My Faith: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), from Catholic to Muslim

CNN ^ | 9/1/11 | Chris Welch

[marshmallow]

Minneapolis, Minnesota (CNN) –Prior to 2006, few people even knew that then-Minnesota state legislator Keith Ellison was a Muslim. Because of his English name, he said, no one thought to ask.

But five years ago, when he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives - a race he would go on to win - word of his religious affiliation began to spread.

“When I started running for Congress it actually took me by surprise that so many people were fascinated with me being the first Muslim in Congress,” said Ellison, a Democrat now serving his third term in the House.

“But someone said to me, ‘Look Keith, think of a person of Japanese origin running for Congress six years after Pearl Harbor–this might be a news story.’”

Though Ellison's status as the first Muslim elected to Congress is widely known, fewer are aware that he was born into a Catholic family in Detroit and was brought up attending Catholic schools.

But he said he was never comfortable with that faith.

“I just felt it was ritual and dogma,” Ellison said. “Of course, that’s not the reality of Catholicism, but it’s the reality I lived. So I just kind of lost interest and stopped going to Mass unless I was required to.”

It wasn’t until he was a student at Wayne State University in Detroit when Ellison began, “looking for other things.”

[Iscool]

Well co-redemptrix is Latin.

But what is it translated to English??? It certainly can't be co-redeemer...

[Judith Anne]

In my Lutheran background many people, including me in the past, idolize Martin Luther.

Thank you very much for saying that. Some time ago, I related that when my husband and I were meeting with his Lutheran minister for pre-marriage counseling, I had offered to convert to the Lutheran Church. The pastor said that I would have to be willing to die for Martin Luther as well as Christ, and I declined. I was roundly criticized for that, and told that I was stating a falsehood. I wasn't, that is the truth.

[Judith Anne]

Translated into English, it is “woman with the Redeemer.”

[Running On Empty]

“When the time comes,
you will fully understand”

Jeremiah 30:24

[HossB86]

Yes, that's apparent by your posts...

How very droll of you.

I'm still curious... why did you use Quix's answer to my post and place it another in such a way as to call into question if it was an authentic response to a different post?

Confusion might be on your part. Just checking.

Hoss

[marbren]

If God is no respecter of person but somehow it's OK for marbren to discuss other's fruits and then draw others in to discuss it also?

I was talking about a tree being known by its fruit. I am also talking about public figures with a record. IOW, for instance, Obama has no fruit. To me Mother Teresa model is one of repentance with surrender and Martin Luther model is one of reformation and common sense. I am not saying God did not call Martin and use him mightily.

After the main surrendered to the Father's will model of The Lord Jesus Christ, I think the Bible stories about hero's of faith or not are there as guides for us. Samuel was about the most surrendered for his whole life. At the end He was frustrated about Israel not understanding His message. St.Paul arrived there though his experiences. Joseph is a neat model. etc.

JPII is interesting. He was definitely a politician to begin with but His Faith model during his Parkinson's was incredible. A wonderful example of what the Apostle Paul is saying when God says my grace is sufficient.

[CynicalBear]

>>Say what you like, that Christians meet on Sunday to worship and break bread is Scriptural. And that nearly every Christian adheres to this is because of the Church.<<

You make the statement that Christians worship on Sunday “because of the Church”. Then you go into a long discussion including scripture that it was the Apostles who set that precedent. Which is it? I’ll tell you which it is. It’s because in Acts it is recorded that the desciples were gathered to eat and Paul preached. It does not call it the Lords day.

The Ten Commandments do however designate the Sabbath. Not even the RCC will claim that the Ten Commandments have been abolished.

Exodus 20:8-11: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

What is called “the day of the Lord” or “the Lords day”. Look at the rest of scripture. Never is any day of the week called the Lords day. It always refers to the “day of the Lord” being the time of the tribulation.

Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

The day of the Lord or Lords day is well established in scripture as the time of the tribulation. That’s what John was saying in Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Neither reference nor any indication is given in all of scripture which day of the week it was. It was however as proven by prophecy and the words of the Apostles a reference to “the day of the Lord” or the tribulation. For anyone to claim a specific day of the week is not supported by scripture and in fact is contradicted by scripture.

>>But, we are never told in Scripture when that practice stopped, but we know it did and Sunday was the day Christians met and worshiped the Lord.<<

So you are saying that the establishment of Sunday over the Sabbath was instituted by man and not by God and recorded in scripture. (doctrine of man?)

John was a leader of the Church in Asia Minor. Specifically, Ephesus and Asia Minor. John, and a claimed follower of his named Polycarp, kept the Saturday Sabbath. There is no direct, nor indirect, historical evidence that John and other true Christians ever observed Sunday.

Now if you want to do a study on whom it was who did establish Sunday as the Lords day you may want to start with a couple writings. Thomas H. Greer wrote:

“Mithra was also associated with the sun, and his followers marked Sunday as his day of worship. They called it the "Lord's Day," for Mithra was known to them as Lord (Greer T. A brief history of Western man, 3rd edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977; Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Apr 27, 2006, p. 121).

Even Martin Luther King understood and wrote in a letter about it in 1950.

