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 ...
He most certainly did. He's the only one who lived a perfect, sin-free life so that when He died, He was able to pay for our sin and conquer death, something we could not have ever done.
Our death is the wages due for our sin. We could not ever save ourselves, no matter how many and what kind of good works we performed.
So where’s the “must”? J2P2 had a great devotion to Mary. So do I. I don’t think it’s required of anyone. No Catholic MUST pray the Rosary. IMHO he’d be silly not to, but it’s not required.
You must have missed the part that tells us that Christ already did that for us.
Not if it comes from the RCC it’s not.
No relics/ no grave
Mary went straight up
No relics/ no grave
Mary went straight up
I think it’s important to complete the verse. I suspect Paul chose his words carefully.
It comes at the end of a wonderful passage which exhorts the Philippians to have the mind that they have in Jesus. And it ends work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God works in you, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure.
The first part leaves us Pelagian or semi-Pelagian and we would deserve a lot of what is said about us. It is God in Christ who saves and through miracle and, I think, sacrament draws us into the new life and sets us to walk in the good works He has prepared for us to walk in.
Once we believe and receive him as our Savior, we are saved. We are saved unto good works that God has prepared for us. Ephesians 2:10. The works do not save, because it is by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ who has redeemed us and justified us by his shed blood. As James 2 says, we demonstrate our faith by our works, but nowhere does it say the works pay for our sins and they can never save us.
Each of the seven early churches had their problems.
I am not sure about the Pelagian heresy.
I do know that the heresies are the same over time.
.
If Mary had relics - we would know
God (the Father) made sure we were not about to touch his beautiful woman
Lending one to think ....we just love our Lord and the people He loved.
The rosary -they are meditations on His life -we love His mother = the statues = we love His saints who love him
Why is this wrong?
I find it rather sad to watch. The peace of mind they could be having knowing that all is taken care of. The insidiousness of the Catholic teaching is atrocious.
You can say THAT again! :-)
If people want to make ludicrous assumptions about in their coonversations, let ‘em.
I have never heard of Pauline Mysticism, so you would have to explain it a little more.
Myself, eh??? It was a serious question and one would be wise t ponder the question...
C'mon Mad Dawg...There's no such thing as keeping the Law imperfectly...You is or you ain't...
So Mary was imperfectly perfect...
Why don't we look at the whole passage in Philippians so we can understand the context of that one snippet you gave: Imitating Christ’s Humility
Philippians 2:1-15
1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
I learned that whenever you see the word "therefore" in Scripture, you should ask what is it there for? Paul was reminding the believers at Phillipi how they should treat each other in light of the great things that Jesus did for us when he - who was Almighty God - humbled himself to take on flesh and subject himself to the indignities of the cross so that we could be reconciled to God. He took on the form of a servant and then God exalted him above all things that every knee would bow to him and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ was Lord. Our attitude should be the same, becoming servants for the cause of Christ.
THEREFORE, he told them, just as they had behaved while he was in their presence so should they always strive to live holy and obedient lives and continue to "work out" the salvation that they had been given through their faith in Christ with "fear an trembling". The words "work out" in Greek is katergazomai and means:
1) to perform, accomplish, achieve
2) to work out i.e. to do that from which something results
a) of things: bring about, result in
3) to fashion i.e. render one fit for a thing
If, as you seem to suggest, Paul is telling them to work FOR their salvation, then not only does the verse not say that, but he would be contradicting himself as well as Jesus and Peter and the other Scriptures. We cannot work for our salvation because then it wouldn't be grace. Grace is undeserved mercy and it would be canceled if any of our work was required because then it wouldn't be grace anymore. When we "work out" our salvation, we are exercising it, demonstrating it to the glory of God. In "fear" and "trembling" simply means respect, reverance and "trembling" from tromos used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfil his duty.
Lastly, look what he said after that, "13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.". Don't leave out that very important part. God works IN us, through the indwelling Holy Spirit to fulfill his will, his good purposes. We cannot ever earn or merit eternal life simply because none of that can pay for sins. It is only through Jesus that we can have our sins satisfactorily paid for and God gifts to us eternal life when we receive his gift by faith.
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