Though usually recognized as a “conservative pillar of support,” organized religion sometimes plays a very dynamic role during processes of political change… [read more]
Though usually recognized as a “conservative pillar of support,” organized religion sometimes plays a very dynamic role during processes of political change… [read more]
37 thoughts on “Tyrant’s Pillar of Suppot – The RELIGIOUS ORGANIZAIONS”
The Syrian government’s retaking of a town this weekend that had teetered beyond its control is sharpening sectarian tensions along one of the country’s most explosive fault lines: relations between the Sunni Muslim majority and the minority Alawite sect to which the family of President Bashar al-Assad belongs, residents and officials say. Each side offered a litany of complaints about the other, according to interviews with refugees, residents and activists, suggesting, even in a small sample, deepening animosities in a country where the fear of civil war is at once real and used as a pretext for suppressing dissent. Syria is a volatile blend of Sunnis, Alawites, Christians, Kurds and others inhabiting the same land, but with disproportionate political power vested in the Alawite elite…. The Syrian government, led by Mr. Assad and a tight-knit, opaque circle, has signaled its intention to repress by force what it describes as an armed, religiously motivated uprising and what activists describe as a largely peaceful protest against the withering oppression of one of the Arab world’s most authoritarian states. ~ From NYT.
June 13, 2011
Clinton Presses Africans to Abandon Authoritarian Rulers, Singling Out Qaddafi
By STEVEN LEE MYERS ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia —
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly warned African leaders on Monday that authoritarian governments ruled by aging despots were “no longer acceptable,” saying that those who refused democratic reforms would find themselves “on the wrong side of history.” She also urged the African Union to end its lingering relations with Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. American officials have been deeply frustrated by the organization’s efforts to mediate on behalf of Colonel Qaddafi, who for decades lavished support on African leaders — many of them autocratic — and led the group two years ago. She also called for a peaceful resolution of the fighting that has flared in Sudan ahead of the planned declaration of independence by South Sudan on July 9. The violence, in the disputed territory of Abyei and increasingly in other regions along what will be the new border, has threatened to unravel a peaceful separation that the Obama administration worked feverishly to ensure over the last year. Mrs. Clinton called the recent fight “deeply troubling.” Talks aimed at resolving the dispute over Abyei took place in Addis Ababa over the last two days, with Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, in attendance. According to an American diplomat, Mr. Bashir agreed to withdraw his forces from the Abyei area before July 9, but the offer was heavily conditioned and no final agreement was announced. Mrs. Clinton, on a five-day, three-country visit focused on trade and economic assistance to Africa, became the first secretary of state to address a session of the African Union, the regional organization created in 2002 that represents 53 nations on the continent, lacking only Morocco. “Too many people in Africa still live under longstanding rulers, men who care too much about the longevity of their reign and too little about the legacy that should be built for their countries’ future,” Mrs. Clinton said. Her speech echoed one in mid-January, just before the president of Tunisia was ousted in the first salvo in what became a wave of regional revolts. Then, she warned Arab leaders that their governments risked “sinking into the sand” if they did not change. “The status quo is broken,” she said Monday. “The old ways of governing are no longer acceptable. It is time for leaders to lead with accountability, treat their people with dignity, respect their rights and deliver economic opportunity. And if they will not, then it is time for them to go.” Mrs. Clinton did not specify any countries or leaders, but the United States has long opposed some of the most repressive governments, from Zimbabwe to Sudan. Representatives of the African Union’s members, including Libya’s, attended her speech in the conference hall of its headquarters here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. She was greeted politely and even warmly at moments. One of her most biting comments about leaders’ attitudes — “Some even claim to believe in democracy defined as one election, one time” — prompted laughter. In the case of Libya, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that many members, though not all, disagreed with the military intervention in Libya led by the United States and NATO, but she urged all members to call for a genuine cease-fire and the departure of Colonel Qaddafi. She urged them to suspend operations of Libya’s embassies, expel diplomats loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, and open channels to the Libyan rebels. “Your words and your actions could make the difference in bringing this situation to finally close,” she said. The presence of Mr. Bashir, Sudan’s president, raised the potentially awkward possibility that Mrs. Clinton might encounter a leader indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes in another part of Sudan, Darfur. Mr. Bashir, however, left town before she arrived and did not attend the meetings at the African Union headquarters. Mrs. Clinton did meet with representatives of both the north and south at her hotel in an effort to press for an agreement. One was an adviser to President Bashir, Nafi Ali Nafi; the other was the leader of southern Sudan, Salva Kiir. Mrs. Clinton then had to abruptly curtail her trip. A volcano erupting in neighboring Eritrea sent an ash cloud that threatened to strand her in Ethiopia, so she departed late Monday night, canceling visits to a hospital and a school. A senior aide, Philippe Reines, said she promised to come back. ~ NYT
“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.”
“Better to die standing, than to live on your knees.”
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara quote
ER,
Protestants especially new kind of Pentecostalism is spreading in Ethiopia and when ever you ask these people about the situation of the country, they are in denial and they say they are not involved in politics. What happens when their livelihood is finally taken. I see, no, their livelihoods will not be taken by TPLF for these people because it is like they have signed a contract with tplf not to get involved. Does this mean, they can still vote for tplf? Can they still watch and act as if nothing is happening when obvious repression is going on, are they going to turn blind eye? To me such act of fake religon from the context of Ethiopian evangelism is not religion at all. Bible they have been claiming to read very well shows compassion, love and humanity. Enabling TPLF by silence is inhumane and it is not religion but a cult to make itself grow economically and for power, nothing more. So Pentecostals in Ethiopia are also enabling TPLF. Some Muslims Haderes,etc also enable Meles because they believe they got more right in Ethioia than before and become silent when injustice is being made especially to non muslims also economic reason. Its challenge actually is Orthodox church, that is why TPLF is trying to dismantle the Orthodx church by appointing a non real pope and introducing lack of integrity and corruption within the church because tplfs enemies are Orthodox which is the heart and core of Ethiopia that truly cares for humanity for Ethiopia. Most deacons and popes have been killed by Italians during occupation. So it is not that Orthodox enabled TPLF, no, tplf itself has to contaminate Ethiopian Orthodox church by bringing in agents to destroy Orthdox in Ethiopia, so we have to make a distinction about this.
Mr/ms true, you said, “Protestants especially new kind of Pentecostalism … have signed a contract with tplf not to get involved. … They still watch and act as if nothing is happening when obvious repression is going on, are they going to turn blind eye? To me such act of fake religon from the context of Ethiopian evangelism is not religion at all. Bible they have been claiming to read very well shows compassion, love and humanity. So Pentecostals in Ethiopia are also enabling TPLF”.
