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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

See post 3840


3,841 posted on 09/17/2011 6:09:04 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: caww; smvoice; Iscool; metmom; boatbums
>> I still say once an individual has believed in falshoods it then lends itself to believe other falsehoods as well... and harder to see the truth thru the volumes of literature used to promote these and which carry on the facade.<<

I always have to remember the people that were with Paul, who was still Saul at that time, did not understand the words that Jesus spoke when He appeared to Saul. His words are only understood by those He has called. It is the only way I can understand in my mind the inability of some to understand Him. It’s why I stop debating with some.

3,842 posted on 09/17/2011 6:22:04 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: metmom

Well said.


3,843 posted on 09/17/2011 6:23:32 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: Not gonna take it anymore; boatbums; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan; caww; ...
Wow, you left the Eucharist. It truly boggles my mind. Please understand, I am not being unkind here. I am just amazed. That is something I have searched for all of my life and finally found and you and metmom gave it up.

It kind of depends on whether you see communion as the Eucharist, the actual, physical consuming of the body and blood of Christ and that it's necessary for salvation....

or not....

I see both baptism and communion as physical representations of spiritual realities, instituted for us because we humans need to have stuff kept before us and it's a great word picture reminding us of what we have experienced spiritually.

I (and I think bb and others) do not believe that these physical ceremonies CAUSE the spiritual reality to happen. The spiritual reality is a done deal. These show to the world what they are in terms that people can understand. We were commanded by Christ Himself to take communion *in remembrance* of Him and show His death until He comes- a word picture conveying both His first and second coming.

3,844 posted on 09/17/2011 6:30:12 AM 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: Alamo-Girl

Thank you.

Water is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is symbolic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit each believer undergoes when he is saved.

It is a statement to the world by the believer of his commitment to Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a result of that commitment.


3,845 posted on 09/17/2011 6:33:46 AM 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: vladimir998; caww
>>You’re delusional. The Catholic faith is 2,000 years old. Not even Hell can defeat it.<<

If length of adherence to a belief is your criteria it seems to me that paganism is older then the Catholic Church.

3,846 posted on 09/17/2011 6:35:03 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: metmom

Just a reminder: there’s an important difference between “physical” and “real.”


3,847 posted on 09/17/2011 6:35:28 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: vladimir998; caww
No amount of proof will convince you so what’s the point?

Mind reading much?

On the contrary, names would be a good start, and providing a link so that it could be verified.

3,848 posted on 09/17/2011 6:37:20 AM 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: vladimir998; caww
>>The body of believers is really the Catholic Church. No Protestant is fully united with the Church or Christ.<<

So it is the Catholic Church that you think saves. You think one has to belong to an earthly organization. Wow!

3,849 posted on 09/17/2011 6:39:53 AM PDT by CynicalBear
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To: Mad Dawg

I do recognize that.


3,850 posted on 09/17/2011 6:42:04 AM 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: Not gonna take it anymore; metmom; caww

This is another instance of people saying the Catholic Church’s teaching is something other than what it is.

I think, CAWW, that there is a kind of “prejudice without malice aforethought. We do NOT have the nerve to think we can CAUSE the sacramental presence as though we were magicians conjuring our familiar. Yet we can say “’Real’ not ‘physical’,” and so forth more than seven times a day and it will make no difference at all. Our testimony is considered tainted before we open our mouths.


3,851 posted on 09/17/2011 6:48:16 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Mad Dawg

Then why the teaching that water baptism and consuming the Eucharist are necessary for salvation?

Those are both physical acts. The spiritual reality is that by my faith in Christ and abiding in Him, I have partook of His body and blood, and by having believed I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

My water baptism did not cause me to be saved, IOW, bring it to pass. It reflects the spiritual reality I experienced.


3,852 posted on 09/17/2011 7:12:29 AM 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: vladimir998
Yes, he did - and the traditions passed on to him by Peter.

It's a pity you guys don't read the scriptures...If you did, you wouldn't have to make these false stories up...

3,853 posted on 09/17/2011 7:18:39 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: Not gonna take it anymore
Reading minds, not a good thing. An offended Catholic, give me a break. I was a Protestant for 61 YEARS before I became Catholic.

Were you a born again, bible reading, bible believing Protestant for those 61 years???

3,854 posted on 09/17/2011 7:22:27 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: CynicalBear

Amen. Like unto His glorious body. Amen


3,855 posted on 09/17/2011 7:27:00 AM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice
Who was John the Baptist? A fur salesman?

Apparently they think he was...I am truly amazed that they never changed John's name...John the Catholic...

3,856 posted on 09/17/2011 7:30:51 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: Iscool; vladimir998

It’s amazing how much information one can receive from Scripture IF THEY WOULD JUST READ IT. How about reading at least the Chapter associated with the question asked? But no, they look for a highlighted word or two, then apply it to their tradition to see if those things were so...The Bereans were NOT Catholic, FOR SURE!>>>>


3,857 posted on 09/17/2011 7:41:28 AM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: Mad Dawg
In the meantime, our side, finding in Scripture deep and broad support for the ideas of “sacred tradition” and the Magisterium, views the claims of your side to a kind of Scriptural empiricism both strange and unsupported by Scripture.

If we can not find your broad and deep support in the scripture for your tradition and magisterium, neither can you...It ain't there...

But for any on your side who want to dispute our side's idea of timelessness and time, I'd encourage a study of the tenses of Biblical Hebrew. Think about a language with only two tenses, both of which will sometimes be translated with our past, present, and future tenses.

We don't need to...It's already been done by countless persons...All we have to do is read their stuff...

So which tense did the Hebrews/God leave out of their language??? Past, present or future...How could they carry on a conversation???

3,858 posted on 09/17/2011 7:41:31 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: Iscool
"How could they carry on a conversation?"

"We go hunt. Get big deer. Make happy for us. We build Parthenon. Make happy for us...".

3,859 posted on 09/17/2011 7:45:26 AM PDT by smvoice (The Cross was NOT God's Plan B.)
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To: smvoice; Natural Law
You claimed it was PAUL who commanded them to be baptized. It was PETER who commanded them to be baptized. It couldn't be any clearer if there was a photo included SHOWING Peter baptizing them. What does this possibly have to do with "who wrote Acts"?

And this is one of the best they got...A catechist; a teacher of the mysterious Catholic catechism...A Greek and Hebrew scholar...

But they don't even know the simplest things of the bible...

What's interesting to me is quite a number of Catholic on FR can tell all kinds of things about the bible, ie.,
Peter did not write Acts. In fact the author of Acts is not known, but many speculate that it was written by the same person that wrote all or parts of Luke. Its writing is concurrent with the Letters of Paul and was certainly influenced by him.

They can tell us what they were taught ABOUT the bible but they don't KNOW any bible...Seems all their time was spent learning about the bible but not learning the bible...

3,860 posted on 09/17/2011 7:59:05 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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