My Faith: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), from Catholic to Muslim

CNN ^ | 9/1/11 | Chris Welch

[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.”

[Joya]

When someone doesn’t have a legitimate reply to something that exposes the error of their ways, they accuse the one speaking truth of

1. hate

or

2. abuse

[metmom]

While we are on the topic, I think it is quite strange, actually, that on Catholic Caucus threads there is such a vehement protectionism that, even if someone has something positive to say about the thread OP, the immediate challenge is, "Are you a Catholic?", "Get off this thread!", and it doesn't matter what was said. It is exclusionary to the point that even good comments are excluded. I was hit with just such a thing when I expressed support for the subject person of the article. How are you ever to expect respect when the caucus designation is used as a club complete with Moderators having to pose as your personal bouncers?

It isn't just you.

[metmom]

I was on a Catholic caucus thread in support of a college professor who had lost his job or was in danger of losing his job for his faith and while some of the Catholics appreciated it, others, not so much.

I was unceremoniously invited to leave the thread for the simple reason that they didn’t like what I had had to say on other Catholic threads about Catholicism. Had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the topic on hand.

[metmom]

If you aren’t Catholic, stay off the Catholic Caucus threads. You are not invited.

Can you pass on a similar message to your Catholic compatriots next time there's a Protestant caucus thread?

[metmom]

Now, that’s funny.......

[metmom]

That’s a keeper.

[CynicalBear]

>>A “functional knowledge” of Scripture is NOT the focus of Catholicism.<<

At that point the discussion pertaining to Christianity is pretty much over isn’t it? Any person who makes that statement has clearly identified themselves as out side. Is that the understanding of all Catholics?

[Cronos]

Oh, so what about your group's agreement with Benny Hinn's belief in 9 gods? Benny said that

has 9 parts (tri-theistic).

A. God has a body, soul and spirit.
B. Jesus has a body, soul and spirit.
C. Holy Spirit has a body, soul and spirit. (Benny Hinn, Benny Hinn broadcast, recorded 10/13/90)Is that valid in your opinion?

[Cronos]

What about this one — “He [Jesus] who is righteous by choice said, ‘The only way I can stop sin is by Me becoming it. I can’t just stop it by letting it touch Me; I and it must become one.’ Hear this! He who is the nature of God became the nature of Satan where He became sin!” (Benny Hinn, TBN, 12/1/90).

[Cronos]

From the Curious Presbyterian website

Televangelist Benny Hinn is being sued by Strang Communications, a publishing company that alleges that Hinn violated a morality clause in their contract when he began an “inappropriate relationship” with Without Walls pastor Paula White.

In August, The National Enquirer published photos of Hinn and White holding hands in Rome. Hinn was married to Suzanne Hinn at the time. His wife had filed for divorce in February 2010.

Go Benny, hit that thang!

[Cronos]

Quix -- didn't you have a post that said that Benny's teaching is Christian according to your group? And that Benny is just a strange fish but ok according to your group's dogma?

Now, Quix, is Benny just a "strange fish" or does he propagate "unbiblical stuff straight from hell" like his 9 gods theorem?

[Cronos]

Benny keeps making false prophecies

• "The Spirit tells me Fidel Castro will die in the 90's. Oh my! Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed. But there will come a change in his physical health, and he will not stay in power, and Cuba will be visited of God."
  Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31, 1989. (audio)

• ""The Lord also tells me to tell you in the mid 90’s, about ’94-’95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America. [audience applauds] But He will not destroy it – with what many minds have thought Him to be, He will destroy it with fire. And many will turn and be saved, and many will rebel and be destroyed."
  Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31, 1989.

• "Jesus is coming again within the next two years."
  July 1997, fund-raising telethon on TBN

Are these the lovely examples for your "unbiblical stuff from hell"?

[Cronos]

IIRC, didn't your group, Quix say about Luther that "He was clearly brainwashed by horrific deceptions, too." -- that's an unqualified statement from those whose posts talk of Jesse Duplantis and Benny Hinn as tools of God or whose posts defend Jesse Duplantis's journey to heaven to comfort God

At the very least in comparison to Jesse, Luther was not "brainwashed by horrific deceptions"

[Cronos]

whatever grudge one may have against the WELS group for throwing a person out for heresy doesn't neglect the fact that the Lutherans are hardly in the same category (not even the same planet) as the preacher from hell: Jesse Duplantis

if you read on the www.lcms.org website more about Lutheran belief in

1. The True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist -- they believe that Christ is really there, that it is not just an object
2. Lutheran belief in baptism for the remission of sins
3. Lutheran belief in the Sacrament of penance
4. Lutheran rejection of the Calvinist theory of DOUBLE predestination

I do disagree with them on points, yes, but the fact that they hold the above and most importantly for me that they believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist means a lot.