I reject your assessment because it is very shallow and mere generalization. Yes, there could be Churches and people that are both cozy and at times supportive of governments that oppress their citizens. However, the majority of Ethiopian Protestant Churches including Pentecostals as organizations and individual Christians had fought for justice, truth, and the rule of law in Ethiopian history.
They have fought silently for truth and justice inspite of the consequences to their carrier and life both during the Emperor’s and Derg’s time. This is, by and large the same for most Ethiopian Evangelical Christians professionals and the membership at large. Evangelical Christians fight for justice, truth, and the rule of law; they don’t however fight with hatred, violence, murder, and unnecessary virolic speeches. Hatred, violence, and murder creates successive cycles of violence. Yes, when necessary Christians also take arm and fight. But only as a last resort.
If we refer to the Ethiopian history of the last 50 years (that is until late eighty) we will find that 70% of all Athorney Generals in Ethiopia were Evangelical Christians. They were selected because of their education, integrity, and honesty. The last three Governments (including the current) in Ethiopia have assigned Evangelical Christians to critical government institutions when they want people with high level of integrity, honesty, and truthfulness.
Living and fighting for justice, truth, and the rule of law is an inherent part of the Christian teaching. We cannot separate these values from an Evangelical Christian. There were hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian Christians that lived and fought for justice, truth, and the rule of law both during the Emperors and Derg’s time. Similarly, there are hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian Christians who live fighting for justice, truth, and rule of law today.
We, Ethiopians know and should never forget that the most ardent supporter of the Imperial governments for thousands of years and later the Derg Communist regime was the Ethiopian Orthodox church. It had supported and collaborated with Emperors, Kings, Princes, the nobility, and later with the Communist Derg to make Ethiopia a weak, divided, backward, and poor Country. It is responsible for the situations we are in today. As such, it has no credibility, viability, and capability to challenge any one.
Evangelical Christians including Pentecostals have suffered more than any religious groups in Ethiopian history. The major culprit was and still is the Ethiopian Orthodox church who in the past monopolized the “Christian” religion and shared the third of Ethiopian state power and land with the Imperial governments for thousands of years. The Ethiopian Orthodox church have been orchestrating persecutions, hatred, violence, and manufactured crimes on Evangelical Christians in every corner of the Country since the early 40s. Hundreds of thousands Evangelical Christians including Pentecostals were imprisoned, tortured, killed, and forcefully relocated all instigated by the Ethiopian Orthodox church. The Orthodox Church at times has go down so low as to collaborate with radical Muslims to instigate the imprisonment, torture, killings, and forced relocation of Evangelical Christians.
True says,
You try to hide the truth about your religion. Your religion stick its nose in politics like old feudal time. This religion is a pain on the neck for majority Ethiopians.
They support current government. They call street, squares in your religion names. They involve in every thinga just like Haile region period. Woyane made a U-turn to feudal system and here you try to blame other religons. Coptic christian Amharas hate other religion and mess up in politics. They work very hard to get amnesty to mass murderers, communist derg officals. What a shame.
It is not wise to attack any religious institutions. If you believe in democracy, everyone has the right what to believe. There is no also obligation to vote. It is a free will. No body should be singled out for the case of religion affiliation, The land is for all. What your comments are telling me, when the so called ‘democratic’ force take over the land after woyane, they intend to abolish religion & create a new religion which forcefully praises the government ! Is that what you want ? Is anyone obliged to believe what you do ? NAME CALLING IS NOT A SOLUTION AT ALL. Evangelist, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Muslim..They all are Ethiopians. No body should add any more requirements to make them Ethiopians. No body has the right to tell any individual what to believe. You don’t have to blame someone for your political divisions & weakneses. Focus on your internal divisions. In 2005 there were 92 parties went for election. What a bizar picture. So, is it due to religious organizations ? Give me a break. Try to find a solution for all, including those who do not & will not for for you. Do not try to mold a society into your thinking. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Marx…Socialist Russia, China, in general East block tried it for 75 years to make people think in governemt guided way. It failed miserably. What is your kind of democracy that is try to preach such hatred among religious groups. You better back-off. Religious provocation is the worst one in history that the flame will never stop.
Go for it and you will find yourself roasted in it or your type of democracy. I’m glad you guys are not the leader of the land. If you’re pursueing for such ideology, there are millions ready to take arms to fight you to the end. So; be wise what you’re asking for. This is 21st century; not 16th century.
Dear Adam #5,
The true followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church have cemented Christianity in Ethiopia before the Protestant sects – the Evangelical Churches, the Pentecostal Churches, the Methodist Churches, the Lutheran Churches, the Baptist Churches, the Episcopalian Churches, the Mennonite Churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Seventh Day Adventist Churches, and many other fragmented Protestant Churches – have put their feet in the old Christian land of Ethiopia. All these pieces of clays of the Protestant Churches are nothing else but robbers who came to build houses of worship on what has been already built on the Ethiopian Christian land. By the grace of God, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has already built the foundation of Christianity in Ethiopia, and those new comers who want to build Churches, better build them carefully without antagonizing the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, the real source of true worship in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty God. St. Paul is right when said: “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds” (1st Corinthians 3:10).
I don’t think these off shoots of Protestant Churches know what they are doing in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia: Instead of preaching the word of God, they are engaged in defaming the true Church of the living God, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; they are blaming this vibrant Church, the symbol of freedom, generosity, love, peace, and the light of the Ethiopian people as the main cause for the suffering, persecution, and imprisonment of many Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers.
Whenever these charlatan Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors’ messages of converting Christian children to their false Christianity are rejected, they blame the Ethiopian orthodox Tewahido Church; if someone burns their Chapels, they blame the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and if, for some reasons, their marriages are broken apart, they still blame the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
Not only that, they also think they are the true worshippers of God, and their church is superior to the ancient and historical Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. How fool and wicked they are indeed! I doubt they clearly understand the Apostle Paul’s advice to the Romans: “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3). If they have grasped St. Paul’s message, Mr. Adam could have never said on this web site that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church “at times has go [gone] down so low as to collaborate with radical Muslims to instigate the imprisonment, torture, killings, and forced relocation of Evangelical Christians.” No body has ever witnessed that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church that teaches “love your enemy” has collaborated with the Ethiopian Muslims to burn the Protestant Chapels and to expel those Protestants or Pentecostals whose house of worship was burned down from their new settlements to another place.
