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My Faith: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), from Catholic to Muslim
CNN ^ | 9/1/11 | Chris Welch

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Islam; Theology
KEYWORDS: blackmuslims; islam; keithellison; muslim
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To: smvoice

This is when I want to hit my head on the wall, get rip-roaring snockered, take my clothes off and run down the street butt-nekkid.

It is only my profound concern for a more beautiful America which restrains me from doing so. I mean, I’m the guy who promised his friends that I would NOT participate in National Wear Your Speedo day. I am all heart and I don’t care who knows it ...

The very thing which you say blows up our notion of priesthood is the very thing, I say, upon which the priesthood is based and from which it draws its being!

Seriously. I think this calls for a drunk. Uh drink. DRINK. I said, “DRINK, darn it”.

The VERY THING! Srsly. HE is THE Priest. There is no other. All. Before him were shadows or imposters. All since are imposters or “in” the priesthood because they are “in” Him.

I think I will now go nutz.


3,021 posted on 09/12/2011 8:24:56 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Natural Law; CynicalBear
"the priest succeeds in becoming a perfect Imitation of Christ."

A sort of stand-in? Except for the FACT that the priest is, himself, a fallen, fallible man.

3,022 posted on 09/12/2011 8:25:14 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice
"“Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins”"

That phrase does not appear in Scripture. The closest thing that you will find is the description, in Luke and Matthew of the baptisms of John the Baptist as a Baptism of Repentance, not unlike the phrase a Baptism of fire.

3,023 posted on 09/12/2011 8:33:53 PM PDT by Natural Law (For God so loved the world He did not send a book.)
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To: Not gonna take it anymore
If baptism means nothing, then why did Christ say to go into all nations and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit?

I didn't say that baptism means nothing, or that it's meaningless.

I said that it's as useless for attaining salvation as circumcision was.

Baptism is symbolic in nature, an outward profession of an inward act of grace.

That's why people want to be baptized after conversion, as a witness to the world of the life changing act of grace through faith that they experienced when they were born again (Jesus' words, not ours).

3,024 posted on 09/12/2011 8:35:13 PM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: Mad Dawg
Back away from that Speedo and calm down.

I'm sorry if it offends you, but I do NOT understand how Christ being an everlasting priest of the order of Melchisedec, which is NOT passed to another, as in the Aaronic priesthood, and has made the only true atonement for sins, and is able to save from all sin to the uttermost, in all places, at all time and under all circumstances, has need of a succession of priests, vicars. He is the priest. That is forever. Where did all the others come from? And more importantly, WHY?

3,025 posted on 09/12/2011 8:35:57 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: Natural Law
OK, NL, here's the Scripture, although I'm pretty sure you know what I was referring to.

"Ant He said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, He that Believeth and IS BAPTIZED SHALL BE SAVED." Mark 16:15,16.

"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and BE BAPTIZED everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38).

Your point was BAPTISM for remission of sins. Our point was The BLOOD OF CHRIST for the remission of sins. Just in case you forgot what you were arguing about..

3,026 posted on 09/12/2011 8:42:59 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice

I SO love Hebrews. I can’t really say why. But it is wonderful. I have thought so since I was 11 years old.

You know how some verses sing? Like most of Isaiah? It is customary in the Episcopal Church (and the Catholic) to have lay people read the reading from the OT and the Letters. A deacon or a priest reads from the Gospels.

So when I was (as I thought) a priest in the Episcopal Church I never got to read Isaiah 40 or 55, or any of the Epistles. And I simply LOVE them!

So I’m happy to be a lay-d00d. I get to read the most wonderful readings!

If I were dying in a monastery, I would ask thay Hebrews be read to me as I died.

I’m tired of arguing. I want to sit and pray with the brothers God has given me in Jesus and share in the joy of his extravagant love.


3,027 posted on 09/12/2011 8:42:59 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: metmom

So sorry, you’re so wrong.

Baptism is the new circumcision. It’s okay to accept the words of Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

You don’t have to fear or deny, only accept the words of Jesus.

From a Catholic. Who knew that a Catholic believes in Jesus and His word? /s


3,028 posted on 09/12/2011 8:43:51 PM PDT by Not gonna take it anymore
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To: metmom
"You mean Jesus was wrong about blood being needed to cleanse from sin?"

