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.”

[Cronos]

Now the Unitarian joins in!! What a bunch you hang out with boatbums -- there is the one who believes that God is a modalist, groups that believe that God is an alien, Unitarians believing that Jesus is just a "good man", etc, the guys who say Jesus was never a man, etc.

What a bunch! Christian? naaah... Anything except Christ -- yes, that's the bunch.

I'm glad Quix has coined the term "proddy" -- that denotes a group separate from Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, etc -- they believe in Christ as Lord, God and Savior and aren't among the bunch of Raelians that is this "proddy" group.

[Cronos]

So, the biblical unitarians?!

Let's see, we have had these crazy statements from the leftist loons also known as the Unitarians:

Some local religious leaders support same-sex marriage {Unitarians, .}

"When any commentator says religion is against gay marriage, it really rankles me," said the Rev. Jan Carlsson-Bull of the Unitarian Univeralist Congregation of the Catskills. UU ministers presided over hundreds of gay weddings in New Paltz in 2004 after Mayor Jason West was barred from doing so.

Nothing in the old or new testaments suggests to Carlsson-Bull that marriage must be between a man and a woman.

"(The Bible) is not a doctrine, but an anthology," she said. "It was put together by decisions that were political as well as religious."

What a bunch of loons!

[Cronos]

So, the biblical unitarians?!

Let's see, we have had these crazy statements from the leftist loons also known as the Unitarians:

gay rights activists: Geneva's Unitarian remains bastion of liberal ministry

Pamela Rumancik, 49, who’s openly lesbian, recently finished a year of training as a minister at Geneva’s Unitarian Universalist Church. Her role was assistant minister, leading services and performing weddings and memorial services.

Rumancik grew up Catholic and was always involved with the church.

“I couldn’t be a minister in the Catholic Church, but I could as a Unitarian,” she said.

..“As a Catholic, I was totally repressed so much,” Rumancik said. “I really didn’t notice (I was a lesbian) until I got older.”

What a bunch of loons! The Lesbian and Gay club is another name for the Unitarians! Biblical, yeah, right.... ;-P

[Cronos]

So, the biblical unitarians?!

Let's see, we have had these crazy statements from the leftist loons also known as the Unitarians:

the Unitarian "mission"

A recent Sunday service at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore ended with an apology.

Laurel Mendes, a neo-pagan lay member who led the service, feared that a reference to God in the hymn “Once to Every Soul and Nation” might have upset the humanists in the pews. So, Mendes explained to the congregation that religious doctrine had been duly scrubbed from hymns in the Sunday program.

“I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable by reciting something that might be considered a profession of faith,” Mendes, 52, said after the service. “We did say ‘God,’ which you don’t often hear in our most politically correct hymns.”

Welcome to a typical Sunday in the anything-but-typical Unitarian Universalist Association

"Biblical Unitarian"? What a triumph of looniness!

[Cronos]

In Unitarian social clubs there is no Bible, no God, no Scripture, no nothing.

But there are all kinds of homosexual advocating brochures available along with every possible kind of anti-American literature you could think of.

Congratulations Old_Reggie!

[daniel1212]

Thanks. The apostolic authorship was important, but what established the apostles as being of God was their holy qualities, scriptural conflation and complementarity and supernatural attestation, (Acts 17:2; 28:23; 2Cor. 4:2; 6:1-10; 12:12) which qualities were behind the gradual establishment of the Divine writings as being that. I believe the relatively obscure apocryphal writings fail this witness, but whether the were quoted is not a deciding aspects, as books such as non-canonical Enoch are.

But i do not think it is correct to say that no early church “fathers” considered the apocryphal works as equal to the already established Jewish Scriptures, as Augustine did and led a majority, while i also think the local councils mentioned were in full agreement at least as re their formal ratifications of books.

My point was that there was debate while Trent was the first to issued an infallible canon which ended any debate for RCs, although there some Catholics who reject some of what Trent affirmed, such as in its attribution of authorship re Hebrews, 2 Peter, etc.

[Cronos]

Old_Reggie, the "Biblical Unitarian"

for you

[Cronos]

Old_Reggie, the "Biblical Unitarian"

Now we discover what "biblical unitarianism" or bible study by unitarians really is!

[Cronos]

And thanks to Mark for pointing out that now the Unitarian Universalists can have their own magic underwear. :)

[Cronos]

biblical UUs are ashamed of their cult and don't even talk about it, or what they believe or don't believe either as a cult or as individuals.

What a sad sad bunch of losers who can only focus on attacking Christians rather than on God...

[Quix]

BTW, Jesus has made it abundantly clear the last 3 months that He lovingly knows me quite well.

[Quix]

1. WRONG AGAIN.

2. I do not hate all things Roman Catholic.

3. Thankfully, I know in Whom I have believed . . .

4. I do NOT accept the ‘luck’ of the likes of y’all’s Ishtar-Mary-Goddess figure. Luck is a pagan goddess as well. No authentic Chinese Christian would say such a thing. I accept the Blessings of The Lord through Christ’s Blood and Cross only.

5. Hint: Churchianity will not save. Nor will the doctrines of demons so many such edifices are rife with.

6. What’s scary is the outrageous degree of brazenly blasphemous idolatry RC’s pretend is not just OK but WONDERFULLY CHRISTIAN! GAG.

[marbren]

The Church proclaims the truth which we may accept or not accept.

I like this line. I do not know but, Thank God, God knows.

The visible church proclaims many things some true and some not. That is okay, we all see through a glass darkly.

When we hear something the Holy Spirit inside us will discern if it is true or not. Christ lives in us. God's Word is the final authority.

