Everyone likes a good redemption story, and there are few more remarkable than that of notorious Liberian warlord “General Butt Naked,” who repented of his atrocities and became a preacher.
The “general,” who earned his nom de guerre from fighting street battles naked during Liberia‘s 14-year civil war, killed or mutilated thousands of people – sometimes by his own hand, other times using his army of mostly child soldiers.
After rebels ousted his foe, ex-president Charles Taylor, in 2003 and peace returned to Liberia, the general begged for forgiveness — and quickly found that the charismatic personality that made him a natural rebel commander was well suited to preaching.
So while Taylor does time for war crimes, Joshua Milton Blahyi, 45, has remodeled himself as a popular street pastor — a quick, and often financially lucrative, way to gain respect in West Africa.
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