In this case, the Ethiopian Muslims have been more grateful to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church that allowed them to settle in Ethiopia during the 7th century than these ungrateful Evangelical and Pentecostal new comers who are blaming the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church for their failures in evangelizing the nonbelievers, and their failures are due to their lavish and worldly livings. Do they pray? Do they fast? Do they heal the sick? Do they repent for insulting the true Church of God – the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church? We know they pray superficially, claim they speak in strange tongues, and deceive the little Ethiopian Christian children by offering them candies and second hand shirts and pants. Yes, a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church does not flatter when he prays; he does not shout, but he prays silently according to the word of God: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).
Amazingly, Mr. Adam says: “They [the Evangelical Churches and the Pentecostal Churches] have fought silently for truth and justice….”
My friend, true believers in the Almighty God, Jesus Christ, speak out for truth and justice loudly, not silently; take Elijah the prophet who denounced Ahab and his wife Jezebel in front of the Israelites, or take John the Baptist who lost his life for condemning Herod in public for marring his brother Philip’s wife.
Is there any person in the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches who is known for his bravery in speaking out the truth and in defending justice and the rule of law in the Ethiopian history? However, in the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church we have many courageous people who fought for justice and the rule of law. One of these children of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church who gave his life for his country was Abune Petros. Our holy Father, Abune Petros, instead of hiding himself in one of the Ethiopian monasteries, he stood up, like Elijah the prophet and like John the Baptist, in front of the Fascist army, condemning the use of nerve-gas on the Ethiopian people by Fascist Italy, and he was executed.
Yes, Mr. Adam, you cannot go beyond 50 years in the Ethiopian history because you are yesterday’s event; you are a new comer, and a new person to the glorious history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
You bragged by telling us: “The last three Governments (including the current) in Ethiopia have assigned Evangelical Christians to critical government institutions when they want people with high level of integrity, honesty, and truthfulness.”
Since you have admitted you are highly required in the critical government institutions in the Woyanne government because of your high level of integrity, honesty, and truthfulness, the crucial government institutions in the Woyanne regime are the office of Meles’ Death Squad, and now we know it is members of the Evangelical Churches and the Pentecostal Churches that are running the crucial government businesses such as selling the Ethiopian land to foreign government, administrating the national election, running the Kaliti jail, handing out the western donated food to the poor Ethiopians, and cracking down members of the opposition and sending them to jail. You have allied yourself not with Jesus Christ but with the Woyanne regime to destroy the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and to prolong the sufferings of the Ethiopian people by supporting the Meles regime and by working for Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) and for his wife Jezebel (Azeb).
Because of your high level of integrity, honesty, and truthfulness, Emperor Haile Selassie used you; Mengistu Haile Mariam used you, and now Meles Seitanawi has been using you; however, your high level of integrity, honesty, and truthfulness have become the main factors in destroying innocent Ethiopian lives during those three consecutive Ethiopian administrations, especially during the Derg times and the present one.
According to your understanding of the Ethiopian people, the only qualified people for the highest job, such as for the offices of the attorney generals, are not Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Christians, are not Ethiopian Catholic Christians, are not Ethiopian Jews, are not Ethiopian Muslims but only Ethiopian Evangelical Christians and Ethiopian Pentecostal Christians. You said: “70% of all Athorney [attorney] Generals in Ethiopia were Evangelical Christians.” And it is because of these Evangelical Christian attorney generals as advisors of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) that we are unable to democratize our country, and it is because of these attorney generals that Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) went to war with Somalia; finally, it is because of these Evangelical Christian attorney generals that we lost the 2010 national election. Therefore, our enemy and the enemy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church are the Ethiopian evangelical Christian Churches and the Ethiopian Pentecostal Christian Churches.
From now on, we should turn our attentions to these Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians who are determined to eliminate our Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church by allying themselves with the Woyanne regime for the sole purpose of their survival. We don’t need their Christianity; we have our own; we don’t need their attorney generals; we have the best ones abroad and at home.
Peace and unity to my country, Ethiopia!
Assta B. Gettu
Thank you Assta B. Gettu as always for telling #5. Adam the lost man. Mister Adam are you saying Tamarat Lane cry baby is one of your educated person or Shimelis Kemal the TPLF spokes person
Adam look the next links it will help you to stimulate your dead brain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JvF8IPK5mU&feature=related
http://www.seekgod.ca/fatherparham.htm
I would like to say, everyone has their own right to believe what ever they want but when it is politically, economically, motivated then the whole spirituality changes into interest for power therefore, money. Ethiopian Orthodox have many many years of history that grew with Ethiopia. Past emperors followed this religion because that was/is Ethiopia’s dominant religion but also leaders like any church were seeking strength to lead the country the right way. Remember, demonizing Ethiopia’s ancient church, Russia has the same belief and communists, like the protestants and some Muslims demonized it for their own agenda, guess what, Russian people wanted back. Protestant althogh I have no problem with it, many evangelists are under investigation through out the world, it has be come a big money making machine and converting others for political and economic power of countries. BTW, Wahabism also does the same thing. It goes into poor nation’s poor community and convert them for the sake of money. Recent announcement of Saudi arabia to bring 30000 Ethiopians, should raise eyebrows, it is easier to influence Ethiopia towards Wahabi Islam with the help of Meles Zenawi. One question I have is that, why would any religion go out of its way to convert people that is the problem I have. Conversion should be natural, based on choice of interest in changing religion. That is why certain religions are artificial. The following religons such as Judaism, Hinduism, Orthodox, buddism etc, you can see, they don’t have the interest in converting people what do they have in common then? Its very religon is founded centuries ago, the oldest religion are closest to the truth of gods teaching, especially Judaism and Hinduism. Even Hindus in India are having a problem of Islam and Protestant converting Hindus. Especially the Hindus are tolerant but they are beginning to notice this problem. There is then desperation for power and survival for any religion to go out of its way, using tactics, money and using peoples desperation to convert them.
The true color of this topic has come into light, I’m not surprised.
Why not then, we discuss about Orthodox or other religious kind of ‘Sharia’ law. If someone is try to preach Orthodox is the best, why they were holding 1/3 of the land or the power for that matter in the time of king Haile Selassie ? Are u saying the Elijah or John the baptist of the Orthodox church who threw the KING FROM POWER ? Is it not the popular student revolution ? Where was the Orthodox church, if your arguement is valid. 1st of all civility is the basic rule of a debate or arguement to make your point. If you’re religious, where did you get the energy or the moral to insult others who don’t support you ? OR you’re the political wing of Orthodox church who can say anything in the name of religion ? The bottom line is not promoting once religion or forcing your ideology into someones mind. That’s over a long time ago in the medieval era. I thought you guys are interesting in promoting democracy instead of spreading poison of religion. I don’t have to be Orthodox or pentecostal to be Ethiopian. I’M ETHIOPIAN REGARDLESS & I WANT TO TEACH MY KIDS THE SAME TO RESPECT OTHERS AND THEIR OPINION. I PRAY TO SEE SUCH KIND OF ETHIOPIA NOT THE ETHIOPIA YOU DREAM WHICH FAVORS SOME BASED ON RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION.
