Look up conversion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Conversion may refer to:

Economy and finance[link]

• Currency conversion or exchange rate
• Conversion (options), one of the options strategies
• Economic conversion

Law[link]

• Conversion (law), conversion by taking a chattel out of the possession of another with the intent of exercising a permanent or temporary dominion over it, despite the owner's entitlement to use it at all
  • Criminal conversion, exerting unauthorised use or control of someone else's property
• Equitable conversion, A change in the nature of property so that real property is treated as personal property, or vice versa, in certain circumstances

Marketing[link]

• Conversion (marketing), when a prospective customer takes the marketer's intended action
  • Conversion funnel, in Internet marketing, the process of tracking website visitors conversion across a series of process steps
  • Conversion rate, in Internet marketing, the percentage of unique visitors who take a desired action upon visiting the website

Religion[link]

• Religious conversion, the adoption of a new religious identity
  • Deathbed conversion, done just before death
  • Forced conversion, done under duress
  • Marital conversion, conversion upon marriage outside of the individual's original religious adherence (or non-adherence)
  • Secondary conversion, done because of a personal relationship
  • Conversion to Islam
  • Conversion to Judaism
  • Conversion to Christianity

Sport[link]

• Conversion, in the sports of Rugby league and Rugby union, a kick at goal to convert the try from one set of points into another larger set of points
• In Track and field athletics, an estimate of what a performance which has been measured in one system of measurements would have been if it had been measured in the other system
• In American football, a one-point conversion or a two-point conversion, an opportunity to score one or two extra points, respectively, following a touchdown

Science and technology[link]

• Conversion of units, between different units of measurement
  • See also: Units conversion by factor-label and Dimensional analysis
• Conversion (chemistry)
• Conversion (logic), a concept in traditional logic
• Electric vehicle conversion, modification of a conventional vehicle to battery electric
• Energy transformation or "energy conversion"
• Internal conversion, a radioactive decay process

Computing[link]

• Convert (command), a shell command to convert volumes using the FAT file systems to NTFS
• CHS conversion, cylinder/head/sector to linear base address
• Code conversion, multiple meanings in telecommunication
• Data conversion, from one form of computer data to another
• ImageMagick, graphics manipulation program executed with the command: convert
• Transcoding (Video conversion):
  • Upconversion of video to a higher definition
• Type conversion, in computer science, changing an entity of one data type into another

Entertainment[link]

• "Conversion" (Stargate Atlantis), an episode of the television series
• "The Conversion" (The Outer Limits), an episode of the television series

Other meanings[link]

• Conversion (linguistics), the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form
• Conversion syndrome, a condition in which physical symptoms arise for which there is no clear explanation; cf. Conversion disorder
• Conversion therapy, attempts to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors
• Conversion of scripts - procedure of replacing text written in one writing system with characters of another writing system
• Miniature conversion, altering the appearance of a model

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Eduardo Verástegui
Verástegui at the 16th Annual MovieGuide Faith and Values Awards Gala
Born	(1974-05-21) May 21, 1974 (age 38) Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Website
eduardoverastegui.com.ar/

Eduardo Verástegui (born as José Eduardo Verástegui Córdoba in Mante, Tamaulipas, México on May 21, 1974) is a Mexican model, singer, and actor. He was part of band Kairo and later a solo music career, before he started appearing in Mexican telenovelas and eventually feature films like Chasing Papi and Bella the latter produced by his own production company "Metanoia".

Biography[link]

Music career[link]

In 1994, he shot to fame as a member of the Mexican boy band, the pop group Kairo. The Mexican pop vocal group established in 1993 and managed by Toño Berumen was made up of Jean Paul Forat Morales on vocals and Francisco Carlos Zorrilla González and Eduardo Verástegui on backing vocals.

Kairo first single was "En los espejos de un café" based on the Italian group 883's hit "Nord sud ovest est". the song gained great popularity and was followed by the release of the debut album was Signo del tiempo (meaning Sign of the times). Other singles from the album included "Háblame de tí", "Pérdoname" and "Te amaré".

