Was a Christian convert threatened -- or brainwashed?

Sometimes the brainwashing is just so transparent.

Right now, many media voices, especially the right-wing bloggers, seem transfixed by the tale of 17 year old Rifqa Bary, a formerly Islamic girl from Columbus Ohio who converted to evangelical Christianity. Young Bary was born in Sir Lanka, although her family now seems very Americanized. (Some news accounts spell her name "Rifka.") She ran off to Orlando, Florida to be with something ominously called The Global Revolution Church, run by Reverend Blake Lorenz, whom she met via Facebook.

Now, in a tableau that plays right into one of the memes favored by right-wing paranoids, Rifqa claims that her Islamic father wants her dead. Murdering an apostate daughter would be considered an "honor killing," or so she would have us believe.

Her father denies that he ever made any such threat.

Also before today's hearing, Rifqa's father spoke out for the first time on national television to "Good Morning America," saying his daughter's claims are completely "not true" and that she is being manipulated by people in the Christian community.

"I don't believe my daughter would say this," Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, told "GMA." "She's completely being coached -- I mean trained, influenced by these people. It's so sad."

The Barys blame the girl's actions on the Lorenzes and believe the Lorenzes coaxed her into claiming the honor killing, though they admit they would prefer if their daughter was Muslim.

"She is free to practice whatever she believes in," Mohamed Rifqa said. "No problem. She can practice in my house. I have no problem.

"We love her. It's our daughter. She being a Christian doesn't mean she's not my daughter," he said.

The Lorenzes have so far not commented on the accusation that they have coached the girl. Their refusal to speak with the media is, in my view, suspicious.

Which side is telling the truth? A big clue -- perhaps the only clue we really need -- can be found in this early statement from Rifqa:

The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, Mohamed Bary, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to "deal with the situation." In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!"

Keep in mind that this is a court filing. Anyone (even a young person) swearing to an official statement will try -- or should try -- to reconstruct the actual wording of a quote, as opposed to offering a loose precis.

Question: How likely is it that the father would have uttered the phrase "If you have this Jesus in your heart"?

That kind of locution -- "Accept Jesus into your heart," "allow Jesus to enter your heart," "bring Jesus into your heart" and so forth -- is often uttered by evangelical Christian pastors and writers. The phrase is not so common among other types of Christians. You might hear a Catholic say such a thing every once in a great while, but Catholics do not use that terminology routinely. (They have their own set of stock phrases -- many of which are in Latin, which is way cool.)

Would a Muslim speak of letting Jesus into one's heart? Hardly!

Moreover, in evangelical fiction -- I'm thinking of Jack Chick comics, Christian TV historical dramas and similar propaganda -- it is pretty common to have "heathen" villains use the phrase "this Jesus." The words are usually given to Roman emperors and swarthy Eastern potentates. As in: "Wazir, my counselor, tell me: Who is this...Jesus? Why do all the slaves speak of this worker of wonders?" If you really want to do the line justice, you must include a long pause between "this" and "Jesus," and you have to sneer broadly as you utter the Name of Names.

The phrase "this Jesus" has also become part of evangelical argot -- see here and here and here and here. Evangelicals are especially likely to use the phrase when they try to convert darker-hued non-Americans. The term is not much used outside of fundamentalist circles.

So it's pretty clear to me that Rifqa's father did not say those words. Rather, his daughter ascribed to him the kind of line that an unintelligent writer of Christian fiction might have put into the mouth of a Muslim. It's not something that a Muslim actually would say; a Muslim might more plausibly speak of kufr (infidelity) and haraam (unlawful).

Alas, most evangelical preachers are so caught up in their own alternate universe that they cannot understand that the rest of the world does not use their patois. They remind me of the stereotypical American in Europe who becomes furious at Eye-talians who refuse to speak English like normal human beings.

Further evidence:

Rifka has spoken of her native Sri Lanka as though it were an Islamic nation. It is not. Sri Lanka is primarily Buddhist; Hindus are also well-represented. There is a good amount of interaction, synchronism and even conversion among these traditional Sri Lankan faiths. Nevertheless, Rifka spoke as though honor killings were common there. That's not true: Fazli Sameer, a native of her home town of Galle Fort, writes that the Muslim women in that area are considered very liberated -- they do not take the veil -- and "honor killings" simply do not happen. (Although it is true that many Buddhists do tend to resent Christian proselytizers from overseas.)

So tell me, my good Wazir: Just who is this...Reverend Blake Lorenz?

Verily, O Excellency, the one called Lorenz seems to be a rising star in Looneyville:

Recently God gave Blake a new call to share with the church, Israel, and the Gentile nations that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent. After 24 years as a United Methodist pastor and evangelist, Blake retired from the Methodist Church in obedience to Jesus Who told him to separate himself and serve only Him. This led to the founding of Global Revolution Ministries and Global Revolution Church, based in Orlando, Florida.

He recently started a television ministry to proclaim his eschatology. I think we should all get the picture by this point. Falwell, Robertson and LaHaye are now old, while Swaggart, the Bakkers, the Crouches and Haggard all fell into scandal. Lorenz obviously hopes to replace them. Rifqa is his ticket to national fame.

Incidentally, the primary internet voice pushing this story has been Pam Geller -- Randroid, blinkered Israel-worshipper and unrepentant "birther." If Pammikins says that the sky is blue, you may safely presume that it has changed color.