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 ...
They’re just lucky I wasn’t elected a co-Pope. The first infallible act I would institute is asking Robert Drobot to make his weekly “War and Peace Saints Parade” Threads into links. So much bandwith, so little God’s truth.
We don’t agree that it confounds Scripture to say that Mary has been taken to heaven by Jesus. Jesus says He would give life to whom He chooses. The doctrine is not made up of whole cloth, but is a formal declaration by the Church of a belief that has been a part of the community of believers since nearly the very beginning.
The veneration of Mary began very early in the Church. The catacombs in Rome have depictions of her. There is even one of her being assumed into heaven. She is called the mother of the church and there is a fresco in those catacombs that shows her between Peter and Paul.
To say that the Church has “made up” the Marian doctrines out of whole cloth is a false accusation. As early as the second century, writers and theologians have considered Mary and her role in salvation, in the Church and in the hearts of believers.
To believe that Jesus, who is God, prepared her for Himself and then assumed her into heaven at the end of her life to be with Him does not conflict with Scripture. The Scriptures clearly shows that others are in heaven, body and soul so it is not without precedent.
To believe these things about Mary does not lead us to believe a different Gospel, it reinforces the Gospel we already believe. That Jesus is Lord, Son of the Living God and by His grace we are saved and will have eternal life with Him. To think that Jesus honored His mother is in perfect keeping with Scripture, both the plain text and the spirit.
Show me the Scripture, chapter and verse, that supports your claim. You are close, but still so very far away.
one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. - Hebrews 9:22
It doesn't bother me that you hate the Church. My only concern is that you hate it for the right reasons, not the twisted, confabulated, comic book version you spout so regularly on these threads. You have obviously been denied the opportunity to make an honest decision.
You have to actually know something about it before you are entitled to a legitimate opinion on it, and you obviously lack that. You anti-Catholics have disingenuously begun with a position of hating the Church and then have sought to establish a knowledge base that supports that position. That, my friend, is intellectually dishonest.
Show me the Scripture, chapter and verse, that supports your claim. You are close, but still so very far away.
"And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. - Hebrews 9:22
When the Roman pierced the side of Christ on the cross, it was blood and water which came from His side.
“Oh blood and water, which gushed from the heart of Jesus, as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in you.”
"denied the opportunity to make an honest decision."
The decisions are made when doctrines and dogmas are compared to Scripture. And found DESPERATELY WANTING in truth.
What are the right reasons we should "hate it for"? You seem to have a few, to make that statement.
I hate it because it lies to you who rely on it for what you believe rather then scripture.
That is the problem. The so-called Catholic doctrines and dogmas presented by the anti-Catholics on these threads are so corrupted and distorted that they do not define the actual Catholic Church. The ignorance and willful disregard for the truth displayed is breathtaking in both scope and scale.
The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "There are not even 100 people in this country who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they think the Catholic Church to be." Unfortunately, not much has changed.
You are simply wrong.
(Question: You "warned" me not to post to you. Have you had a change of mind or are you having a senior moment?)
The foundation for the Catholics of the belief that Mary is in heaven is Revelation 12. Problem is that in Revelation 12 the “woman” is talking about the nation of Israel, not Mary.
Luke 11:27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Those that hear and keep the word of God are more blessed then Mary. Jesus said so.
Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The only one greater then Jesus is John the Baptist. Not Mary. Jesus said so.
Then why don’t you set us straight? And tell us what the Catechism says instead of making us read it for ourselves and compare it to Scripture? Define the actual Catholic Church for us.
You were so inconsiderate that you posted to me anyway and you think I am having a senior moment? Do you know that I’m not keeping record of those posts since to use as evidence?
What happened on the road to Emmaus?
Jesus meets up with two of His disciples as they are leaving Jerusalem. They are distraught because of the events of the crucifixion. Jesus begins walking with them, yet He keeps them from knowing who He is. As they are walking, He begins at the beginning and reminds them of all the Scriptures that testify of Him.
When they stop for the evening, they invite Him to join them for food. He blesses the bread and breaks it and in that moment they know who He is, but then He is gone from them.
They are amazed that they had not known it was Him. “Did not our hearts burn within us while He while He opened Scripture to us?”
And they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others what had happened. They are told that Jesus has appeared to Simon and they tell them what has happened to them and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
This is why I am Catholic. It is not based on lies, it is not brainwashing or coercion or anything other that the Eucharist.
I believe in the Eucharist because I trust and believe what Jesus has told me about it in Scripture. When my heart burns within me, it is for Jesus, for He is the Word.
That is not the foundation of that belief.
Mary heard the Word of God and obeyed, that is why she was blessed to be the Mother of our Lord. She was chosen for Him because she was blessed, but the other way around.
No one, not a one, not one single Catholic has ever claimed that Mary is greater than Jesus.
That is a distortion of the doctrine and a gross misunderstanding of it results from such distortion.
Ugh, trying to rush because I have to off to work.
Should have been,
She was not chosen because she was blessed, but the other way around. She was blessed because she heard and obeyed.
Where did I insinuate they did? I did not. That post showed that Jesus considered all who believed were to be considered more blessed then Mary. “Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”
He also said that other then Him there was no one greater then John the Baptist, not even Mary.
2 Tim. 4:2 tells us to "preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."
And what doctrine is he talking about?
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim. 3:16.
So it is by Scripture that we are to reprove, rebuke and exhort those who would "corrupt the Word of God".
If the RCC is giving dogma, doctrines and beliefs based on anything other that Scripture, no matter how much scripture-lite they try to interject into their teachings, it is corrupting the Word of God.
We have 2 choices. We can "corrupt the Word of God" by ignoring the obvious lies and deceit. Or we can corrupt the words of the RCC by Scripture.
If there is any room for thinking that people are not understanding truth given, it is because the Word of God of being corrupted, and those who would stand up for God's Word are told THEY are the problem. They just don't understand Rome. Oh, we understand, all right. We understand and reject it, flat out.
But then you denigrate Him by not believing His words that there is only one mediator between Him and the Father and insert Mary and other Saints. You denigrate Him by claiming that a priest of Pope becomes Him at times. Don’t give me scripture that says to be “like Him” because being like someone is not turning into them.
My copy of the Catechism has 928 pages and represents a summation of Catholic doctrine and dogma. Your presuming that it can be conveyed casually in snippets and ignored posts is ludicrous.
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