The follow-up album was Gaudium released in 1995 and resulting in singles "No nos rendimos", "Ponme la multa", "Si te vas" and "Dile que la amo". In 1996, Cara a cara was released being a compilation of songs from the two previous albums and shared with the group Magneto. The same year 1996, Eduardo Verástegui left the band for an acting career. He was replaced by Gabriel Soto who had been the winner of the Mister México competition.

In 2001, Verástegui moved to Miami and signed a recording contract as a solo artist with Universal Music Latino and recorded his first self-titled album Eduardo Verástegui in 2001 continuing his musical career for another 2 years.

Modeling career[link]

This section requires expansion with: further modelling info.

Born in Mante, Tamaulipas, he had moved to Mexico City to pursue modeling, landing work with Calvin Klein among others.

After moving to the United States, he made an appearance in the Jennifer Lopez music video "Ain't It Funny".^[1]

Acting career[link]

This section requires expansion with: roles on screen.

In 1997, after quitting the band, Kairo, Verástegui began acting in Mexican telenovelas produced by Televisa^[2] and starred in 5 soap operas in 4 years.

In 2003, he was chosen as the lead character in the Latin comedy Chasing Papi, alongside Jaci Velasquez, Sofia Vergara, and Roselyn Sanchez. The film grossed $12 million worldwide.^[3] He was voted among the 50 "hottest" Hispanics by People en Español magazine.

He co-founded the production company "Metanoia" (the Greek word for 'repentance') and the company's first film Bella, starring Verástegui and co-produced by him was released in 2006. The film portrays the inner emotional conflicts people go through in family and abortion cases. Bella won the People's Choice award at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival.^[4][5][4]

In 2012, he starred in Cristiada also known as For Greater Glory written by Michael Love directed by Dean Wright based on the true story of the Cristero War (1926-29), a rebellion which arose out of the Mexican government's persecution of Catholics in the 1920s in its attempt to secularize the country.

Personal life[link]

Verástegui was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family.^[6] In 2002, before filming commenced on Chasing Papi, Verástegui took voice-coaching lessons to improve his English pronunciation. The coach was a committed Catholic, and in the course of their conversations Verástegui re-discovered his faith and resolved to change his lifestyle. He also declared that he had decided to turn down offers to play roles in films that conflicted with his Catholic beliefs. In an interview with Dave Hartline, the author of The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism and published by Catholic Report, he said he was committed to attend Mass daily and praying, reading the Bible, saying the rosary and doing Confession at least once a week. He also said that he first encountered his renewed faith in Scott Hahn's book, Rome Sweet Home that "had a great impact on me and its influences can be seen in a lot of what I do".^[4][5]

Film Bella that stars Verásteguire and first film of Metanoia Films, co-founded by Verástegui was considered by critics as an "anti-abortion" film.

Verástegui is an anti-abortion and pro-life movement advocate for the protection of unborn children, through the organization "Mantle of Faith". He was offered a role in a certain film and had gone to an abortion clinic to "research his role". He was shocked by what he saw and dropped the idea of taking part in the film altogether. On his way out, he saw a pro-life rally that introduced him to a Hispanic couple who were going to the clinic for an abortion. The campaigners offered that Verástegui try to convince the couple by talking to them in their native Spanish. Recognizing him from his telenovela roles on Mexican television, they reconsidered their decision and went home without going ahead with the abortion. Immediately after their child was born, they called him to tell him the good news and thanking him and asking for his permission to name the child Eduardo after him. He also made a point of meeting "little Eduardo" weeks later.^[5][7]

In 2008, he released a long video message denouncing the high rate of abortion in Hispanic communities in the United States and speaking out loud about alleged targeting of the Hispanic communities with pro-abortion messages by the Barack Obama campaign during the presidential race.^[8]

Verástegui also took part in the 2008 campaign for passing of California Proposition 8 releasing his own messages in Spanish language in support of the "Yes on 8" campaign encouraging the Hispanic population in California to vote for the passing of the "California Marriage Protection Act" known as "Prop 8" calling for "Elimination of Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". He was quoted on the message saying: "As a Latino man proud of my community, I feel I have been called to fight for traditional marriage between a man and a woman".