Dear Guna #11,
Please, make the following sentences clear so that I can clearly understand you and respond you: “Are u saying the Elijah or John the baptist of the Orthodox church who threw the King FROM POWER? Is it not the popular student revolution? Where was the Orthodox Church, if your argument is valid.”
Let me ask you: What is the relation between the Elijah or John the Baptist of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the popular student revolution? Who is the Elijah or John the Baptist of the Orthodox Tewahido Church? Are you trying to say it was the popular student revolution that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie from power? Are you also saying the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church did not help the popular student revolution in overthrowing of King Haile Selassie?
Let me first deal with the land issue: Throughout the Ethiopian Christian kingdom until that Great King Emperor Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had been a state Church; Church and state were one, and there had never been, most of the time, a king or a queen without the approval of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. The Church then had some acres of land allotted to her by the generous Ethiopian kings and queens. The Church used the land to run her ecclesiastical affairs; most of the Ethiopian clergies, deacons, debteras, and memhirs had no any fixed salaries, so they depended on the Church land to support their families. These clergies, deacons, debteras, and memhirs pontificated church services day and night, administered baptisms, blessed weddings, and conducted funeral services besides teaching hundreds of young students – they did all these services without a single penny given to them. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church never collected tithes from her Church members; it always depended on the land given to her, and, of course, before a king or a queen or a prominent person passed away, he or she would bequeath part of his or her property to the Church. Because of the deep respect and generous gifts the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church got from her appointed kings and queens, the Church was able to preserve and pass those historical Christian Churches, Churches such as Lalibela, Axum, and other magnificent Churches with their ancient and amazing documents to us, the new generation. Copying one document by hand and passing it from one generation to another is not an easy task, but the Ethiopian clergies did it without being paid a single dime.
Was it too much for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to have a piece of land, considering all the indispensable services, the Christian traditions, the Christian cultures, the Christian values, and the unity of the country she had kept for us from ages until now? Why are then these new comers, the Ethiopian Evangelical Christians and the Ethiopian Pentecostal Christians, all a sudden conspiring against this dynamic and historical Christian Church – the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church? These Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors or ministers have never seen any clergy from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church enriching himself, building a house with five bed rooms and a swimming pool; they have never seen him driving a brand new, elegant, and luxury limousine, a symbol of wealth and power, driven by a professional chauffeur.
Mr. Guna, the popular student revolution did not overthrow Emperor Haile Selassie; it was communist Mengistu Haile Mariam who overthrew His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie and killed him. May the good Lord destroy those who plotted against that famous Christian King, the loving father of the Ethiopian people!
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church never supported the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie, a devoted Christian, and defender of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Why do you think the first Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, Patriarch Basilios, excommunicated those who tried to overthrow Emperor Haile Selassie while he was visiting South America? Why do you think the second Ethiopian Patriarch, Abune Theophelos, was executed? The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church never betrayed her anointed Christian kings and queens.
My friend, no one asked you to follow this or that religion; it is your choice to pick up one or stay without one as you are. If you need a godless democracy, create it for yourself; the truth is all democratic countries have religion: it is almost impossible to live a normal life without it.
Dear Stoned Peter #9,
Thank you for the two links; I have learned a lot from them. It is indeed frightening to see those women, possessed by zar, not by the Holy Spirit, screaming, yelling, jerking, twisting, falling on the floor, and spinning. What a great confusion in the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches on the holy ground of the Ethiopian Christian kingdom! Knowing ahead of time that such things would happen, St. Paul said: “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1st Corinthians 14:33). In this case, I don’t see any orderly worship in these necked and chaotic Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches. May the good Lord, Jesus Christ, direct them to the true worship of him in his true Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church!
I have seen also Western evangelicans coming to Ethiopia and chained the legs and hands of 4 year olds and telling them to repent their sins. How can a 4 year old children have more sins than those adults forcing them to convert? It is truly sickening. The bottom line is this over explosion of religion conversion is happening in Ethiopia to me it is not natural and it is to break the back bone of Ethiopia in diving and conquering. Of course, those converted will have a comfortable economic life due to their loyalty. The whole story when pastors come to heal is also a scam.. they learn ahead about the individual’s life story or give him the money to act that he had paralysis and now he is healed. Those who pretend the fell on stage screaming are paid by the church itself and pastors to make people believe and convert. Thank god there is investigation going on in the West. It is these people converting our people that we are the devil if we don’t convert to evangelism and pentecostalism. Of course, Ethiopians are paid very well and are agents to orchestrate the conversion.
Dear True #14,
Thank you for telling us the demonic performances of the Western Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors on our young Ethiopian children in Ethiopia.
For thousands of years, the Ethiopian people have never known the following sexually transmitted diseases: herpes, gonorrhea, and syphilis, but when the Italians came and occupied Ethiopia, with them they brought those diseases, and now these Western Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers are introducing to our innocent Ethiopian children and to our humble Ethiopian men and women a new teaching more dangerous than syphilis, a teaching based on speaking in strange tongues and on performing deceptive exorcists. Their teaching is like the teaching of Simon Magus, (Magus means magic) a practitioner of various kinds of sorcery like that of Elymas, the sorcerer of Paphos in Cyprus (Acts 13:6-11). To such Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers St. Paul says: “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery” (Acts13:10).
What is the value of speaking in tongues unless the audiences understand what the tongue-speaker is speaking about? Even the Apostle Paul prefers prophesying to speaking in tongues: “…but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues…” (1st Corinthians 14:5). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has never pretended like the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches that her members can speak in tongues. Only those who try to deceit others profess they can speak in strange tongues. It is the evil spirit dwelling in them that deceives them to speak in strange tongues that no one understands.
I hope the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the Woyanne government will stop these Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers from deceiving the Ethiopian men and women and send them back to America. If they want to preach Christianity, why don’t they go to Pakistan or Indonesia and preach there rather than preaching the Ethiopian Christians. I know all of them are thieves, and they are in Ethiopia, a vulnerable country to foreign false missionaries. One day when the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church appoints a new patriarch who understands the true natures of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches in Ethiopia, that will be the end of their evil missionary activities in Ethiopia. Till then we have just to pray to the Almighty God to keep our country united and to enervate those Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers who are dividing our country by converting the gullible Ethiopians into their satanic religion.
