A judge could decide today if 17-year-old Rifqa Bary should be sent back to her parents in Columbus, Ohio or stay in the custody of Florida's Department of Children and Families. Bary claims she fled her Muslim parents because they threatened to "honor kill" her after they found out she converted to Christianity.

Bary's father claims she has been brainwashed by Orlando Pastor Blake Lorenz, who leads the Global Revolution Church. In a sermon discovered by WDBO from August 9th, Lorenz talked about Bary, whom he refers to as Anna, a day before he appeared in juvenile court to try to get temporary custody of the teen.

"The persecution is here already. Anna's been living this out. Anna is a wonderful young woman of God. 17-years-old tomorrow," Lorenz told his followers. "She is a dynamo, where the spirit loves Jesus. She was a Muslim. Gave her life to Christ, fell in love with Jesus. She fled for her life, threatened to be killed because she gave her life to Jesus. Renounce Jesus, and we'll let you live."

Lorenz told the church Bary had been staying with him and his wife, Beverly, at their home for 2-and-a-half weeks.

"The fear we live with is the police are going to show up, take us off, arrest us," Lorenz said. "Oh that couldn't happen? It happened to the man that baptized her!"

Lorenz was referring to a young pastor in Kansas City, Missouri who helped Columbus police track down where Bary had gone, after they threatened to arrest him.

"The police showed up at his apartment in Kansas City to arrest him. Illegally searched his apartment and all the apartments there looking for her, convinced she was there. Don't say it can't happen in America!" Lorenz preached.

Columbus Police, at the time, were not sure what had happened to the teenager. She vanished in July and investigators were concerned she may have been the victim of foul play. Instead, Bary now says, she hitchiked to a Columbus bus station and rode a Greyhound bus to Orlando. Once here, she says she borrowed a cell phone and called the Lorenzes.

Lorenz closed his sermon by saying Bary's situation was a call to action for his followers.

"You and I are going to have to choose to follow Jesus, or to give in to the "One World" system of religion and government. We've been trained 'obey the government, support the government.' And I say do that, but at some point, you might have to choose."

NOTE: In a previous posting, we had a link to the pastor's sermon. But after Central Florida's Morning News on Friday, a representative from the Global Revolution Church complained to the newsroom that the audio was copyrighted. We are investigating that claim, but out of respect to the church have removed it. On its own website, the church also replaced the August 9th sermon in which Pastor Lorenz talks about the Bary case with another sermon.

After the story aired, a church representative emailed WDBO a response from attorney Rosa Gonzalez, who claims to represent Rifqa Bary:

While no one expects that Mohamed Bary and his wife will admit having threatened to kill their daughter, Rifqa Bary, their allegations that Rifqa's claims of being threatened are newly made are easily refuted. Rifqa had indeed told many of her friends about her parents' threats against her because of her conversion to Christianity.

This is evident by the many friends that told Ohio police investigating her disappearance that she had ran away because of the intolerance in her home of her religious beliefs. That is what was reported in the missing persons report at the Ohio Attorney General's web page along with various comments expressing the hope that she got away and escaped being murdered.

This case is not about a clash of religions. This case is about a person whose life was threatened for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Rifqa must be protected from the ones who threaten her life and caused her to run away in fear for her life.