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 ...
It is either "anti-catholic" or "bigot" ...your church leaders seem to indicate those who appear as anti-catholic are simply being bigots. Which bigots have their time and place in the course of discussions...it's not a bad thing.
Okay. Did Paul write Hebrews?
Actually I’m not sure.....hasn’t been an issue for me either way as I pay more attention to the contents then the author...and there is no doubt what is written is Gods words to mankind...so .... A better question might be do I believe the scriptures are inspired by God...and His word for us today...and the answer would be yes to both.
I think that ALL these terms, washing, redeeming and the rest are all images of the one thing. I think drawing “bright lines” between these aspects of the Atonement can tangle us up.
Satisfaction, expiatory sacrifice, conquering our ancient adversary, manifesting the truth of the Love of God — all these, in my alleged thought, are not different things but one Atonement understood from different approaches.
So here, blood pays the blood debt, there it covers our death-dealing sin with the blood which is life, over there it is a tide which sweeps death and Satan away, and then it is also the revelation of the depths of the Love of God in Jesus, a love so great that even after death blood and water are shed on us.
That's how I'd work it, anyway.
I have to reexamine the word “bigot”, but I lean toard using it when I read a characterisation of Catholicism or of Catholics that is unsupported by facts.
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so that we can still get to heaven if we haven’t kept perfect accounts with God, confessing every single sin that we ever committed in our lives, you know, because of a faulty memory or such?
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How long will these falsehoods about the Church’s teaching persist? I would say the vast majority of the blessed made many less than perfect confessions.
It’s easy to see that the real problem here is that falsehoods about the Church’s teachings are exactly what these are.
Falsehoods.
And that is an important consideration.
For example, no practicing Catholic expects to keep a “perfect account” with God in order to get to heaven.
Rather, we expect to be held accountable for the way we live our lives. That’s in keeping with the often quoted phrase here on FR: “by their fruits you shall know them”.
In the same way, the claim that all Catholics believe good works will save them is a falsehood.
In the same way, the claim that all Catholics think Mary saves them is a falsehood.
In the same way that the claim that all Catholics believe that they are saved by multiplying prayers is a falsehood.
Falsehoods should be a concern to us-—to those who make them and to those who are the receivers of them.
I’m flabbergasted at the things people believe today. It’s an upside down world we live in. I can understand some of the misunderstanding and interpretations prior to Israel becoming a nation because it would have been difficult to believe such a thing would happen prior to 1948 but it has. That should have been a clue but so many churches even since have claimed to be the new Israel. After 1948 there should have been an awakening but it seems the other way around. Yesterday an interpretation of Revelation 12 was posted that was so off the wall I read it with astonishment. One of the reasoning’s behind the belief that Mary was bodily assumed was that no town had claimed that she was buried there. When that is part of the justification for theology one would think people would step back and ask if maybe there’s a problem.
And there are plenty of examples of that if you're coming up short ......
The Holy Spirit can guide us into truth most easily through Scripture, the written word of God. There is plenty of material there to give us God's thoughts and design for our lives and guide us in making decisions about what He would have us do and what constitutes sin. There's more than enough there to deal with who God is and what His plan of redemption is for mankind.
Simply starting with the Ten Commandments and then the two greatest commandments, will pretty much ensure a life that pleases Him.
Yes, there are differences of opinion on many theological issues but a great deal of them are sometimes no more than preferences or matters of opinion. What kind of worship music one likes, how often a church body takes communion, whether women should wear dresses and long hair or not, as long as someone does not make salvation conditional on it, it's irrelevant.
Theoretically, if everyone were to be completely receptive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, everyone's theology would line up perfectly with everyone else's. Theoretically.
But we are fallible humans but so long as we trust in Christ alone for salvation, I believe that God allows for wide leeway in non-essential matters.
Besides, rigid adherence to a specific doctrinal position does not indicate spirituality or spiritual maturity. Some people just thrive on living a *everything is black and white* kind of mentality. Some people use it as a means to control others. Some people will be deceived into thinking that if they just do the do's and don't do the don't's, they'll be OK, without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
On the contrary, Paul addresses that towards the end of Romans when he talks about eating meat sacrificed to idols and considering one day better than others or all days the same. There are believers with weaker consciences who we should not trip up.
God called David a man after His own heart, and yet David engaged in abominable sin. Lot was called *righteous Lot* in 2 Peter, hardly a man most people would even consider a believer based on his lifestyle, and yet God called him *righteous*.
And neither of them had any kind of board of authority to answer to.
God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust (one of the most reassuring verses in the whole Bible, IMO) and meets us where we are.
I for one do not believe that with all God did to reach me in the first place while I was still a sinner who didn't give a rip about Him, He's going to abandon me or let me so easily go now, not that I am His child.
He can guide me through His word and through prayer and through the advice and encouragement of other brothers and sisters in Christ. I do not think that any group of human men that demands that I be accountable to them is necessary. When you have the Spirit abiding in you, you learn to hear and recognize His voice. There's where discernment comes in. The average lay person is not nearly that helpless spiritually.
Hebrews 5:11-14 11About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
I believe we are more capable of getting it right without human guidance, but rather relying on the leading of the Spirit, that those who would like to guide us, lead us to believe.
Except that Scripture says we all fell off the cliff.
Romans 3: 9What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10as it is written:
"None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
Romans 3:21-25 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
*all* is *all*, MD.
That wasn’t a reference to the Church’s teachings but to occasional comments made by some individual Catholics on this board.
Therefore Jesus fell off the cliff?
Hey, that’s a REALLY good question, metmom! Why DO Catholics have such a problem about our future sins being paid for once and for all? I am waiting anxiously for the “answer” to this one..
Well, they didn't check their tradition to find out if those things were so...They checked in the one place that they knew held the Truth, the scriptures of God...
They didn't check the pagan religion down in Egypt or over in Rome...They didn't check with the Buddhists...They didn't check with the people who worshiped the Queen of Heaven...They checked the scriptures...The same scriptures I have setting on my computer desk...
But your religion says there is revelation outside of scripture, that is equal in value and truth to scripture...And of course it's your religion that has access to this revelation...
Problem is, that gives legitimacy to the Mormon religion as well as Izlam...They both claim to have revelation from God...And you can't prove they don't/didn't...
I and the Bereans can prove it to our satisfaction because we know the scriptures are the standard by which all other religions can be judged...
HaHa...You guys are praying for the dead but the Mormons take it a step further...They are baptizing your dead folks for you...
(*comment removed in advance by poster*)
You wrote:
“So you believe the church has replaced Israel?”
I believe as St. Paul said: Galatians 3:29.
“BTW That is the most discombobulated interpretation of Revelation 12 I have ever seen. Obviously made to try to prove a previously held belief.”
Your opinion is, of course, worthless in any case. In any event, at least everyone knows any Protestant who claims the Church teaches Revelation 12 is only about Mary had not got his facts straight.
You wrote:
“Blasphemy with no scriptural authority.”
Not blasphemy and perfectly in keeping with God’s generosity.
So are you saying there is only one type of baptism?
LOL
Sound familiar? We deal with this DAILY here.
Compare the Bereans. They were not willing to accept what Paul said just because he said it. They would listen and consider, but would NOT concede, without real evidence from the Scriptures, that the TRUTH had been preached. Paul's Word MUST be subjected to God's WORD. True spiritual greatness.
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