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.”

[Mad Dawg]

but its collapse seems to have been due to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines had been adopted by the church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival.

"seems" to whom? What doctrines? They're dualists. We ain't.

[Mad Dawg]

Baptism and a ritual meal were important parts of both groups...

Well we did kind of drop the whole bathing in a bull's blood thing though....

[Iscool]

Claiming it in hindsight does not make it so and does not give the Catholic church the right or authority to dictate to others outside of it how to read it, how to interpret it, or what to believe. The Catholic church does not own the Bible and dictate it’s use.

Exactly...The scriptures were written by the disciples and passed on thru all these groups that the Catholics have labeled heretics...They were murdered and tortured if they refused to give up their scriptures and bow down to the religion of Rome...

Thank God of course, his scriptures survived in spite of the Roman religion...

[Judith Anne]

Exactly...The scriptures were written by the disciples and passed on thru all these groups that the Catholics have labeled heretics...They were murdered and tortured if they refused to give up their scriptures and bow down to the religion of Rome...

What history book did THAT come out of?

[Iscool]

Ah, more works of fiction from Iscool -- now what are you? Some of your past posts have claimed to be Catholic, then Baptist, Modalist, believeing Christ was just a spirit, then just a man. The cult of the moon-good changes its tune each time, but its practice of taqqiyah continues.

Sorry but I thinks it your cult that has lost all credibility for telling the truth, as this post of yours shows...

[CynicalBear]

>>"seems" to whom? What doctrines? They're dualists. We ain't.<<

Actually the intent of that was to illustrate that the RCC pretty much incorporated all of the rituals and doctrines of Mithra so Mithraism as a separate cult ceased to exist. Many of the RCC “traditions” originate in paganism. Sunday worship and the celebration of Christmas being among them. There is no scriptural evidence or directives for either.

[marbren]

Thanks. That makes up for being called a liar.

You are welcome, If you lied or not I do not know.

I do not know but, Thank God, God knows.

I do know that my flesh is only capable of lies. This is why it must die daily. There is no good in me.

[Mad Dawg]

No biggie.

co = prefix meaning ‘with’.
re = intensive prefix suggesting repetition.
d = inserted to make it easier to say. otherwise it would sound like remptor/remptrix.
emptor = buyer: Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. preempt.
-or becomes -rix in feminines.

[Iscool]

Translated into English, it is “woman with the Redeemer.”

Then why do Catholics use the term, co-redeemer???

[Mad Dawg]

You have some support for this contention? “Seems” meant “seems to me”?

“Originate in “admits of more meanings” than might first be apparent. Celebrating the Lord’s Nativity when the pagans are partying just seems like good marketing to me, and even good theology.

Good marketing because who doesn’t like a party?

Good theology(and evangelism) because while they celebrate the solstice of the sun which will be right back in the cellar in 52 weeks, we celebrate the rising of the Sun of Righteousness who has no setting.

[Judith Anne]

Then why do Catholics use the term, co-redeemer???

We had to do something to keep you from seeing the truth about Mary. We thought this would work, and evidently, we were right.

[Iscool]

The Church realized that as the witnesses of Christ's life started to die off, they'd better get writing or else all that would be left is the oral tradition -

What nonsense...Paul himself was writing everything he spoke...Long before your religion was a glint in Constantine's eye...

[smvoice]

I think you do get it. When people are in an open forum, attempting to defend their side of a subject, and someone else jumps in to cite a rule against defense, I would say that person is trying to change the subject, NOT defend the rule makers. Especially when that person seems to be a serial rule cop, with no other reason to live except to point out the breaking/potential breaking of the rule. Did you ever watch Leave it to Beaver? Do you remember Judy? Enough said.

I'm saying that in the heat of discussion, things get lively sometimes. Good grief. Let it be. If not, that's why caucus threads were invented. So people could sip tea and ponder the universe.

[Judith Anne]

I could be wrong, but I don’t think “emptor” goes in there. Could you please double check?

[Iscool]

If the latter, what do you do with the end of John's Gospel?

John never said or implied that there was more information to be passed on to anyone...

[CynicalBear]

You may want to do some research on what God says about incorporating pagan practices. From experience I would suspect you won’t. You still haven’t given me scripture to support the assumption of Mary. You deflect by asking more questions or changing the subject but answering that not so much.

[Iscool]

Who knew? metmon, until the 1500s if you were a Christian you were a Catholic. And I think you know that. You may deny it now but you know it, in that deep place where we all know many things

Get real...Catholics were insulted if you called them Christians 40 years ago...

For God so loved the world He sent a book? And not only that, He sent a book missing some sacred scripture.

Oh, and you got the missing sacred scripture...So post it...With a source...

I was a Protestant for 61 years and I finally got a clue. I became a Catholic.

A clue on how to get to purgatory??? So you couldn't find Jesus in 61 years in a Protestant church...But now, if you are good enough, you may make it to purgatory, or may not...

My guess is that you were a member of one of those 'mainstream' Protestant churches who still haven't figured out why they are Protestant instead of Catholic...

[count-your-change]

MD, your comment: “co = prefix meaning ‘with’”, is more than a bit misleading due to it's incompleteness.

Co does mean ‘with’ or ‘together’ but in the sense of sharing a thing as in two people producing a book being “co-authors” or more than one person in SHARED ownership being “co-owners”.

Sitting beside a driver may mean we are co-passengers but I would NOT be a co-driver and attempts to be so might well end badly.

[marbren]

You deflect by asking more questions or changing the subject but answering that not so much.

This is interesting. I know I am butting in but, it is an open forum.

Are there any scriptural models of what Our Lord Jesus Christ did when He was asked questions? Did he ever defend himself? I know The best answers are only God's Word. What I say does not matter. I am too lazy to cut and paste.

[Iscool]

What history book did THAT come out of?

HaHaHa...They even brainwashed you into believing there is no history other than Catholic history...