He supported the Republican candidate John McCain in 2008 against Barack Obama.^[9][10] He was listed as one of the endorsers of Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry's "The Response" campaign.^[11]

In its issue of 21 April 2010, the Spanish-language TVyNovelas published a cover story entitled "La Historia de Ricky Martin & Verástegui" claiming that besides their long-running personal friendship, the two were in a romantic relationship.^[9][12][13] Martin was a closeted gay at the time and the story created further speculation not only of Martin's sexuality, but also the sexuality of Verástegui despite tha latter's known positions and his active support of "Prop 8" against gay marriage. Other claims by the media frenzy in the aftermath of the TV y Novelas article was that Verastegui possibly fathered Martin's children.^[10] Eduardo Verástegui later denied that he ever dated Martin calling the news "lies" and refuting all claims of his own homosexuality saying in a Spanish-language interview^[9]

Rumors will always exist, whatever you do. For eight years, I have promoted the message of chastity, purity, faith and hope to the world. You realize that some people might not like that, and are going to invent any kind of gossip to try to discredit what we are doing

Actively involved in charities, he has established "Manto de Guadalupe" a pro-life human rights organization with worldwide outreach and based in Los Angeles and offering a women's health center for the underprivileged Latina women giving them support in their pregnancies and offering them alternatives to abortion.^[14][15]

Metanoia Films[link]

Verástegui co-founded the production company "Metanoia Films" (the Greek word for 'repentance') with co-founders and partners Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and Leo Severino. The company based in Beverly Hills, California and is committed to produce films with spiritual and moral values​​, that touch the consciences and hearts of people. The company released its debut film Bella directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and starring Verástegui. The next project of the company is Little Boy written by Alejandro Monteverde and Pepe Portillo. Starring Ben Chaplin, and set in 1945, it tells the story of youngster who does all he can to be reunited with his father, a soldier fighting in World War II and captured by the Japanese. Meanwhile he has to befriend Hashimoto, a Japanese man back home.^[16]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

as part of Kairo

(For detailed discographies, see Kairo discography section )

• 1994: Signo del tiempo
• 1995: Gaudium
• 1996: Cara a cara [joint album credited to Kairo & Magneto]
• 1997: Éxitos

as solo

• 2001: Eduardo Verástegui

Singles[link]

as part of Kairo

• 1994: "En los espejos de un café"
• 1994: "Háblame de ti"
• 1994: "Te amaré"
• 1994: "Perdóname'
• 1995: "No nos rendimos"
• 1995: "Ponme la multa (Fammi la multa)"
• 1995: "Dile que la amo"

Music video[link]

• 2001: Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny" (Alt. Version) (playing her love interest in the music video)

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

See also[link]

• List of Mexican actors

References[link]

• Dos dias con Eduardo Verastegui /Two days with Eduardo Verastegui en/at www.TheresaBernabe.TV [1]
• Eduardo Verástegui's Interview with "Catholic Digest".

External links[link]

• Eduardo Verástegui Official Site (English) and (Spanish)
• Metanoia official website
• Bella film official website
• Eduardo Verástegui at the Internet Movie Database

Peter John Kreeft (born 1937) is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College. He is the author of numerous books as well as a popular writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics. He also formulated, together with Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, "Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God".^[1]

Academic career[link]

Kreeft took his A.B. at Calvin College (1959), and an M.A. at Fordham University (1961). In the same university he completed his doctoral studies in 1965. He briefly did post graduate studies at Yale University.

Kreeft has received several honors for achievements in philosophical reasoning. They include the following: Woodrow Wilson, Yale-Sterling Fellowship, Newman Alumni Scholarship, Danforth Asian Religions Fellowship, and Weathersfield Homeland Foundation Fellowship.

He joined the Philosophy faculty of the Department of Philosophy of Boston College in 1965. His intellectual reputation stems from his strengths in debating and summarizing the philosophical arguments of the major Western philosophers. He has debated several academics in issues related to God's existence. Shortly after he began teaching at Boston College he was challenged to a debate on the existence of God between himself and Paul Breines, an atheist history professor, which was attended by a majority of undergraduate students. Kreeft later used many of the arguments in this debate to create the Handbook of Christian Apologetics with then undergraduate student Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J..

In 1994, he was a signer of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.

