Posted on 09/02/2011 9:07:47 AM PDT by 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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
The Word is NOT a Book.
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14
So are we to take from those two statements indicating that you ascribe to all Unitarians the comments by one Unitarian that we should also ascribe to you the statements of all Catholics? I’ll keep that in mind.
Proving once again that calvinists are humorless.
6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
7For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
This passage, taken from the KJV is quite a bit different from the “new translations”.
Here Paul is telling them that they should not go beyond what is written is trying to aggrandize themselves. To make as if they know something others don’t in an effort to bring themselves glory.
Not nearly the same as saying that only the written word has all the truth that the Holy Spirit will lead the church into.
In your next passage...Those scriptures which they searched were the OT regarding Jesus and if what the Apostles were saying about Him was truth.
Remember, this was radical to a Jew of that time. They were talking about the long awaited Messiah and a New Covenant.
As we know, this was faith and life altering, not merely a question of some Jewish law or practice. If Jesus was not the Messiah, the Apostles were talking gibberish and thus were merely proponents of another cult. Gamalies speaks of that when he stops them from killing Peter and the others.
Acts 5:36-3936For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
37After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
38And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
39But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
The Jewish people knew their Scripture. Isn’t it interesting that some saw Jesus as the Messiah and others didn’t, even though they had the same Scripture?
So you do not speculate on such things unless you have know the person and experienced their heart. Okay. Do you believe that when one dies and they have believed in Jesus their soul is in heaven? And their body awaits resurrection?
In the case of Mary, with ample evidence that God has taken others to heaven, both body and soul, Catholics believe that Jesus has taken His Mother to be with Him there.
I find that to be true. Not just because the Church has said so, that is just the beginning of knowing, but because I have searched Scriptures and find it supports that truth. It makes perfect sense to me that Our Lord would receive His Mother into heaven, both body and soul. Just as God prepared her to receive Him in her body, I believe He has rewarded her faithfulness in the same way He rewarded others.
Now if that is prophesied those alive at that time surely will know the exact day when it is going to be a specific number of days after the Anti Christ enters the Temple.
Many have thought they knew it and been wrong. Jesus says no one knows but the Father.
"....That Jesus, surnamed Christ, was not a Hypostasis but a human being is taught both by the early Fathers and in Scriptures, taken in their literal sense, and is indicated by the miracles he wrought. He, and not the Word, is also the miraculously born Son of God in fleshly form, as the Scriptures teach - not a hypostasis, but an actual Son. The Holy Spirit as a third person of the Godhead is unknown in Scripture. It is not a separate being, but an activity of God himself. The doctrine of the Trinity can be neither established by logic nor proved from Scriptures, and is in fact inconceivable."
-- Quotation from Michael Servetus, in the thread On the Errors of the Trinity
"....For many, Servetus is the ultimate example of the intolerance and cruelty of Calvin. I have no desire to try to justify the persecution or execution of heretics, but in fairness to Calvin the Servetus episode must be seen in historical context. Servetus denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and that was a capital crime almost everywhere in Europe. When Servetus came to Geneva, he had already been sentenced to death in France....Almost all Europeans in Calvin's day believed that heresy was as dangerous as the plague and that civil governments had the obligation to eradicate it....
-- from the thread Man of His Time for All Times: W. Robert Godfrey paints portrait of Calvin as pilgrim and pastor
....Sufficient evidence was found that the "Restitution" had been printed in Vienne; extracts were made from it to prove the heresies contained therein. The civil court, without waiting for the judgment of the spiritual tribunal (which was not given until six months afterwards), sentenced Servetus on the 17th of June, for heretical doctrines, for violation of the royal ordinances, and for escape from the royal prison, to pay a fine of one thousand livres tournois to the Dauphin, to be carried in a cart, together with his books, on a market-day through the principal streets to the place of execution, and to be burnt alive by a slow fire.On the same day he was burnt in effigy, together with the five bales of his book, which had been consigned to Merrin at Lyons and brought back to Vienne.
-- from Phillip Schaff's History of the Christian Church,
CHAPTER XVI: SERVETUS: HIS LIFE. OPINIONS, TRIAL, AND EXECUTION,
section 148: The Trial and Condemnation of Servetus at Vienne.
I have not danced around anything.
Why do you act as if I have and not answered you on this?
You reject what I proffered in support of it.
That is not the same as having danced around or deflected or obfuscated.
That criticism lacks credibility and rings hollow coming from a church which demands unshakable adherence to rigid doctrinal points of view and imposes the threat of hellfire and damnation for not submitting to the dictates of the RCC.
For a Catholic to disagree with the RCC is to imperil his soul.
Once again. Alex, your selective editing certainly suggests an intent to distort and deceive. Some would even go so far as to say it suggests a bald faced lie. When reviewed in the context of the Pope's entire statement one can certainly see that those who have justified their flawed theologies on snippets would take exception with the rest of Pope Benedict XVI's statement:
"It is possible to perceive the Sacred Scriptures as the word of God" only by looking at the Bible as a whole, "a totality in which the individual elements enlighten each other and open the way to understanding,"
Christianity must be rooted in scripture.
I Corinthians 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us you might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.
Acts 17:11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
“Searched the scriptures daily” even after being taught by Paul and Silas.
Now, are you “bringing” doctrines of men or can you show from scripture the proof of the bodily assumption of Mary?
Yep. Like a cheap umbrella.
Better learn your history. It was actually the Catholics who sentenced Michael Servetus to be burned at the stake in 1553. Servetus escaped only to be captured by Calvin who then had him burned at the stake using green wood to make it take longer.
Before you try to excoriate someone else you really need to know the facts or you really look ignorant.
You mean as opposed to Catholics who quickly show Biblical proof of the bodily assumption of Mary?
Maybe in slow motion he changed me into an Old Goat.
I know he was only an uneducated Newfie but I'm certain he thought it was the Priest who changed the bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus.
I'd waffle a tad on that.
Well, I don't believe he had ever heard of the Holy Spirit unless it came in a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Scripture clearly states that Jesus did more than it contains and Jesus clearly states that He had much more to teach them...I tell you all this now, while I am still with you....
John 14 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
We do not blindly follow, we accept in faith, trusting Jesus.
Take it up with Cindy Wooden and the editors of the National Catholic Register. The complaints about distortion and deception come off like those of a bald liar, trying to deflect attention away from his bad toupee.
Is it time to remind everyone that you are NOT a Unitarian as in UU, you don’t even own a subaru, you rarely embrace trees, and so forth?
Your thinking would be wrong, but you are certainly entitled to have those thoughts and be in error.
Do you really and truly believe that Catholics are just mindless zombie shills for the Catholic Church?
That would explain a lot.
My experience has been the same, dear brother in Christ! Thank you for your encouragements!
It's a big mistake to take another poster, especially me, as your example.
And calling me “Sweet Judith” is making mockery personal. Against the rules.
Forgive me; the love, kindness, understanding, and just plain "sweetness" comes through so strong in your posts I simply couldn't help myself.
If it is not written down in Scripture, how can it be followed? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is His holy Bible that contains His revelations to mankind. If you are not following the Bible, then you are following man-made doctrines and traditions. That is what you are accepting in faith, trusting Jesus that those doctrines and traditions are given by Him to fallible men to dispense to the Church. If Scripture cannot confirm what you are taught, then you are not being taught God’s word, which is Scripture.
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