occasion. Men, women, and children should not be required to ‘submit’ to abuse or death because of (IMO) wrong-headed ideas about what ‘submission’ and ‘honoring’ mean.

[Susan R]…are you seriously suggesting that because death for a Christian means heaven, we should never defend ourselves or other Christians from danger?

Not at all.

I may be the lone person in America who has not endorsed Rifqa’s version of the story. But after watching the video, I am not convinced that she is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Many (not all, and NOT accusing anyone on SI) of those who have embraced her version of the story, have embraced it purely on the basis of her professing to be a Christian and her daddy being a Muslim.

From my viewpoint (after watching the video) she appears to be a teenager who decided she wanted to leave home, found someone on the internet who supported that notion, and left. She then gets her 15 minutes of fame and cannot admit that she lied because her fame would end if she told the truth. It’s a sad story, and I remain unconvinced that her daddy wants to kill her.

I don’t think this is about ‘embracing’ her version of the story. It isn’t out of the question that her story could be true, and IMO if she is telling the truth and she goes home, she may end up dead. If she is not telling the truth, then at least at some point in the future she can make things right with her parents.

[Susan R] If it were an aberration for Muslim men to kill their wives and daughters…

there are many kinds of muslims, and the bary family doesn’t seem very devout or interested in following the extreme sharia law. there are a lot of muslims in columbus and all across america, but any supposed “honor killing” would be prosecuted as murder, and they don’t happen often in america. did you see the [URL=http://media.myfoxorlando.com/documents/FDLE_RifqaBary.pdf] report from the florida police[/URL]? every news story i’ve seen always includes some statement that there aren’t any credible threats to rifqa’s safety.

anyway rifqa turns 18 in august. family services and the court are still working to reunify the family, but i’d be surprised if they succeed.

I came across this article today.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100129/muslim-parents-of-ohio-ru… Muslim Parents of Runaway Teen Convert Reject Deal