Mr Gettu,
You sound more like a very disturbed individual or a member of a desperate political opportunist group trying to use anything to get to political power. I am afraid, the means (religion) you want to use do not have any utility or it can even create unintended consequences. You also seem to be very ignorant of the facts of history. You want to incite mobs and start violence against other Ethiopians. One thing that stands out from this interaction is that, as a desperate political opportunist you seem to enjoy misrepresenting, misinterpreting, and outright lying in order to make a point. Your accusations are not only totally false but despicable. In short, you are trying to use “religion” to incite violence so that you may accomplish your political agenda.
You also seem to have no idea of understanding the difference between Country and Governments or probably you may be living in delusion. According to your screwed comments an Ethiopian should not serve his/her Country as far as the Governments in power are dictators. This seems to discredit thousands of Ethiopians who had an impeccable character, high integrity, and honesty who served their Country during the Emperor’s time, Derg, and serving now. My friend, these citizens served their Country at times dying fighting to protect the interest and the unity of Ethiopia in the Eastern and Northern Ethiopia because they believed in and saw the importance of the Country beyond the miss deeds of the Governments in power. This they did while at the same time respecting the people and fighting and working for justice. That is, contrary to your thinking.
First, I said you are “a disturbed individual”. I said this because of you brought something totally unrelated to the issue of discussion at hand. People who speak incoherently or bring issues that does not relate to the issue at hand are always suspect of unstable and un balanced mind. Mr/ms true or I did not raise issues related to the theologies of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or protestant Churches in Ethiopia. We did not discuss nor questioned any ones doctrines. I did not question nor mentioned the theologies of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The issue at hand was and still is the wrong assumption that “Protestants – Pentecostals in Ethiopia are helping TPLF”. Because of your convoluted imaginations you tried in abject failure to link these incongruent realities. It seems your falsehood have taken control of you. If you have any sound mind you could have responded to the issues at hard. The day to day life experience that we all Ethiopians have lived thru and know. Again these are the issues.
1. We, Ethiopians know and experienced that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was the most ardent supporter of the Imperial governments for thousands of years and later the Derg Communist regime. Even today the Church seems to support whoever is in power.
2. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church supported and collaborated with Emperors, Kings, Princes, the nobility, and later with the Communist Derg making Ethiopia a weak, divided, backward, and poor Country.
3. Evangelical Christians including Pentecostals have suffered more than any religious groups in Ethiopian history. The major culprit was and still is the Ethiopian Orthodox church. The Ethiopian Orthodox church have been orchestrating persecutions, hatred, violence, and manufactured crimes on Evangelical Christians in every corner of the Country since the early 40s.
4. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had who in the past monopolized the third (“Sisso”) of Ethiopian state power and land with the Imperial governments for thousands of years.
5. Hundreds of thousands Evangelical Christians including Pentecostals were imprisoned, tortured, killed, and forcefully relocated all instigated by the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
6. The Orthodox Church at times has go down so low as to collaborate with radical Muslims to instigate the imprisonment, torture, killings, and forced relocation of Evangelical Christians.
These are the irrefutable facts of history. I have always respected the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. But my respect will not deter me to state the facts and call spade a spade. I have never in my earlier message implicated the Muslim religion. Again, unless you delusional mind took control what I said was and still is “radical Muslims”. My friend, the two terms are as far apart as the East is from the west. It seems you enjoy miss representing and miss interpreting facts. What I raised as the issue and oppose is the treatment of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and radical Muslims against the protestant Churches and Christians. In this context I also raised the past history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as it pertains to its role with the Imperial Governments and the Derg. Telling anyone, let alone me, that these things have never happened is insulting the collective intelligence of Ethiopians.
As I said before most of your comments are nothing more than lies and merely hate propaganda calling for war against other religions. You not only said that all other Churches are “pieces of clays” but you implied that one has to be a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to be an Ethiopian and other religions have to get permission from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to exist in Ethiopia. This shows your ignorance, immaturity, and narrow mindedness. How preposterous and foolishness. You also tried very hard to justify your insults miss quoting the Scriptures. I don’t indulge in this as it is not the issue or the place for this type of discussion.
Yes, I respect the great patriot Abune Petros, who against all odds defended the independence of the Country. In the same token why do you tell us what the mobs also called the “debteras”, people like you did to the Great Emperor Theodros when he tried to unite the Country and modernize the nation. We can also mention how Emperor Menilik had to fight the reactionary mobs “the debteras” like you to unite and modernize the Country. Yes, there are thousands of Ethiopians from all religions, including Muslim and Evangelical Christians who fought for their Country at various times. That is the fact and you cannot do anything about it. No one has the right to question or the power to determine the “Ethiopian-ness”, patriotism, and the love of his County. Yes, no one.
There were thousands of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians who served their country at various times. They are also serving now. Yes, they serve with integrity and they don’t indulge in or participate in the crimes and treachery you mentioned. For them serving with integrity, truthfulness, and honesty has real meanings. These values are matters of life and death for Evangelical Christians. Living and working by moral values are the basic Christian teaching and Evangelical Christians take these very seriously. History has thought us that when societies tamper with moral values its very existence and continuation have always been in question. Many Evangelical Christians have experienced and suffered when totalitarian governments undermine moral values. I am afraid a convoluted mind like yours is incapable of understanding these facts.
I have never said that the Ethiopian Evangelical Christians are the only qualified people. But again, your agenda is to implicate and link people where there is none and create an environment of hate. You tried very hard again in your deception to link people to crime and implicate the innocent. Not only that, you tried again to create an environment of hate and incite people. It shows not only your arrogance but your audacity to insult the intelligence of Ethiopians. How sad.
You said, ”And it is because of these Evangelical Christian attorney generals as advisors of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) that we are unable to democratize our country, and it is because of these attorney generals that Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) went to war with Somalia; finally, it is because of these Evangelical Christian attorney generals that we lost the 2010 national election. Therefore, our enemy and the enemy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church are the Ethiopian evangelical Christian Churches and the Ethiopian Pentecostal Christian Churches”.