Conversion story[link]

A Calvinist, Kreeft regarded the Catholic Church "with the utmost suspicion."^[2] A key turning point was when he was asked by a Calvinist professor to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church that it traced itself to the early Church. He said that on his own, he "discovered in the early Church such Catholic elements as the centrality of the Eucharist, the Real Presence, prayers to saints, devotion to Mary, an insistence on visible unity, and apostolic succession."^[2] The Church fathers such as Augustine and Jerome were clearly Catholic and not Protestant, he stated.

The "central and deciding" factor for his conversion was "the Church's claim to be the one Church historically founded by Christ."^[2] For he applies C. S. Lewis's trilemma -- either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord to the Church: "either that this is the most arrogant, blasphemous and wicked claim imaginable, if it is not true, or else that He is just what He claims to be."

On the Bible issue, he refers to the church preaching that forms the basis for writing the Bible and the approval needed from the church to ascertain the contents of the Bible. To this he applied the axiom: "a cause can never be less than its effect. You can't give what you don't have. If the Church has no divine inspiration and no infallibility, no divine authority, then neither can the New Testament."^[2]

His conversion took place as he asked God for help, praying that "God would decide for me, for I am good at thinking but bad at acting, like Hamlet."^[2] It was then that he says he "seemed to sense" the call of saints and his favorite heroes, to which he assented.

According to Kreeft's personal account, his conversion to Catholicism was influenced by things such as:^[2]

• the thought of the relatively small number of Calvinists vis-a-vis God's willingness to save many - because if the Bible tells us that God is going to save many, then it seems that he must be intending to do so.
• a simple way of understanding God's demands in terms of asking God what he wants us to do, and then doing it
• the logic of asking saints to pray for us as we ask friends to pray for us
• medieval art and philosophy (Gothic architecture, Thomistic philosophy)
• reading St. John of the Cross whose writings he viewed as really "something as massive and positive as a mountain range"
• a visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York when he was twelve years old, "feeling like I was in heaven... and wondering why, if Catholics got everything else wrong, as I had been taught, they got beauty so right. How could falsehood and evil be so beautiful?"^[3]

Quotes[link]

• Let's get very, very basic and very, very practical about prayer. The single most important piece of advice I know about prayer is also the simplest: Just do it! The major obstacle in most of our lives to just saying yes to prayer, the most popular and powerful excuse we give for not praying, or not praying more, or not praying regularly, is that we have no time. The only effective answer to that excuse, I find, is a kind of murder. You have to kill something, you have to say no to something else, in order to make time to pray.^[4]
• Without qualification, without ifs, ands, or buts, God's word tells us, straight as a left jab, that love is the greatest thing there is (1 Cor 13: 13). Scripture never says God is justice or beauty or righteousness, though he is just and beautiful and righteous. But "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). Love is God's essence, his whole being. Everything in him is love. Even his justice is love. Paul identifies "the justice of God" in Romans 1:17 with the most unjust event in all history, deicide, the crucifixion, for that was God's great act of love.^[5]
• Ideas are more precious than diamonds. The three most precious ideas I have ever discovered all concern the love of God.^[6]
• What is God's Answer to Human Suffering? The answer must be someone, not just something. For the problem (suffering) is about someone (God—why does he... why doesn't he ...?) rather than just something. To question God's goodness is not just an intellectual experiment. It is rebellion or tears. It is a little child with tears in its eyes looking up at Daddy and weeping, "Why?" The hurt child needs not so much explanations as reassurances. And that is what we get: the reassurance of the Father in the person of Jesus, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).^[7]
• Saints are not freaks or exceptions, they are the standard operating model for human beings. Because, as Charles Péguy put it, “life holds only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint.” In fact, in the biblical sense of the word, all believers are saints. Saints are not the opposite of sinners. There are no opposites of sinners in this world. There are only saved sinners and unsaved sinners. Thus holy does not mean “sinless” but “set-apart:” called out of the world to the destiny of eternal ecstasy with God.

He also formulated together with R. Tacelli, SJ, Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God, what he calls a "cumulative case", and thus "all twenty taken together, like twined rope, make a very strong case," he states.^[8] In 1971 Kreeft published an article entitled "Zen In Heidegger's 'Gelassenheit'" in the peer-reviewed journal International Philosophical Quarterly, the philosophy journal published by Kreeft's alma mater, Fordham University.