Mithraism...was suppressed by the Christians sometime in the latter part of the fourth century A.D.: but its collapse seems to have been due to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines had been adopted by the church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival.

...the Church made a sacred day out of Sunday partially because...of the resurrection. But when we observe a little further we find that as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra: it is also interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Lord, Sunday must have been "the Lord's Day" long before Christian use. It is also to be noticed that our Christmas, December 25th, was the birthday of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.

To make the picture a little more clear, we may list a few of the similarities between these two religions: (1) Both regard Sunday as a Holy Day. (2) December 25 came to be considered as the anniversary of the birth of Mithra and Christ also. (3) Baptism and a ritual meal were important parts of both groups...

In summary we may say that the belief in immortality, a mediator between god and man, the observance of certain sacramental rites...were common to Mithraism and Christianity. (King ML. The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Volume 4. Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, Penny A. Russell editors/compliers. University of California Press, 1992, pp. 307, 309.)

Your “Church” claim of Sunday as the Lords day appears to have its roots more in paganism then scripture.

[marbren]

ONLY God's Word has ALL The Truth. Not any church, member or so called scholar.

I agree! This is what my experience and relationship with My Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

[Iscool]

What do you think that the Catholic hospitals are doing? When you bring somebody back to life that has been clinically dead for the better part of an hour, is that doing God's will or is what you are doing?

That's pathetic...Jesus did not tell his disciples to raise one out of a thousand from the dead...Is that the best you can do??? Your religion has failed miserably at fulfilling that commission as well as all churches...

You are so pro your religion as opposed to pro scripture that you wouldn't admit an obvious failure by your religion in a million years...

But the proofs in the pudding...Your religion has never fulfilled the Great Commission...

[HossB86]

One doesn't "blaspheme" regular humans, departed or not.

One can only "blaspheme" God.

BULLSEYE! The fact that the claim that one can blaspheme Mary speaks volumes. But, sadly, those that claim they don't worship Mary prove themselves liars by their actions.

The very thought that blaspheming Mary could be possible is abhorrent... and more accurately -- blasphemous!

Hoss

[bronx2]

Suggesting that one "Submit to the Jews" is hilarious as most of today's Jews are secular humanistic atheists who despise God. These Jews do not want the Bible Thumpers anywhere near them.

You need to obtain a sense of historical reality.Your flawed assertion that Catholics could not have certitude on the whole canon until 1400 years after the last book was written has been challenged and refuted on many occasions. You need to read objective historical sources not subjective bible college nonsense.

Reading the cite you offered, one can readily discern its intellectual bankruptcy and lack of historical integrity.

Before offering a cite you need to ensure its objective historical nature or else have its offering neutered.

[Mad Dawg]

Seriously, how do you cultivate such patience and forbearance without chemicals?

I love Truth and Reason -- the Logos. He taught me I must love people. He gives me the love since I can't do a single thing unless He does it in me, both the choosing and the doing.

Okay, the real answer is I have no clue, but I thank God and, by His gift, remember that I can irritate others too.

At least some portion of the anger directed to us is because people really see us as threats to the Gospel and tempters of souls. Of course I think they are wrong about us, but they are right to love the Gospel and to care for God's people.

[marbren]

but only had strong words to say about them when he couldn't convert them.

Was he frustrated? Was he content? Was he disappointed? Did he have unmet expectations? Had he surrendered to The Father's will? Was he using his common sense? Was he proud? Was he stubborn? Was his trust in God the fleshy kind with expectations? Did he have true repentance with a broken Spirit? Did the Holy Spirit direct him to use the strong words? Is his life a good model for us? I do not know but, Thank God, God knows

[Not gonna take it anymore]

I’m so glad you liked it. I first saw it months ago on

http://www.conversiondiary.com/

the story of an atheist who came to believe and became a Catholic.

[marbren]

The pastor said that I would have to be willing to die for Martin Luther as well as Christ,

Judith Anne, I do not doubt your testimony.

[Iscool]

Show me where Trinity is found in Scripture, even from Jesus Himself? If you hold to Trinitarian doctrine, you must hold to Mother of God.

That's obscene...

The Trinity is all over the scriptures...So if your religion couldn't find the Trinity in the scriptures, where did they get it??? They made it up???

You poor Catholics...Your bosses told you that you couldn't find the Trinity in the bible and you took their word for it...

But here's the major clue...If no one can find the Trinity in the scriptures, there is no Trinity...

But fortunately, we Christians find the Trinity everywhere in the scriptures...Your bosses can't dupe us...

[CynicalBear]

>>The implication was not a longer time - it was the fact that there was a whole new generation of people born after Christ who never knew him. Those of us who are familiar with what we now know about those times understand that this was the driving factor behind the writing and collecting of NT Scripture.<<

So you are saying that none of the Apostles, who knew and followed Christ, wrote any of the books of the New Testament?

[Mad Dawg]

But what is it translated to English??? It certainly can't be co-redeemer...

I don't get it. It means "(female) co-buying-back-person."

[Judith Anne]

Thanks. That makes up for being called a liar.

[Judith Anne]

Oh, well, I thought it mean “woman with the Redeemeer.”

I defer to you.