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My Faith: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), from Catholic to Muslim
CNN ^ | 9/1/11 | Chris Welch

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Islam; Theology
KEYWORDS: blackmuslims; islam; keithellison; muslim
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To: caww

The Palies HAVE a country; and it’s name is JORDAN!


4,321 posted on 09/20/2011 4:15:47 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: stonehouse01
You are bullying me.


Aw...  shucks...
 

It appears only to be a flesh wound.
4,322 posted on 09/20/2011 4:19:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: metmom
DEFEND thyself; heretic!
4,323 posted on 09/20/2011 4:20:26 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: metmom

(Too keep from being bullied...)


4,324 posted on 09/20/2011 4:20:58 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: metmom

(To keep from being bullied...)


4,325 posted on 09/20/2011 4:21:09 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Mad Dawg
HOWEVER, some anatomists, psychologists, poets and songsters are also lovers and spouses, while not so many lovers and spouses are anatomists, psychologists, poets and songsters.


1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.
To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.
I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

4,326 posted on 09/20/2011 4:24:56 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: annie laurie
Or both?

I thought I was clear:

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

It was answered upthread by someone...

4,327 posted on 09/20/2011 4:29:11 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie

I’m slow this morning. What’s the connection.

(Okay. yeah. I’m slow every morning. Also noon and night.)


4,328 posted on 09/20/2011 4:29:32 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Mad Dawg
I’m slow this morning.

It's MORNING?

4,329 posted on 09/20/2011 4:33:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie

Wait. I saw the movie. Moses Ben Heston put the Torah in there. We were watching at seminary and the guy among us who was the most literal in his interpretation (of the Bible, not the movie) cheered.

The same applies though. Ps 119 is enough to show that the Psalmist uses “word” and “law” virtually interchangeably, and we’re not going to complain if we get to add to our ‘figure’ the bread from heaven.

Rod of Aaron ... Rod of Jesse (see the “O antiphons” or the hymn “Veni Emmanuel”).


4,330 posted on 09/20/2011 4:36:14 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Elsie

LOL

Yeah. I’m afraid so. And I forgot to set my alarm. As we speak the little caffeines are clambering up my carotids and waking my slothful brain.


4,331 posted on 09/20/2011 4:38:16 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Mad Dawg

*******
If I’d known which version I might have said, say, “the NIV guys,” (as opposed to the team of Wookies our bishops got to do their version.)
******

lol

I remember the first time I heard the 23rd psalm at Mass, I had no idea what it was. Nothing like taking all the beauty out of it. Though I will admit that the DR version of psalm 22, (even though probably more correct) also leaves a lot to be desired.


4,332 posted on 09/20/2011 4:58:59 AM PDT by Not gonna take it anymore (Catholic, Easter vigil 2008)
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To: Elsie

***********
...the promise of instantanous death to anyone who dared to touch her.
I dated a gal once whose DAD said this!
***************
Elsie is a guy? Or is Elsie a girl? Or is it Elsie so that we think he/she is a girl?

Elsie - Definition [el-see]
(n.) Female given name, form of Elizabeth
Dictionary.com . See all 1 definitions »


4,333 posted on 09/20/2011 5:05:04 AM PDT by Not gonna take it anymore (Catholic, Easter vigil 2008)
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To: Tennessee Nana
Wow, that seems to me to be an excessively nice distinction! The fruits of the spirit are not gifts? We earn them? You don't mean that, do you?

I thought it was we who were the works folks.

But I tell you what. You go ahead and be humble without praying for it. I'm obviously a VERY unfruited guy (ah, let me rephrase that ...), so I will ask, ask early and often.

Anyway, at least one reason I was referring to Del Val's Litany of Humility is that I think it a good meditation on what humility can be like, and how hard it is to desire it.

For those who do not 'get' Catholic conventions (and why should you?), remember we are ALL about vain repetitions (Ps 136), so the "Deliver me, Jesus," is repeated after each petition until we get to the new response,"Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it," and so on.

There's another issue here, though, one represented by the word "Hosanna." Strictly speaking, that's a petition. Save! Yet because of confidence in the Lord, it becomes a word of praise, of acclamation.

People say of us that we think our priests conjure God. This is an unserious charge, since the demands of monotheism, Biblical or not, indicate that if there's any conjuring to be done, God alone can do it. By what 'jus' can the Lord of all,or his Son, the true Pantocrator, be compelled, since all power and authority is His?

So, even if it be true that humility is a fruit and we have but to reach up and pluck it, we will still ask before we pluck.

4,334 posted on 09/20/2011 5:10:07 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Elsie

4,335 posted on 09/20/2011 5:22:51 AM PDT by Utah Binger (Southern Utah where INVITED Freepers will meet again next summer. Jim Robinson Too)
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To: metmom
I have a lot of friends about whom I could not answer most of those questions about them, but they are close dear friends, because it's about THEM, not knowing details about them. Yes, you do often learn those things about them, but that comes from knowing them. I don't relate to them on a personal level by studying them but by talking to them.

Exactly...Any one can know about God...But to know God is entirely different...

4,336 posted on 09/20/2011 5:25:18 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: Elsie

Navy Grip from the Coffee Shack.


4,337 posted on 09/20/2011 5:26:00 AM PDT by Utah Binger (Southern Utah where INVITED Freepers will meet again next summer. Jim Robinson Too)
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To: Not gonna take it anymore
There was a very fine critique of the NAB in a recent "First Things".

It occurs to me that the way to bring our most reverend fathers in God to their senses would be satire, LOTS of satire. Herewith:
1) The Supreme Entity is my manager of smallish, wooly quadrupeds (or, alternatively, caprines.)
I am more or less well provided for.

2) He permits me to nourish my self in green, grassy areas
And directs me to non-turbulent rivulets, which, I take it, I am supposed to drink from.

3) By and large, I feel pretty good.
He keeps me on track.
After all, he's got his reputation to consider.

4) Even when the lights go out, I'm good with it, because he is here and he has these reassuring, long, wooden things.

5) He is my waitperson this evening, while really nasty people watch.
He puts hair tonic on my head and massages down to the roots for extra sheen and bounce.
But he overfilled my glass.

6) Mellowness and coolness will be on my six as long as I'm around,
And he lets me stay at his place.
Fortunately(!) the excellence of the Psalm survives the worst translators.
4,338 posted on 09/20/2011 5:33:27 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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To: Elsie

You meanie...


4,339 posted on 09/20/2011 5:41:18 AM PDT by Iscool (You mess with me, you mess with the WHOLE trailerpark...)
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To: Elsie

I tend to think of the whole prayer-counting-device thing as basically a non-distracting timer. For me, a five-decade Rosary is about 20 minutes, and a full twenty-decade rosary is about 80 minutes. A Divine Mercy Chaplet is about 10 minutes.

As long as one thinks of these devotions as some kind of work or “vain repetition” the point is missed, their “esse” is missed.

For example, the Divine Mercy Chaplet is little other than asking God to have mercy on everyone. But often as I pray it, I remember people whose trespasses against moi I have not really forgiven. So the prayer blossoms into prayer for my enemies and prayer of contrition.

To me, that’s a good thing. And it’s a very good thing to do when I come across ten uncommitted minutes.


4,340 posted on 09/20/2011 6:34:36 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)
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