Bibliography[link]

• Love Is Stronger Than Death (1979) — On the meaning of death and life
• Between Heaven and Hell: (1982) — A Dialog with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley
• The Unaborted Socrates (1983) — Socratic dialogue on abortion
• The Best Things in Life: (1984) — Twelve Socratic dialogues on modern life
• Yes or No? (1984) — Straight Answers to Tough Questions about Christianity
• Making Sense Out of Suffering (1986) — On the meaning of suffering
• Fundamentals of the Faith, Essays in Christian Apologetics (1988)
• Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing (1989)
• Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven... But Never Dreamed of Asking (1990)
• Summa of the Summa (1990) — Summa Theologica edited and explained for beginners
• Three Philosophies of Life (1990) - Ecclesiastes (life as vanity), Job (life as suffering), Song of Songs (life as love)
• Back to Virtue (1992) — Traditional moral wisdom for modern moral confusion
• Shorter Summa (1993) — Shorter version of Kreeft's Summa of the Summa
• Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees (1993) — Blaise Pascal's surprisingly modern insights
• Handbook of Christian Apologetics (with Ronald K. Tacelli) (1994)
• C. S. Lewis for the Third Millennium (1994) — Six essays on Lewis' Abolition of Man
• Shadow-Lands of C.S. Lewis : The Man Behind the Movie (1994)
• Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really Know About Them? (1995)
• The Journey A Spiritual Roadmap For Modern Pilgrims (1996)
• The Snakebite Letters Devious Secrets for Subverting Society (1998)
• Refutation of Moral Relativism — Dialogues between a relativist and absolutist (1999)
• Prayer for Beginners (2000)
• Catholic Christianity (2001)
• Socrates Meets Jesus (1987/2002)— Socratic dialogue with students of Harvard University's Divinity School
• Three Approaches to Abortion (2002) — A thoughtful and compassionate guide *How to Win the Culture War (2002)
• Philosophy 101 by Socrates (2002) — An introduction to philosophy via Plato's Apology
• Socrates Meets Machiavelli (2003) — Socratic dialogue between Socrates and Machiavelli
• Socrates Meets Marx (2003) — Socratic dialogue between Socrates and Karl Marx
• Socratic Logic (2005) — A textbook on classical logic.
• Socrates Meets Sartre : Father Of Philosophy Meets The Founder of Existentialism (2005) — Socrates and Jean Paul Sartre
• The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (2005)
• The Sea Within (2006)
• The Philosophy of Jesus (2007) — On the wisdom of Jesus
• Because God Is Real : Sixteen Questions, One Answer (2008)
• Socrates Meets Kant (2009) — The Father of Philosophy Meets His Most Influential Modern Child
• Between Allah & Jesus: what Christians Can Learn from Muslims (2010)

Audio Lectures[link]

• "Beauty" — The branch of philosophy dealing with aesthetics.
• "C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity" — C.S. Lewis' masterpiece
• "Christianity in Lord of the Rings" — The cleverly disguised role of God in Tolkien's classic
• "Culture War" — A call to arms, mapping key enemies and battlefields
• "Existence of God" — A magnificent overview of the arguments
• "Good, True, Beautiful" — C.S. Lewis on three great transcendentals
• "Happiness" — How do you get it? Christ's version vs. the world's
• "Heaven" — The heart's deepest longing
• "Hollywood Screenwriting" — Encouragement to film's creative storytellers
• "If Einstein Had Been a Surfer" — Rediscovering intuitive thinking
• "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic" — The famous argument for Christ's identity
• "Problem of Pain" — C.S. Lewis's brilliant exposition on suffering and evil
• "Sex in Heaven" — Imaging the fire of God's love
• "Sexual Reconnection" — Healing the link between sex & love
• "Shocking Beauty" — The live character of Christ

COURSEWARE

• "What Would Socrates Do?: The History of Moral Thought and Ethics" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book
• "What Would Socrates Do?: Faith and Reason" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book
• "The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• Christian apologetics
• Christian ethics
• Christian philosophy
• Christian theology
• List of American Catholics
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website http://www.peterkreeft.com
• Writings at Catholic Educator's Resource