[Cronos]

quix: Most Proddys hereon are quite Biblical in their beliefs about such thing

Well, we had earlier established that "Proddy" is not a short-form for Protestant but rather for those following the same cockamamy philosophy as you, Quix: we saw in above posts of Jesse (the liar) Duplantis went to heaven and that Benny (there are 9 gods) Hinn is just a tool of God

The term "Proddy" hence excludes Presbyterians, Lutheran, etc. among others because they too will laugh at this crap. So, hence the term "Proddy" just means those following the same cockamamy philosophy as you, Quix on Benny Hinn and Jesse Duplantis. Thanks for the confirmation. From now on when we see that term "Proddy" we'll know it mean "Jesse Duplantis lovers" and definitely does not mean Lutherans or Presbyterians or others (well, in any case your post repeated what the Proddy clan says of Lutherans -- rejection can be hurtful, eh?)

[Cronos]

quix: Yourcheap shots about Benny are pathetic.

I’ve long made it known that Benny is not a favorite of mine.

I deplore a lot of his stuff.

If God chooses to use Benny, that’s God’s business. God used a donkey to speak to a prophet once.

So, when Benny Hinn says the following unbiblical stuff from hell you just "deplore" his "stuff"?

God has 9 parts (tri-theistic).

A. God has a body, soul and spirit.
B. Jesus has a body, soul and spirit.
C. Holy Spirit has a body, soul and spirit. (Benny Hinn, Benny Hinn broadcast, recorded 10/13/90)

and

"He [Jesus] who is righteous by choice said, 'The only way I can stop sin is by Me becoming it. I can't just stop it by letting it touch Me; I and it must become one.' Hear this! He who is the nature of God became the nature of Satan where He became sin!" (Benny Hinn, TBN, 12/1/90)

So, why do you Quix think that Benny is not a liar con-man who spouts "non-biblical stuff from hell"?

9 gods?

[Cronos]

Jesse Duplantis, the guy who preached that You, not God, Decides When to Die

“I’m going to say something that will knock your lights off. Go has the power to take life, but He can’t. He’s got the power to do it, but He won’t. He’s bound; He can’t. He says, “Death and life is in the power of” who’s tongue? Yours. You ready for this? You want something that’ll knock your lights off? You choose when you live; you choose when you die. Death and life is in the power of your tongue, not God’s.

As you said "wholesale gross UNBiblical deceptions from hell" -- what do you think of Herr Duplantis now?

[Cronos]

Jesse Duplantis, the guy who preached that You, not God, Decides When to Die

“I’m going to say something that will knock your lights off. Go has the power to take life, but He can’t. He’s got the power to do it, but He won’t. He’s bound; He can’t. He says, “Death and life is in the power of” who’s tongue? Yours. You ready for this? You want something that’ll knock your lights off? You choose when you live; you choose when you die. Death and life is in the power of your tongue, not God’s.

As you said "wholesale gross UNBiblical deceptions from hell" -- what do you think of Herr Duplantis now?

[Cronos]

Jesse Duplantis, the guy who preached that You, not God, Decides When to Die

“I’m going to say something that will knock your lights off. Go has the power to take life, but He can’t. He’s got the power to do it, but He won’t. He’s bound; He can’t. He says, “Death and life is in the power of” who’s tongue? Yours. You ready for this? You want something that’ll knock your lights off? You choose when you live; you choose when you die. Death and life is in the power of your tongue, not God’s.

As you said "wholesale gross UNBiblical deceptions from hell" -- what do you think of Herr Duplantis now?

[Cronos]

Here are some zingers from Jesse's time in heaven

• "As I stepped out of the chariot, everything I saw was so beautiful. I had always thought that when I went to heaven I would see only a city. But the first place I saw was Paradise; it hadn't been destroyed. Paradise is a big place, completely surrounding the Holy City. It is like being on another planet."

• I saw Elohim, Jehovah God, Yahweh sitting on the Throne! But I saw His feet - only His feet. . . He is so big - you can’t describe Him in a dimension. His hand is huge! His body, the form of it, is sort of like energy, spirit. There’s a wall around the Throne, but the Throne is higher than the wall - that’s why you can see the Throne from every direction, from a distance. And that power, that energy-like smoke of God, covers all around the chair of the Throne itself."

• "There was a cloud that looked like smoke going up from the Throne and I heard that massive sound, "whoosh! It was power like I’ve never experienced in my life. Then I saw God’s finger barely move and when it moved, an angel that was flying near Him was thrown up against a wall. Bam! It didn’t hurt the angel."

• then Jesus starts to say how He is dreading the day when He has to send some of His creation to hell, so Jesse comes to Jesus's rescue! "I wanted to reach out and comfort Him, so I put my hand on the Lord. . .I could tell that Jesus was hurting."

• "I didn’t know before how much He needed me to reach out to other people. I have always thought of how much I needed Him, not how much He needs me. . .He smiled at me and said, "I chose you. No one else wanted you, and I need you Jesse."

  Fantastico!