These are again quite preposterous and mere false accusations that don’t have an iota of truth. It is simply, a desperate attempt to incite hate and create a mob mentality. Unfortunately, for you, these comments lay bare your utmost hatred and ultimate ignorance of Ethiopia’s history and disregard for the truth. First, Attorney Generals have never been advisors to Emperors, the Derg, or Melesse. Get you facts straight. Secondly, Ethiopian governments know that whenever criminal cases came through the Attorney General’s office the results have most often been contrary to the wishes of governments of the day. I can recall example after example including the case of General Mengistu Neway. As it is, except to certain extent, during the Emperor’s time, not a single case came through the Attorney General during the Derg’s time. What you said regarding the Attorney General’s office must have happened somewhere in another planet. Derg used instead the Kebelles, National Security office, and the Derg’s Investigation Office to investigate and kill opponents. Similarly, in the current administration, only specific individuals (party members) are assigned to handle cases in lue of the Attorney General. These are the facts of history. Get your facts straight. Your comments show your utter disregard for facts and truth.
Your last comment again is nothing more than a battle cry for a mob to come and follow you in your unholy crusade of hate and despicable acts. We have seen these types of characters you and your debtera friends doing it again and again and again for hundreds of years. Your hate mongering will only help create a mob mentality and discord and divisions amongst Ethiopians. It will only affect the case for unity, justice, and democracy. Who knows you may have another/albeit, a hidden agenda of sowing discord. You can run, but you cannot hide. That is how debteras always behave, how pathetic. They never learn from history.
My dear Adam #16,
Your tendentious comment on the shining Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and its dedicated servants – the Bishops, Archbishops, the clergies, memhirs, the debteras, and the deacons – will bring you deserts or comeuppance you cannot avoid even if you talk in a strange tongue or spin on the floor like a dying chicken.
Accusing the Church of the saints, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, is accusing all its members, millions of them who have been protecting the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia for centuries. You have brought the following imitative and serious accusations against the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, the Church of the living God, Jesus Christ:
1. The major culprit for the suffering, persecution, and imprisonment of the Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches has been the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
2. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has been masterminding hatred, violence, and concocting crimes on Evangelical Christians throughout the country for many years.
3. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has forcedly relocated and instigated the Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches.
4. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has collaborated with radical Ethiopian Muslims to prompt the imprisonment, torture, and killings of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians.
5. By supporting, and working closely with, the Communist Derg, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had made Ethiopia weak and divided.
6. The Debteras had been great obstacles for modernizing Ethiopia.
These accusations, according to Mr. Adam’s shameless statement, are “irrefutable facts of history.” It is this kind of false history, a history that disparages the genuine history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, Mr. Adam has learned in the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churche known for its slipshod. Mr. Adam has no tangible evidence that supports any one of the above malicious accusations against the immaculate Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
The Evangelical and the Pentecostal Churches may have been persecuted, imprisoned, and mistreated for the crimes they have been committing by trespassing into the territories of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and proselytizing the young children of the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and the parents of those Christian children have the absolute legitimacy to persecute, mistreat, and imprison those day time thieves, the pastors of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches. Who gave them the right to convert a true Ethiopian Christian child to a false Christianity proclaimed by these new comers, the Evangelical and Pentecostal ministers?
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is well known in its long religious history as the generous, inspiring, loving, and protector of its people from ravenous wolves of the Evangelical and Pentecostal preachers, and to say that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has been propagating hatred and violence is simply a blooper blundered by the busybody of the Evangelical Church.
First of all, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has no authority by all means to forcedly relocate the members of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches whose properties are burned down by one of, perhaps, the disgruntled members of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches. Relocating people from one place to another is the main duty of the Woyanne government, and since Mr. Adam claims 70% of the Ethiopian attorney generals are from the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches, these Evangelical Attorney generals can influence the government to relocate the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Churches to one of the best places as they want to.
The fourth unsubstantiated accusation brought by Mr. Adam against the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has collaborated with the Ethiopian radical Muslims to torture members of the Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches. No one in his sane mind would accept such a daft accusation. It is true, members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the Ethiopian Muslim communities have lived harmoniously for a long time until the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Churches have began creating problems in both communities by deceiving their children and converting them to Pentecostalism. To protect their children from these foreign invaders – the Evangelical and The Pentecostal preachers – the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the Ethiopian Muslim communities may have worked together not to torture the Evangelical and the Pentecostal preachers but to protect their children from being snatched away by these new comers. Mr. Adam says the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has cooperated with radical Muslims, but we don’t have radical Muslims in Ethiopia; Ethiopia is not Pakistan or Iran or Iraq or Egypt. Not yet!
Mr. Adam’s flagrant accusation that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had weakened and divided Ethiopia by working together with the Communist Derg is just sass. Where were members of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches during the Durg time? Were they working underground or were they in exile? You have already stated that “The last three governments (including the currant one) in Ethiopia have assigned Evangelical Christians to critical government institutions…” This means the most cooperative workers with the Communist Derg were not mostly members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Churches but, as you have witnessed, members of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches. However, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has the right to respect any government and advise that government to follow the rule of law. The Church has an obligation to follow the word of God that says: “Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience” (Romans 13:5). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has always kept the unity of Ethiopia even in that Ethiopian dark history when Gragn Muhammad destroyed so many Churches and burned so many documents, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church stood firm against Gragn Muhammad and later against Bonito Mussolini.
What is Mr. Adam’s evidence that the Ethiopian debteras have hindered modernization in Ethiopia? Mr. Adam cannot identify debteras, or priests, or memhirs: Ethiopian debteras have never been involved in politics; their primary duties are to serve the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in many areas. Debteras are highly educated; they sing, they dance spiritual dance; they compose kine; they know Themeduga and Duga, and most of them are memhirs: they teach Ethiopian Christian Children from Fidel to Abugida to Melikte-Yohanes to Mekuter to Magaz to Word-Nibab to Nibab to Dawit and from there to Zema, kine, Akuakuam and Tirguim. Such productive Ethiopian debteras are, according to the ignoramus Adam, great hindrances to progress.
Mr. Adam thinks I am ignorant of the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and he falsifies I am inciting violence against the other Ethiopians. Who are these other Ethiopians? I already know one Ethiopia and about 80 million Ethiopians who live in Ethiopia and some of them live abroad but all of them belong to one Ethiopia because they are Ethiopians. I think when he said the other Ethiopians, he is probably referring to those new and old Ethiopians who are converted to the new fake Evangelical and Pentecostal religion. If there are such Ethiopians who are deceived by the new religion that popped up recently, I don’t recognize them. The main purpose of the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Churches in Ethiopia is to create confusions and divisions in the name of Evangelism and Pentecostalism. Such a man-made, not divinely made, religion sooner or later will evaporate into the air.
