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 ...
From the Jewish perspective, the inquisition began as an internal Christian matter but became a pretext for harassing them including burning many copies of the Talmud, forced conversions, deaths and expulsions. The story of Antonio Jose de Silva is a case in point.
So yes, I am curious whether the Jews are satisfied with the inquisition revisionism. But as with all things, the important part is whether Christ is satisfied with it.
Yes, it would seem so. The thing some of "them" don't get is that they can bully and bluster and threaten until the cows come home but the jig is up, the mask has been torn away and they have no temporal power anymore to force anyone to do anything. The truth that the Reformation brought out - and was never really hidden to the remnant - is that the "church" is and has always been a called-out assembly and a spiritual body. As such, it cannot be confined into a single entity or institution. The unity Jesus prayed for was the unity of the faith - the Christian faith in Christ as Savior.
The reason they were able to get away with so much starting in the early centuries after Constantine is they were granted the backing of the power of the state. Ever since then, that entity - that may have at one time really consisted of genuine Christians - no longer had that personal faith as a requirement and the power of the position is what attracted many. Instead, someone was born into it - being christened as an infant - and nurtured in the ways and rites, never having been required to make a personal confession of faith. The very idea - as we see being expressed by some here - that it even is a personal relationship is mocked, denied and anathematized. Instead of willful obedience to the commandments of God - which are meant to glorify him and prove our faith and love to the world - they have made it a prerequisite to remain in the body of Christ. It is as if the sacrifice of Christ for us had no purpose other than to merely "open a gate" so that the rest of the work to attain perfection to make it the rest of the way becomes our job alone.
Christianity is set apart from all the other religions of the world by the very fact that it is not us binding ourselves back to God by our own efforts, but that God binds us back to him by the sacrifice of Christ in our place and his offering us eternal life as a gift of his grace. God set the punishment and payment for sin as death and then came down and made the payment for us, in our place. It doesn't matter if the religion is Hinduism, Buddhism, Shamanism, or any other ism and it doesn't matter what the final goal is - nirvana, god consciousness, happy hunting grounds - every religion that is man made requires the man to do something to earn it. Every one BUT Christianity but here we have a religion that claims it is the original Christian but it is no different than the isms. It is STILL what we must do to earn, merit, work for, deserve or pay. That is NOT the Christianity of the Bible, it is not the Christianity taught by Jesus Christ or the apostles. Instead it has been perverted and is condemned as accursed because it is no longer the Gospel.
I know these threads get heated and feelings get hurt but it is SO critical and SO important that the true Gospel gets preached that sometimes it means some people get their "ox" gored. And that ox had to be gored because it was a deceiver of men's hearts and it is more important that the Gospel be made clear than people's feelings get spared. Nobody likes to be wrong, no one enjoys criticism. We must speak the truth with love, and the love sometimes is tough love, but it has to be proclaimed. All glory to the Lord!
Yeah. He was pretty cool. Another hero of that time was Bartolome de las Casas. Every once in a while we Dominicans get something right.
One last time. Don't you think it is awfully coincidental that the number you come up with - after careful gleaning of the "independent, objective" documents - and the number quoted in the article just happens to be the same?
You have not ever done the research to plausibly state with certainty that the numbers you assert are found there correlate to at least 30000+ plus discrete protestant entities . You have stated yourself that you have NOT done what would be required to separate the entities out by denomination and instead presume they speak of entirely distinct denominations. So quit stating you have, you contradict yourself. If you stick to that wrong assertion then you will have to answer for why there are 8000 Catholic denominations.
When Jesus prayed for unity of faith he said there would be one faith, one Lord and one baptism. ANY person that has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is baptized in the blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit and is united in the same faith, same Lord and same baptism as any other person that has done so. It does NOT matter what denomination or assembly name they attend or not attend. God sees the heart and he knows who is his own. Rather than boastfully claiming your religion is united - which we KNOW is not a true statement regardless of what you may say - why not recognize that God is so much more than to be restricted to one church tradition. You know that being a Catholic does not always equate to being a true, born again Christian. People go through the actions and rituals all the time that do not have an once of faith in them. God knows who are his own children. Membership in a church does NOT mean one is a Christian.
bb: “you know that being a Catholic does not always equate to being a true, born again Christian.”
This is no doubt true.
However, the same could be said of “professed” Christians in any “denomination”.
“God knows who are his own children”.
This also is true.
For that reason, it ill behooves any of us to take on that particular responsibility—to know for certain who are God’s children....and who may not be.
