ULSTER, NORTHERN IRELAND (ANS) -- After leaving school at 15 with no qualifications, Kenny McClinton worked first as a laborer, then a Merchant seaman, before joining the British Army in 1972.

From there, he said he “drifted quite naturally” into the Protestant Ulster Defense Association (UDA).

"Because of my violent nature and my previous British Army training, I was promoted to First Lieutenant of an active service unit within a mere three weeks,” McClinton told Inspire Magazine.

He said, “It wasn’t long before I ‘graduated’ to the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), an even more militant and much feared Protestant terrorist group. “It was at this time, I am ashamed to say, that I shot and killed two men and attempted to murder a number of others.”

McClinton told Inspire Magazine that after a major bombing campaign, he spent two weeks drinking hard.

He said, “I remember waking up one morning feeling disgusted with what I had become - a terrorist murderer. For some reason I prayed, ‘I am tired of my life. Please help me to have a new start.’”

The following Mon. morning, Aug. 29 1977, he was arrested, questioned for five days and charged with two counts of murder and a number of other terrorism charges.

"I obviously did not relish losing my freedom, but in some ways it was a relief because I knew there was no other way but death in which I could get out of the life I was living as a terrorist,” McClinton told Inspire Magazine. “I was trapped by my reputation and what my fellow terrorists expected from me.”

Even in prison his militant tendencies continued. Dubbed “that maniac McClinton” by prison staff, Inspire said that McClinton was one of the original instigators of the ‘Loyalist Blanket Brigade,’ who refused to wear prison clothes and follow prison rules.

To help the time pass more quickly while he was in solitary confinement, McClinton started reading the Bible.

"I found I quite enjoyed all the stories in the early chapters of the Bible. I could closely relate to the whole tribal attitudes and nomadic experiences; the wars; the plots; the political intrigue,” he told Inspire.

McClinton was eventually given two life sentences and sent to the Maze Prison where he studied the New Testament in his Bible readings. “Things were never quite the same after that,” he said.

A new start was ahead for McClinton, when on Aug. 12 1979 he fell down on his knees in his cell, crying out to God in repentance.

He had read that one of the conditions of becoming a true Christian was a public profession of his faith, so he called for a ‘meeting’ with some of his fellow Blanket Protesters.

Inspire said that McClinton told them, “Today I have taken the most important step of my life. I have renounced violence. I have repented of my sins. I have asked Jesus Christ into my life and to save me - and I believe he has saved me.”

He added, “From this day forth I cease to be a Military Commander of the UFF, and wish only to be a mere volunteer in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will seek to serve him to the best of my ability."

Inspire wrote that when McClinton first went into prison he was semi-literate. After becoming a Christian, he took various courses and gained a degree in criminology and the social sciences. Since leaving prison in 1993 he has gained a Master’s Degree in Theology, a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a second Doctorate in Literature.

He was ordained as a pastor in an international missions ministry, Moments of Faith International, based in Texas, USA in 1995, and formed the Ulster/American Christian Fellowship Ministry. He attends, and sometimes ministers at, his local Baptist church in Portadown.

According to Inspire, employment experts have deemed McClinton “unemployable,” as a result of his high political profile and the way in which he has spoken out against both terrorist violence and state oppression.

Over the past decade, Inspire said that McClinton and his family have endured death threats, slander and barely enough money to make ends meet - yet God has always supplied their needs.

Inspire wrote that the former ‘maniac McClinton’ is now a living testimony to God’s transforming power.

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City: A Call to Service." Additional details about "Homeless" are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.