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 ...
I have never witnessed any of the "usual" anti-Catholics ever rebuke, criticize or distance themselves from even the most obscene and contemptible comments by any of the other anti-Catholics.....ever. Their outrage at my comment stating only that I am comforted by the fact that people such as them have excluded themselves from the Church by their words, thoughts and actions, and that the Church has remained resolute is as believable as the muslims in the streets raging against the US.
Same here
Agreed on all points.
I sure hope there are more Catholics who are seeing why some of us have left the Catholic church and have no desire to return.
At some point, we have to grow up and overcome all the real and perceived slights of our childhood.
What use is a religion that doesn’t result in a changed heart and mind towards others? Whatever happened to showing their faith by their works? Or is that just relegated to going to confession, saying the rosary, attending mass weekly?
If it is strictly just mechanical, then it is equivalent to any mechanical practice.
He doesn’t shoot people while they’re down.
You've shot your share on FR...
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Apparently the anti-Catholics cannot tolerate Catholics who cannot be cowed, badgered and bullied into silence and acquiescence.
One is never an ex-Catholic. Once baptized a Catholic the person is ALWAYS a Catholic. They may be away from their faith, but they still have the Catholic mark of Baptism on their soul.
All they have to do to come back to the church is sit down with a priest and get their questions answered....and of course, repent of their sins.
They think all Catholics are democrats who cannot stand up ourselves or the Church, evidently.
I am fairly sure that I have received more personal invective than almost any other Catholic FReeper except perhapa you and Cronos maybe Mark Bsnr and it’s so funny how the Usual Suspects get all indignant and tell us to act likd Christians. If they’re real Christians, I hope I never act like they do. And then they accuse US of driving them away from the Church. If they’re that thin-skinned, then do they belong in it? Because being Catholic out in the meat world isn’t easy.
Do you believe in bi-polar spiritualism? Because I don’t think I’ve witnessed too many people who can go from “Nobody knows de’ trouble I’ve seen...nobody knows de’ sorrow...” to “I wouldn’t stand beside her in a soup kitchen” as often as it appears to happen to certain people. Victim/victor/victim/victor. You think you’ve got it bad. Try conversing with a “religious” person who suffers and is insufferable at the same time.
I hsve tried on the RF, many times. Thanks for being such great instructors in method. If it works for all y’all, why wouldn’t it work for Catholics.
BTW, which over-the-top anti-Catholic have you reproved, in the interest of Christian unity and emulating the Savior? And speaking of bi-polar, how about the extremists in your camp? The ones walking through the shadow of death, fearing no [evil] Catholics. You know, the ones 30 days away from the grave.
That’s a typical anti-Catholic ploy: berate us until we cry foul, then call us thin-skinned. Did your resident psychiatrist come up with that diagnosis, or did you think it up all by yourself? Because attention-getting behavior is not one-sided, by any means.
Just what exactly is "emulating the Savior"? That would be an interesting thing to know.
Discuss the issues all you want but do not make it personal.
Happily, as long as your cautions are addressed to more than just me. The post I was replying to contained “a thinly veiled references to other at least one other FReeper.
Just what exactly is “emulating the Savior”? That would be an interesting thing to know.
A demonstration is requested.
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