WND EXCLUSIVE

EX-ATHEIST SPENDS CHRISTMAS FEEDING CHRISTIAN REFUGEE KIDS

Program gives meals to thousands from Middle East

His mother was once America’s most famous atheist. He grew up a Marxist and an unbeliever, a product of his dysfunctional family. But as an adult, William J. Murray, son of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, found God, and today the former atheist spends his Christmases helping feed Christian refugee children in the Middle East.

It’s part of the Christmas for Refugees program, which Murray directs.

Established in 2013, Christmas for Refugees attempts to make the holiday season a little brighter for thousands of Christian children and their families who fled radical Islamic groups in Iraq and Syria and now live in U.N. refugee camps mostly in Jordan and Lebanon.

At Christmas for Refugees events, children enjoy games, puppet shows, Christmas songs and hot Christmas meals. The events are held in warm, dry buildings, giving the children one day of relief from the cold, wet tents or basements in which they live. Each child is given a large box containing a week’s worth of food to take back to his or her family.

When the program began, events were held in Jordan only. In 2014, the program expanded to Lebanon, and this year it expanded to Iraq. According to Murray, 11 events will be held this year in Lebanon, six in Jordan, and two in Iraq.

The program relies on local Christian volunteers to carry out the events, but Murray and his American team travel to the Middle East every year to supervise some of the events. So far this year, Murray has participated in two events in Lebanon and two in Jordan, and he plans to attend both of the Iraqi events as well. In all, he will spend two weeks of the 2015 Christmas season in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.

Murray, chairman of the D.C.-based Religious Freedom Coalition, said he willingly gives his time to this cause because Christians are the most persecuted group in the world today, especially in the Middle East. As the Christmas for Refugees website states, Islamic-run charities in Jordan and Lebanon mostly ignore Christian refugees, preferring to help Muslim refugees.

Considering where Murray came from, it’s amazing he is leading a humanitarian effort on behalf of Christian children today.

“Sadly, I was raised in a Marxist home by a mother who had as much hatred for Christianity as does the leader of the Islamic State today,” Murray told WND in an interview. “Just as the liberals of this day, she preached that Christianity is at the root of all evil and all wars, and that its elimination would bring about peace and the end to capitalism.”

Murray’s mother was the founder of American Atheists. In 1960, she filed a lawsuit alleging that it was unconstitutional for the Baltimore City Public School System to force William to participate in Bible readings at school. The lawsuit eventually reached the Supreme Court, where the court voted to prohibit Bible reading in America’s public schools.

Murray grew up influenced by his mother’s beliefs, as he detailed in his autobiography “My Life Without God.” However, in 1980 he became a Christian and set out to fight for the rights of Christians in America and persecuted Christians around the world.

In the early 1980s he was the director of Freedom’s Friends, an organization that reached out to victims of communism all over the world. In the 1990s he founded the first commercial Bible publishing company in the Soviet Union. For many years his organizations ran evangelistic tours to that country.

Now he risks his safety by holding dinner events for Christian refugee children in the Middle East. Murray admitted there are dangers in holding Christmas for Refugees events, especially in Iraq, which is now partially controlled by ISIS. However, he takes the necessary precautions.

“In Iraq the closest event to the front line with the Islamic State is about 30 miles away; however, the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Christian militia have a solid front to the West of Erbil,” Murray explained.

“There is always some danger in bringing together a large number of Christians for any event, even a church service, in many areas. As a result, no media information is available prior to events.”

Despite the risks, Murray reaps great personal rewards from knowing he is helping to bring Christmas cheer to thousands of Christian children who would otherwise have none. He said the most rewarding aspect of Christmas for Refugees is the moment the children forget the horrid situation their families are in.

He finds it touching when he sees the children involved in genuine play, seemingly a world away from the problems their families face. He was also touched by one girl in Lebanon earlier this year.

“At one event in Lebanon a very young girl, perhaps five years old, began to cry when she realized the event was over and she would have to board the bus back to the refugee area her family lived in,” Murray relayed.

Murray said Christmas for Refugees is about encouraging and strengthening the faith of Christian families, and as such is not part of the war against ISIS. However, he noted the United States and its Sunni allies have ironically helped create the very problem he is trying to solve.

“We cannot forget that the Syrian Sunni-led revolt against the secular government of Syria was initially financed by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States,” Murray said. “Without Saudi (Sunni) money to finance the horror of the Sunni revolt, there would be no Christian refugees.”

He noted several major terrorist attacks, from 9/11 to the 2005 London bus bombings to the recent Paris attacks, were carried out by Sunni Muslims.

“Meanwhile, we have a Democrat president and Republican presidential candidates running around saying that we ‘must support our Sunni allies’ against the Shia,” Murray lamented. “The reality is that our Sunni allies, including Saudi Arabia, have financed every Sunni terror group at one point or another, including al-Qaida, al-Nusra and the forerunner of the Islamic State.”

According to the Christmas for Refugees website, there are tens of thousands of Christian families with children whom Islamic terror groups have forced to flee their homes. Murray recognizes no single organization can help them all, so he and his team must select only a few to benefit from their Christmas for Refugees events.

He said they generally choose children between ages six and 12 whose families currently receive no aid from a church but have registered with a church for aid and are on a waiting list.

This year, about 4,000 refugee children will benefit from the program – twice as many as last year. Murray said fundraising for the program was a success this year, and he hopes to grow the program even more next Christmas.

“If the funds were available, the list of children would be in the tens of thousands,” Murray declared. “The program size doubled in 2015 and we hope to double it to 8,000 children in 2016. For that to happen, we need to raise funds all year long and pray for success.”

For more information about Christmas for Refugees and to make a tax-deductible donation, visit the official Christmas for Refugees website.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/ex-atheist-spends-christmas-feeding-christian-refugee-kids/#8cvCewMqyTdPqALX.99