Mr. Adam, do you care about the unity of Ethiopia while at the same you are accusing the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church as a divider not as a unifier? If it had not been for the great effort of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to keep the country united, you wouldn’t be here today, opening your big mouth and insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. You should know you are doing what you are doing under the mercy of this great Church – the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
Mr. Adam, you said you did not raise religion, but you have mentioned Evangelism and Pentecostalism several times. Is there any difference between your religion and your Evangelism or Pentecostalism? The reason you think you did not raise religion or doctrine of either the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church or the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Church is you probably have not been trained in the doctrine of your mundane Church. Don’t you know your Church is inane of every thing: no cross, no harps, not lyres, no tambourines, and no trumpets? Don’t you know the Holy Bible says, “Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals” (Psalm 150:5). What one finds in your naked Church is diseased people shouting, ranting, falling, and blubbing. You claim you can speak in tongues, but at the same time you ridicule and detest the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church ignoring St. Paul’s words: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” ( 1st Corinthians 13:1).
You stated you respect Abune Petros: Is that the only person you respect because he has a big statue in Addis Ababa? Don’t you respect Patriarch Theophelos who was murdered during the Communist era in Ethiopia? Don’t your respect Aba Tekle-Haimanot of the Debre-Lebanos, Shewa, Aba Samuel of the Waldiba, Welkait-Tegedie, St. Christos Semra of Tana, Gondar, Aba Gerima of Tigray, and many other distinguished Ethiopian martyrs and Saints? If you think you are an Ethiopian, you should know the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the history of the Ethiopian people. The history of the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Church is the history of some white people in South America.
You will die and be buried in your filthiness insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and envying her for having a piece of land, and you want the same thing for your foreign Church that collects millions of dollars by cheating its members it has the power of healing, prophesying, and speaking in tongues. Let me tell you the truth; your Church doesn’t have the power of healing the sick, but the only power your church has is the power of misleading, swindling, and getting rich easily on this earth, but not in heaven.
Reread the comments by true #10 and especially by stoned Peter #9; by any means, read the two links Mr. Stoned Peter has posted for you.
Assta B. Gettu
I think you didn’t sleep well last night. You tried to pretend you know what you’re talking about but any informed person can see your mere ignorance about theology & history. 1st of all theology is not the topic of this discussion, 2nd your accusation of particular religion is not Ethiopic or not supported by fact or history. I couldn’t see your main theme of arguement. How come Ethiopia will stand you & the like when the time comes for democracy ? Like I said before It looks like from your mumbling it seems your group or Orthodox church who cherish citzenship to individuals. Are you loosing your mind ? The other thing is Orthodox is imported religion like any other for that matter. It is not indeginious. Ethiopia was pagan like any other country. Christianity came from where Christ was born- Israel. Do not try Orthodoxize everyone to issue citzenship. There are millions of Orthodox believers who are gentle and respectful love their neighbors regardless of their religious back ground. I do not know which breed you are. What a shame to Orthodox to spit a fire of hatred among citizens & at the same time preach democracy.
Debtera Gettu,
Your persistent insults show that you are not only a mentally sick and un stable person but someone who is trying to hide behind religion. Your audacity to glorify the “debteras” speaks volume as to who you really are. I can also see that you are another crazy “debtera” who is high and gone wild with “abisho” or as they say “Este”. Your diabatre does not change the fact that a “debtera” is always a “debtera”. A “debtera” is an individual who used to be a priest (at one time in the past) but missed off the target and live in denial of God and in obedience to the Devil. In short, he is a “menafik”.
Debtera Gettu,
Unlike you, most Ethiopians know that the “debteras” have brought un imaginable damage to the Church and the nation by bringing the “baed amlicot”. Because their mind have been screwed and darkened “debteras” are incapable of seeing, and understanding the obvious. Unfortunately, that is Ethiopia’s history since the time of Zera Yaekob and Gragn Muhammad. You may be ignorant to the fact that historians and scholars have already determined long time ago that the teachings of “debteras” including their “digimits” have a lot in common with the Middle Eastern traditional “amlicots”. A casual reader that understand the geez language will tell you that most of those fake “gedils”, “dirsans”, and “melke” are nothing more than bizarre and incoherent expressions of hallucinating debteras spreading their poison of “baed amlicot”. As far as you are concerned, could it be that, as they say; “fess yalebet zilay aychilim”? Well, as I said before, a “debtera” is always a “debtera” and I can’t help you.
As for me, I still respect the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its members. But, people who love and respect the Church should see and understand the undeniable facts. They need to comprehend the big damage done by the teachings of the “debteras” and change the course.
Dear Guna #18
Only indolent people like you who sleep the whole night, thinking it is still dark, write such awkward English that lacks dexterity. On June 20, 2011, I advised you to rewrite your sentences so that I can appropriately respond to your comment, but you didn’t follow my advice; instead, you wrote “Ethiopic, orthodoxize.” In this case, Solomon’s description fits you aptly: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11).
I cannot sleep as far as my Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, without any reason, is being attacked by unenlightened Pentecostal and Evangelical ministers, products of western eleemosynary reliefs. I must always be ready and respond to them adequately as St. Peter says: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1st Peter 3:15).
You couldn’t even understand what the main topic is: the main topic is “Tyrant’s Pillar of Support – The RELIGIOUS ORGANIZAIONS.” Religious organizations mean Churches who have religion. Is there any religion that does not have its own theology, its own history, and its own doctrine? Fool Guna, you cannot separate religion from its theology or doctrine or its Church history.
Another fatuity or folly you have committed on this well-respected and widely read web site is you think Ethiopian Christianity like Ethiopian Evangelism and Ethiopian Pentecostalism is an imported religion. Your Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors have misled you to believe that Ethiopian Christianity is a foreign religion. It is not!
An angel of the Lord told the Apostle Philip to go fast and meet an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Queen of Ethiopia. This Ethiopian man had gone to Jerusalem to worship God. On his way home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the Book of Isaiah, chapter 53. The Holy Spirit told the Apostle Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” After a short discussion about that particular passage that the Ethiopian eunuch had been reading, and after the two traveled along the road, the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip, “look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” The eunuch gave order to stop the chariot, and both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch went down into the river and Philip baptized the Ethiopian man and disappeared. Then the Ethiopian man went his way, rejoicing and preached Christianity to the other Ethiopians for the first time. Therefore, Ethiopian Christianity is a homegrown phenomenon, not a foreign product like Pentecostalism or Evangelism. I ask you to read Acts 8:26-40 and be convinced in the historical origin of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
Dearest Adam #19,
When you couldn’t find any fault on the Ethiopian Bishops, Archbishops, Priests, and deacons, you have finally singled out the Ethiopian debteras who refused to accept your demonic religion – Pentecostalism or Evangelism. You cannot brain wash an educated debtera and you cannot argue with him because you are inferior and subservient to a foreign religion – Pentecostalism.
