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 ...
Be careful, NL. I said that I follow Paul as he follows Christ. Not that I follow Paul INSTEAD of Christ.
It seems there is an opening for another self appointed "alter moderati" with the good doctor on hiatus.
Or would that be "co-moderatrix"?
I have GOT to see that movie!
Please note my question about cooking with heat or with a stove. In our thought (such as it is) those who 'do' the (what you call) "ritual"
(I THINK 'ceremony' is more precise. It's vexed but when I was in seminary they said 'ritual' is what you say and 'ceremony' is what you do -- but they almost always go together)do not understand their action to exclude the Spirit, anymore than somebody who uses a stove means to exclude heat from the cooking process.
When I did a baptism, I didn't think I was causing anything in any fundamental way. The 'rite' was like communion in that the first part (after scripture and sermon and miscellaneous stuff) was prayer of petition. I was asking God the Holy Spirit to do that thing He does.
Then, confident not in myself but in God's promise and Love, more as a witness than a doer, then I did the washing and the "pronouncing".
We can have the infant baptism argument
Q.: Do you believe in infant Baptism?or the bigger ex opere operato argument, and they are good arguments to have, God knows!
A.: Believe in it? Heck, I've SEEN it!
But any priest or minister (anybody can baptize, but "reularly" it is done by an ordained indiwiddle) who thinks HE's God (or SHE's got) the mojo is a dope. The water doesn't do it. The "minister" (lay or ordained) doesn't do it. In our thought it is always God who does it. We just hold his coat or something.
It's like a miracle worker thinks or ought to think. Dominic didn't raise the boy from the dead. GOD raised the boy from the dead. Dominic was, like, the telephone or something.
You have so many names to choose from in the Catholicteria. “I’ll have one worship with 2 sides of hyerdulia and what the heck make that three. I’m starving here. This saint looks good today, I’ll take one but put the veneration on the side. It’s just so rich...”
Sorry, the only thing served there is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and the Bread of the Kingdom of Heaven....oh, and those really good tamales the Carmelite Sisters from Mexico sell after mass sometimes.
How do I explain?
Easy....these resources are there for our ‘choosing’.... we are not required to believe them or adhere to them as there is no Magisterim or “ruling” body that dictates how we should believe....only IN whom we should believe...and that is thru the written word of God....and is also a choice.
Our accountability is to the Christ and Him alone as our authority. This does not mean we don’t appreciate Pastors, teachers etc.,... but it is up to us to filter those teachings thru Gods word and by His Spirit within us. His word is the ultimate authority....we call ‘Him Lord of all’ for a reason.
Why be accountable to a group of men when Christ Himself is available and willing to lead us into His truth...just as He said that he would do.
Why be accountable to a group of men?
Um, because we are never commanded to be accountable to a group of self-appointed, good old boys club men.
Yikes!... Treading dangerous ground there NL......for Christ Jesus indeed cleansed us from ALL sin...past, present and future...."once for all"....and for that we are humbled beyond measure.....
Further Jesus rose from the dead that we might have a future with Him by accepting His "finished" work on our behalf.
It's really not so complicated as some make it.
We can choose to not adhere to the teachings if we choose to not be in communion as you obviously have done. Your "Protest" is against any and all authority other than the Pope in the mirror. It doesn't matter wht the original intent was as long as the Pope in the mirror has blessed it and you and you alone are convinced that you are a "good person". That makes you guilty of the heresy of Modernism.
More than a hundred years ago the Catholic Church recognized the dangers of this modernist view and formally identified it as a heresy. Today, Modernism remains a corrosive threat to Christianity because it appeals to vanities and masquerades as reform, enlightenment and tolerance. Pope Pius X wisely dubbed Modernism "the synthesis of all heresies”.
Modernism is not identifiable as a dogmatic difference with the Church, rather it is a belief that doctrine and dogma are unimportant, self determined and somehow of secondary importance to fundamental moral teachings.
“Modern” Protestant culture is full of the practice and outright evangelization of Modernism. Every hard decision we are faced with has an easier answer if we succumb to Modernism. We can absolve or diminish every grave and minor sin if we can fabricate a moral construct in which the sinner can remain “a good person”. As a consequence we live in a country in which millions of unborn are killed every year, the institution of the family is being destroyed and our children can expect a standard of living less than ours.
Heresies, no matter how popular or pervasive are still heresies. We must each choose to be in communion with the Church to become or remain Catholic. Choose wisely.
Yes, He did, but not with His blood. His blood paid for our sins.
I am certain if being accountable to a group of self-appointed men was was required I would look at Christianity in a very different light....actually whose to say then who the "real" leaders should be in any religion, cult or false religion..for they'd all claim they are the authority...and many do.
Couldn't hardly believe it was stated...no matter what the context anyone might argue...saying Jesus's blood did not remove ours sins evidences to me someone might be too close to the dark side and influences of.
I think you need to go back to the old testament and study up a bit, maybe more than a bit, about the history of what sacrificial blood is about.
Totally agree!
I know you are trying hard to explain why you believe as you do....but frankly NL Jesus said He came to set us “free” from bondage.... and that included the bondage of ‘authority’ by men who operate under the umbrella of religious laws and rules designed by those in ‘religious authority’...who laid heavy and unfair burdens on the backs of those seeking God.... Robbing them of the joy of knowing God as He wants to be known.
Jesus had much to say about them...called them “whitewashed hypocrites”...’Brood of vipers’...and pronounced many “woes” against them.
It is not that much different today for religious leaders to do likewise today....and many do. And then sprinkle it all with the name of Christ to make it official.
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