I’m getting tired of this not-so-subtle style of presuming who are the Lord’s and who may not be that I read here on this forum. It seems to me that it is a thinly veiled genre of Phariseeism.
May the Lord spare us from attempting to see into the hearts of others, even if it is so carefully worded as to appear referring to Everyman and not a particular person.
“God’s love for each individual is totally personal and includes this mystery of a uniqueness that cannot be divulged to other human beings.” Pope Benedict XVI
Sometimes zeal can forget it’s purpose all the while it re-doubles its efforts.
You must be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
It ain’t just an altar call. It isn’t just the sinners’ prayer.
Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
Luk 23:40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
Luk 23:41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
Luk 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Why did you ping me to this? Please refrain from doing so in the future. Thank you.
Factcheck:
Abraham, according to Gen 25:9, was laid to rest by Isaac and Ishmael, who buried him in the cave of Machpelah, along side of his wife Sarah, who preceded him (Gen 23). this site is called the Cave of the Patriarchs and is located in Hebron. AFAIR, There is *no* account of his translation whatsoever.
Moses was buried by YHWH Himself, in an unknown grave in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor (Deut. 34:6). To further the point, The devil disputed with Michael the Archangel over the body of Moses. To my knowledge, the only group that declares Moses to be translated bodily into heaven are the Mormons.
And no, btw, Mary's assumed assumption is not "perfect keeping with Scripture", as the only two known to have ascended, Enoch and Elijah, never tasted death (but likely will before they are done), and were specifically mentioned in the Scriptures. There can be no contention over the facts, as the Bible is explicit.
According to the earliest tradition I am aware of, Mary died, and was laid to rest in the Tomb of Mary in Jerusalem. Later revision has Thomas arriving late, and the tomb being opened so that he could pay his respects - whereupon the body of Mary was found to be absent. Even later revisions complicate the tale, and look a lot like revisionism to move away from the early tradition that Mary died, and was buried (being very different from the only two instances of real translation).
In keeping with reasonable historicity, without further evidences, the historical record closest to the event should bear the most weight... And that record (originating c.600/700AD, IIRC) even though formed substantially distant from the event, and thereby hardly believable, still depicts a bodily death and interment... which differs greatly from those previous accounts where death never occurred.
Since this is NOT contained withing the catechism, it is meaningless then, isn't it...That's what you guys tell us constantly...
Just what exactly does that mean to you guys???
HaHaHa...You need a pope to interpret the scripture and you need a pope to interpret the catechism...
They sure figured out how to keep you guys in the dark...Don't you guys realize how absurd that is???
They convince you that you can't understand the bible so they write a catechism to explain the bible (or parts of it)...Then they tell you that you can't understand the catechism either...
How many times did you see the word water in the verses you cited??? Oh, none???
You don't even know the answer to that yet you seem to think you are an expert on the unity of the Body of Christ or any thing else biblical???
Mysteries??? There's no mystery to it...
As for your inane assertion that Catholics are split into denominations let me remind if you are not connected to the magisterium you are a protestant which probably increases the 30000 plus number far past that 1998 figure.
Any man who follows "wise" men in this world and believe these "wise" men have the answers, and yet those answers cannot be found in GOd's word, are deceiving themselves. THese men who sit around and decide what God really meant to say, or that God "implied" are believed to be the wisest men in the world. It is foolishness with God. His word is the wisdom of this world. Not man's feeble and fallible attempt to represent God's thoughts, not by His word, but by their doctrines and traditions. They are deceivers and those who put their faith and trust in those fallible men are deceiving themselves that those who pervert the word of God are actually giving the word of God.
Want to make certain you are not deceived? "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Tim 2:15.
Nice.
It’s fun to ring the changes on the old gag, “Often wrong, never in doubt.”
For example, I am often wrong, yet it has to be a very dark day for me to doubt that God loves me.
And double yes to PapaBenXVI. There is most the secret side of every encounter with the Lord. Even the old hymn gets it right: None other has ever known.
Thank you, MD.
God teaches us so many things in the hardest times in our lives. It was those times—the tough ones-—that I realized how much He loves me, and how many reasons I have to be grateful and how important it is not to look back and not to concentrate on all the wrongs I had committed in my life but instead to put my heart and mind and soul into how much He loves me and how I can never be grateful enough for that Love.
This is what it’s really all about.
Knowledge puffs up but wisdom edifies. Knowledge passes, but love endures.
Yours,
ROE
PS
“Mary had nothing to give Him but herself. She was not asked to renounce anything, but to let something be done to her.
He asked for nothing else.”
...Caryll Houselander “The Way of the Cross”
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