There is not one visible church in this world without baggage. I know from experience my church does. Every church has weeds and wheat.

I for one will not decide what church anyone should attend. What if God wants you to be wheat amongst a big pile of weeds? Mother Teresa is good example of wheat as shown by her fruits. David Wilkerson is also wheat.

[marbren]

Protestants are not unified.

The unity is in love. an internal thing, not external visible things. I have unity with Mother Teresa. I do not agree with everything she says however. I have unity with Quix. I do not agree with everything he says however. I have unity with Mad Dawg. I do not agree with everything he says however. I have unity with Alamo-Girl. I have agreed with everything she has said so far to me on FR maybe someday she will say something I do not agree with but that is OK we are all a bunch of poor miserable sinners in need of a Savior.

[Cronos]

I know in Whom I have believed .

you mean like Jesse Duplantis who said he went to heaven and comforted Jesus? Oh yeah, your post here says that according to you "Jesse is 1000% true to scripture". And the same extension to Benny Hinn.

Whatever your group believes, it sure don't believe in Jesus as the Way.

[Cronos]

made it abundantly clear the last 3 months

tsk, tsk, May 21 failed.

And the daddy rejected his crazy son who thinks he is a pscyhologist, right?

[Cronos]

Nah, your incomplete, sad little group that tries desperately to hide its hollowness with song and dance forgets that the Word of God is Jesus Christ. Learn something, bb

[Cronos]

Man, talk about groups that have no knowledge -- your group, bb is wrong. The Deuterocanonical books were included in the Septuagint which is what Jesus and the Apostles referred to -- now if your group wants to reject it, go ahead.

These books were in the Jewish Septuagint which Jesus and the Disciples referred to, they were read by Christians throughout the centuries and were included in the first editions of Luther's Bible and the KJV (King James Version) and in all Bibles until the late 1700s to 1800s.

They are inspired just as the Song of Songs etc. were

In fact 2 Maccabees 7 is what Hebrews 11:35 refers to

Some links between this book and the NT: Matt. 24:15 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) -- this is tied to 2 Macc. 8:17 [17] Setting before their eyes the injury they had unjustly done the holy place, and also the injury they had done to the city, which had been shamefully abused, besides their destroying the ordinances of the fathers.

While in Luke 24:4 and Acts 1:10 - Luke's description of the two men in dazzling apparel reminds us of 2 Macc. 3:26

The links also extend between this book and Revelation

Rev. 17:14 14These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. - description of God as King of kings follows 2 Macc. 13:4 But the King of kings stirred up the mind of Antiochus against the sinner, and upon Lysias suggesting that he was the cause of all the evils, he commanded (as the custom is with them) that he should be apprehended and put to death in the same place.

you can find out more at this link

The Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox include the deuterocanonical books. The basis for these books is found in the early Koine Greek Septuagint translation of the Jewish scriptures. This translation was widely used by the Early Christians and is the one most often quoted (300 of 350 quotations including many of Jesus' own words) in the New Testament when it quotes the Old Testament.

According to J. N. D. Kelly, "It should be observed that the Old Testament thus admitted as authoritative in the Church… always included, though with varying degrees of recognition, the so-called Apocrypha or deuterocanonical books."

The traditional explanation of the development of the Old Testament canon describes two sets of Old Testament books, the protocanonical and the deuterocanonical books. According to this theory, certain Church fathers accepted the inclusion of the deuterocanonical books based on their inclusion in the Septuagint (most notably Augustine), while others disputed their status based on their exclusion from the Hebrew Bible (most notably Jerome). Michael Barber argues that this time-honored reconstruction is grossly inaccurate and that "the case against the apocrypha is overstated"

From the same link above,

Besides moving the Apocrypha to a lower level, Luther also did many other canon-related things. He argued unsuccessfully for the relocation of Esther from the Canon to the Apocrypha, since without the deuterocanonical sections, it never mentions God.

And Esther is in all OTs, right?

[Cronos]

when we read Chapter 1 and 2 of 1 Maccabees, we read how Antiochus defiled the Holy Temple and put an abomination in there and the righteous Jews fled to the mountains.

And this connects with Matthew 24:15-20

[15] When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.
[16] Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains:
[17] And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house:
[18] And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat.
[19] And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days.
[20] But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.

And you see the parallels in 1 Macc 1.34 "And they took the women captive, and the children, and the cattle they possessed" and 39 "And they shed innocent blood round about the sanctuary, and defiled the holy place"
and 1 MAcc 2:32-38

And forthwith they went out towards them, and made war against them on the sabbath day, [33] And they said to them: Do you still resist? come forth, and do according to the edict of king Antiochus, and you shall live. [34] And they said: We will not come forth, neither will we obey the king's edict, to profane the sabbath day.
[35] And they made haste to give them battle.
[36] But they answered them not, neither did they cast a stone at them, nor stopped up the secret places,
[37] Saying: Let us all die in our innocency: and heaven and earth shall be witnesses for us, that you put us to death wrongfully.
[38] So they gave them battle on the sabbath: and they were slain with their wives, and their children, and their cattle, to the number of a thousand persons

Jesus was no doubt drawing on the historical memory of the Jews -- or rather on the recent historical memory -- this had happened less than 200 years earlier.

[MarkBsnr]

So to you it’s either Billy Bob Rolex or Mother Teresa?

Unlike so many, I do not believe in a relative Gospel, the relativity being what the state of my intestines are in this morning.

You can’t seem to back up your beliefs with scripture.

Can you show me where you have posted Gospel proofs for your beliefs as much as I have?

Are you sure you should be posting in a religion forum?

We bring Christianity to the heretics, apostates and pagans. You're welcome.