By Nathalie Ritzmann
ACI MENA, August 21, 2024 / 06:00
Belkız was born 61 years ago to a Muslim family in Turkey, the first daughter after two sons. As a child, she went to the mosque and read the Koran in Arabic, but she says she did not understand it. After reading books on materialist philosophy in her youth, she became an atheist at the age of 15.
Belkız (whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons) told ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that after graduating from university, she became a literature teacher and constantly read books. When she was 28, she read Turan Dursun’s book “This is Religion.” (Dursun, a former Shiite Muslim and scholar who became an atheist, was murdered for his writings on Islam and religion. His book criticizes religious books – mainly the Koran.)
Belkız couldn’t believe what she was reading, so she bought a Turkish Koran and read it. Next it was the Bible’s turn – she bought one at the Izmir Book Fair and was invited to watch a film about the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke in a Protestant church.
When she saw the film, her attitude towards God changed completely. The biblical story that touched her most was the prayer of the tax collector and the Pharisee in the temple. Here she saw her own sin. Because she, like the Pharisee, was so convinced of her own righteousness, she experienced her first shame before God. “Love your enemies” became their leader. At the end of the film, Belkız prayed with all her heart: “Lord, please come into my life, I put my life in your hands, do with me what you want!”
After that, she went to the Protestant church every Sunday, read the Bible regularly and always attended prayer meetings. She was baptized and lived happily in a living relationship with God.
Then, one Sunday in 2005, at a service at the Lord’s Table, a young man took bread and wine, took the bread, put the crust in his mouth and squeezed the inside of the bread in his palm. When Belkız saw this, she felt uncomfortable because she felt as if the Lord’s body had been violated. She talked to a Protestant friend about it. She said he told her it was OK because “it’s not really the Lord’s body, we do it in remembrance; Catholics really believe it’s the body of Christ.”
She then turned to the Catholic Church and has been a Catholic ever since.
After attending catechism classes, she was confirmed as a Catholic on April 25, 2011 and changed her religious affiliation on her birth certificate from Muslim to Christian.
“I did not choose God, he chose me,” said Belkız. “What impresses me most about Christianity is the infinite love of the Lord Jesus for us. I have found my best friend and my most beautiful lover.”
When asked if she was afraid of persecution as a Christian, she smiled: “When Jesus was betrayed, his disciple Peter denied Jesus three times. Because he was afraid. But the same Peter, who had received the Holy Spirit, spread the gospel from Jerusalem to Italy, and when he was about to be crucified, he said: ‘I am not worthy of death, Lord’ and was crucified (upside down).”
Belkız also said that what she has gained on her journey of faith is written directly in the Bible: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).
“God offers us all a treasure. We just have to accept it,” said Belkız. “And God shows his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
This article was first published by ACI MenaCNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Nathalie Ritzmann is a French-Turkish freelance journalist and photographer living in Turkey for almost 20 years.