No, I mean you are wrong. The Blood is not needed to cleanse, but to atone. As a former Catholic you must be familiar with the Nicene Creed which states; "One baptism for the forgiveness of sins"

3,029 posted on 09/12/2011 8:44:09 PM PDT by Natural Law (For God so loved the world He did not send a book.)
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To: Mad Dawg

Don’t argue. Rejoice. His truth will endure forever.


3,030 posted on 09/12/2011 8:45:33 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice
"Except for the FACT that the priest is, himself, a fallen, fallible man."

This is precisly why Christ himself is present.

3,031 posted on 09/12/2011 8:48:19 PM PDT by Natural Law (For God so loved the world He did not send a book.)
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To: Mad Dawg
Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ, and your testimony about the guy who was faking it!

Here's an interesting point of view with a quote from Peters:

Antisemitism and the "conversos"

Antisemitic attitudes increased all over Europe during the late thirteenth century and throughout the fourteenth century. England and France expelled their Jewish populations in 1290 and 1306 respectively (Peters 1988: 79). At the same time, during the Reconquista, Spain’s anti-Jewish sentiment steadily increased. This prejudice climaxed in the summer of 1391 when violent anti-Jewish riots broke out in Spanish cities like Barcelona (Peters 1988: 82). These mob riots led to major forced conversions of Jews to Christianity. To distinguish them from non-converted or long-established Christian families, new converts were labeled conversos, or New Christians. These distinctions formed part of the limpieza de sangre ("blood purity") doctrine.

Peters writes,

“From the mid fifteenth century on, religious anti-Semitism changed into ethnic anti-Semitism, with little difference seen between Jews and conversos except for the fact that conversos were regarded as worse than Jews because, as ostensible Christians, they had acquired privileges and positions that were denied to Jews. The result of this new ethnic anti-Semitism was the invocation of an inquisition to ferret out the false conversos who had, by becoming formal Christians, placed themselves under its authority” (Peters 1988: 84). It was a heated mixture of this racial and religious prejudice against the conversos that ignited what later became known as the “Spanish Inquisition.”

Historical Revision of the Inquisition (wiki)


3,032 posted on 09/12/2011 8:48:43 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Mad Dawg

MD: “I’m tired of arguing. I want to sit and pray with the brothers God has given me in Jesus and share in the joy of his extravagant love.”

Dear brother Mad Dawg—how did you get so wise so soon?

Praise God!


3,033 posted on 09/12/2011 8:54:27 PM PDT by Running On Empty (The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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To: smvoice

My dear smvoice,

I’m not offended. I’m just very tired and really glad that God loves both of us and showers us with delights.

I’ll try to be all serious and disputatious (in the best sense of course) tomorrow. But tonight God is reminding me that at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Taste and see!


3,034 posted on 09/12/2011 8:56:34 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Natural Law
A "perfect imitation of Christ." Except that he is fallible and fallen. And yet possesses the abilities to retain or remit sins?

NL, really...please see.

3,035 posted on 09/12/2011 8:58:53 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: Natural Law

Thanks, NL


3,036 posted on 09/12/2011 8:59:55 PM PDT by Running On Empty (The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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To: Mad Dawg

AMEN, my dear brother in Christ! Have a night to remember!

smvoice


3,037 posted on 09/12/2011 9:02:31 PM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice; Running On Empty; Quix; boatbums; Natural Law; Judith Anne; Cronos

Psalm 136. For His mercies endure forever.

And ever

And then some. ;-)

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!

Goodnight, beloved in the Lord. We may go to sleep weeping, but as the harvesters sing, shouldering their sheaves, we will wake to joy and to complete satisfaction, beholding (at last!) His glorious face.


3,038 posted on 09/12/2011 9:05:34 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Running On Empty

I am not wise. I am one of his fools whom he has made, like leviathan, for the sport of it.

Okay. NOW I’m crying.


3,039 posted on 09/12/2011 9:10:08 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Running On Empty
"Thanks, NL"

I deserve no thanks. I am only a witness.

3,040 posted on 09/12/2011 9:11:09 PM PDT by Natural Law (For God so loved the world He did not send a book.)
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