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.”

[RnMomof7]

Excellent..This was an exhortation for the need of the church to work OUT THEIR SALVATION ( an accomplished fact)

[stonehouse01]

We do have the burial places of many early Christians.

The most famous saints have churches involved.

St. Peter’s - the vatican for One - Hello

St. Pauls’ outside the walls -

[RnMomof7]

Shows a remarkable ignorance about the Rosary.

Prayer beads are used by members of various religious traditions such as Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Anglicanism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Paganism, and Bahá'í Faith to count the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions, such as the rosary of Virgin Mary in Christianity and dhikr (remembrance of God) in Islam. They may also be used for meditation, protection from negative energy,[citation needed] or for relaxation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_beads

Hindus: Scholars, having done the historical research, agree prayer beads originated with the Hindu faith. Using beads for devotions dates to the 8th century BC in the cult of Shiva. In India sandstone sculptures, statues ca 185 BC, show Hindus with prayer beads. The names of Hindu gods and prayers are repeated on stringed beads, called mala, separated by larger or different colored beads. Sound familiar?

http://www.thegratefulliving.com/PrayerBeadHistoryTeaching.htm

The monks had contact with people with eastern religions..they adapted many of their religious practices..seems they thought that if the practices pleased their gods it would please the one true God.. I suspect prayer beads were a part of that

[RnMomof7]

How does a meditation on the events in the life, death and resurrection of Christ do that?

Most people can not think or concentrate on 2 things at once

There is no way one can focus on the the events in the life of Christ and be concentrating on the hail Mary at the same time

[metmom]

I know some who hang it near them to ward off evil, like a good luck charm.

[RnMomof7]

:)

[RnMomof7]

We do not have them all ... It just points to the fact Mary was not a factor in the foundation of the new church..again the fact John and Peter were silent and never shared this “mystical event” with the rest of the church says it never happened

[metmom]

There is no way Our Lord would have come into a sinful womb.

Why not? He came into a sinful world. He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You can't possibly mean that God's holiness is weaker than man's sinfulness? Sorry, I don't want any part of a god who is so weak as to be contaminated by the sin He contacts.

[metmom]

What happened - free will - there is no logic to this position

Sure there is. It doesn't thwart free will. We don't HAVE to do those good works that God prepared.

Just because they were prepared for us to do, doesn't mean He's going to force us to do them.

[metmom]

Are there any OTHER religions that use a rosary like device to remember prayers?

Apparently, but it's not something that I ever bothered to learn about.

I find RELIGION boring and pointless.

[metmom]

sh01: “St. Dominic - pray for us”

THIS St. Dominic?????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dominic

“That Dominic was the founder of the Inquisition and the first inquisitor-general has become a part of Roman tradition. It is affirmed by all the historians of the Order, and by all the panegyrists of the Inquisition; it has the sanction of infallibility in the bull Invictarum of Sixtus V, and it is confirmed by quoting a bull of Innocent III, appointing him inquisitor-general. “

OR........

This guy who Catholics say these prayers to?

http://www.stdominic.webhero.com/st-dominic-prayer-to-saint-dominic.htm

[caww]

yes...I ran into that as well...there’s an intense attachment for many to relics and rosaries in various religions, groups and organizations that use them to worship whatever.

Am so very grateful believers can worship together anywhere they come together before him and do not need all this stuff to believe He hears and or is “present”. But then that is a matter of faith and trust in Him rather than objects or rituals or Priests or leaderships.

[caww]

“I don’t want any part of a god who is so weak as to be contaminated by the sin He contacts.”

Instead He surely did take the punishment for those sins we deserve....my mind cannot imagine the degree of that which He endured for every mans sin throughout the ages past, present and future...it’s mindboggling enough to know what sins He bore for me ...what a Savior we have....what immeasurable Love!

[metmom]

Do you honestly think that if Mary hadn’t been assumed that she wouldn’t have people there?? (at the site) God the Father brought her up so she would not have to endure the people;

Sheesh, imagine her having to put up with us riff-raff all those years.

Kinda makes you wonder why God even bothers with us if Mary can't tolerate us.

For that matter, if she was assumed to she wouldn't have to endure all us unwashed, sinful masses, why is everyone so busy pestering her with their prayer petitions?

[metmom]

Most people can not think or concentrate on 2 things at once There is no way one can focus on the the events in the life of Christ and be concentrating on the hail Mary at the same time

Sure.

God, I'm talking to Mary but thinking about you, sort of. Like it's some sort of consolation prize.

And when we're in a group of people and talking to one, does it make the other person being ignored feel better because we didn't include them but were thinking about them?

If we consider that inexcusably rude to do it to other mere mortals, what makes anyone think that that is acceptable to do to God?

What is so hard for Catholics that they can't just can't think about God Himself or talk to God Himself? Why the middleman (or middlewoman)?

[Judith Anne]

Let's look at your post 4138 line by line: The rosary has 10 times as many prayers addressed to mary as to God the father, with none addressed to Christ or the Holy Spirit. It is designed as a devotion to Mary thus exhaulting a human being above God.

"With none addressed to Christ or the Holy Spirit?

What about his one: "Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.

Last count was 50 "Hail Mary's" and "5 Our Father's". Is that incorrect, the numbers of each prayer?

It is incomplete, it leaves out the Gloria Patri and the Fatima prayers. So, yes, it is incorrect.

[Tennessee Nana]

Mary needed the baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire and spoke in tongues just like all the rest of the 120 in the Upper Room...

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) Acts 1:12-15

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from Heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4

[caww]

Well looks like St. Dominic of the rosary had a similar experience as Joseph Smith of the Mormons....an apparition....only instead of a book to add to the gospel message Dominic was told the roasary would do the trick to accomplish the mission he had failed in...after he wound himself up for his failures, and falling into a coma he had a “dream”.....and everything about the Rosary was a get-go from there.

Thanks for the links to compare....interesting individual but unfortunately caught up in his own undoing.

[boatbums]

I wouldn't mind if there was a Mad Dawg Amplified Bible out there. ;o)

You did a good job, thanks. I want to make a deal with you, you can use the pronoun "you" when you talk to me rather than "your side" and "your guys", okay? I don't think it is so much a haphazard way of translating, as if they were trying to dumb it down, but, as you admit, some things worded in Greek do not get to the depth in English. What I really think is all that comes when we "meditate" on God's word, let it sink in, and relate it to the whole story to discover the richness and meaning God intended for us to know. It is definitely NOT for the idle curiosity seeker.

[Judith Anne]

Most people can not think or concentrate on 2 things at once

Of course they can. How about riding a bicycle and singing? How about sight-reading piano music? Or a choir sight-reading a new anthem? Or marching band members playing their instruments and reading their music while marching in formation?

Most people CAN think of or concentrate on two things at once. It takes practice, and training, but humans are capable of doing multiple things at once.

Just because I can’t spell rite or rmemeber html while posting on FR doesn’t mean other people can’t. I can, however, hold an image of Mary greeting Elizabeth while praying the Rosary, or Christ being crowned with thorns. Nothing difficult about it.