To disclose your full ignorance to the whole world, you brazenly scribbled, “A ‘debtera’ is an individual who used to be a priest (at one time in the past) but missed off the target and live in denial of God and in obedience to the Devil. In short, he is ‘menafik.’”
When a person, like you, talks about something he has no clue at all, he is considered stupid or mountebank or imposter, and you are that person.
A debtera is a proud person who never wants to become a priest unless he has met all the requirements in the Ethiopian traditional Church education. Some of the traditional Church educations are: Woodasie-Mariam, Ankethe-Brihan, Melkia-Mariam, Melkia-Eyesus, Melkia-Seeil, Timiherte-hubuat; Woodasie-Mariam Zema, Mestegabi, Ariam, Kistet, Theme-Digua, Duga in geez, in Ezil, in Ararai; Aquaquam (Yetash bet, yeli bet, fano); Kine, yekine Agabab (Godena Kine, Seminawork Kine), Woodasie-Mariam Tirgum, Kidasie-Mariam Tirgum, Timhirte-hibuat Tirgum, Old and Net Testaments Tirgums, and Bahire-Hasab (the history of the calendar of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. To complete all these disciplines, a debtera spends most of his time learning and educating others. There is no doubt there have been some frictions between a debtera and a priest because a debtera is highly educated, more than an ordinary priest. A debtera is the one who defends the Church whenever a person among the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church or from other denomination denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, or denies that Mary is not the mother of God but the mother of Jesus Christ, a mere human being. For example, the Evangelical and the Pentecostal Churches are ጸረ ማርያም (enemies of St. Mary), so we don’t like them, and the Ethiopian educated debteras denounce them as the enemies of Mary, the Mother of God.
Don’t try to criticize the divinely set up of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; the debteras have been in Ethiopia, serving the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church since the inception of this great Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; don’t say since Atse Zerayakob, Mr. ቁንጽል or ጥራዝ ነጠቅ Adam! You have no idea about the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; you better meddle with your ዲቃላ Pentecostal Church, born out of wedlock, transported from South America to the Christian land of Ethiopia. Continue your shenanigan and endless chicanery for a short time, and I am watching you gingerly. The only reason you singled out the debteras is to create division in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and your final goal is to completely destroy the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church if you could. I have bad news for you, Mr. Adam, the pioneer of subterfuge; you cannot and will not destroy the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, because the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is firmly built on a firm ground by the word of God. This victorious Church has conquered Gragn Muhammad, fascism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and will defeat Pentecostalism.
In your stupidity you have boldly said Gidle-Tekile-Haimanot, Gidle-Kirkos, Gidle-Georgis, Dirsane-Haimamat, Dirsaene-Michel, Teamire-Mariam, Melkia-Mariam, and Melkia Eyesus “are nothing more than bizarre and incoherent expressions of hallucinating debteras spreading their poison of ‘baed-amlicot.’” Most of these religious books are in Geez language, and as I can detect from your tasteless writing, you do not know Geez, and you have not read any one of these books. You are there simply to demonize the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
Your Evangelical and Pentecostal Church ministers are the ones that are poisoning the holy land of Ethiopia by raving, by pretending they are possessed by the Holy Ghost, and by falsifying they have cured terminally sick people. They are indeed the children of Magus, the sorcerer, deceiver, and the first born of Satan.
You have attacked the Ethiopian religious books; you have attacked the servants of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church – the Debteras by calling them crazy and you have attacked me as a sick person. My friend, a sick person is one who claims he speaks in tongues; a sick person is one who arranges ahead of time a deceptive plan that misleads his audiences that he could perform a miracle; therefore, you are a liar and “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire… When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” (John 8:44-45) Mr. Adam, stop lying to some of the Ethiopian people that you could speak in tongues and repent for what you have been doing which is totally wrong.
Assta B. Gettu,
I won’t try to dance to your tune. You try to be religious with all foul spirit putting others down. That’s not typical of being religious. You even do not hesitate to kill for your wrong cause.
English ? I’m proud Ethiopian regardless of my religious affiliation or my English sentence construction. You’re a disturbed person try to defend your ego not the the Orthodox church. 98% of my friends are Orthodox believers who are gentle, respect others opinion, do not try to discriminate others based on religion, they’re proud Ethiopians who love other Ethiopians, very civil,have gut to take responsibility for what they do etc. You missed the theme of this forum. The theme is democracy not preaching poison of religion. Do you know what Lenin said ” Religion is opium of the people”. Let’s talk to about democracy…I mean an inclusive democracy not divisive like yours to promote a hidden agenda. Even you try to jump here there in your abstract theology, you conclusion reveals your shallow understanding of what you’re talking about. For ex, you copy & paste this ” An angel of the Lord told the Apostle Philip to go fast and meet an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Queen of Ethiopia. This Ethiopian man had gone to Jerusalem to worship God. On his way home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the Book of Isaiah, chapter 53. The Holy Spirit told the Apostle Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” After a short discussion about that particular passage that the Ethiopian eunuch had been reading, and after the two traveled along the road, the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip, “look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” The eunuch gave order to stop the chariot, and both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch went down into the river and Philip baptized the Ethiopian man and disappeared. Then the Ethiopian man went his way, rejoicing and preached Christianity to the other Ethiopians for the first time. Therefore, Ethiopian Christianity is a homegrown phenomenon, not a foreign product like Pentecostalism or Evangelism. I ask you to read Acts 8:26-40 and be convinced in the historical origin of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.”.
You contradicted yourself. 1st you mentioned the Apolstle Philip. You forgot Philip is not an Ethiopian …he is Israeli Christ’s disciple.
The Eunich was coming from Jerusalem. He got all his revelation about what you call it Christianity from Jerusalem where Christ was born, preached, died & resurrected. NOW, here your conclusion completely self serving…you said ” it is home grown “. WHAT ? Go & check what homegrown means if you’ve dictionary. Your Acts8:26-40 totally and clearly proved Christianity is imported to Ethiopia by the eunich from Jerusalem. I’m afraid you might come back with the arguement that Jesus Christ was born in Ethiopia because he might be a home grown prophet. Oh, I didn’t know Philip is Ethiopian. I won’t be surprised if you admit this bizard claim. Please, make me laugh! I told you you stumbled on your own trap.
I’m glad you do not represent the Orthodox majority. I have a great respect for Orthodox believers. You’re not… you are one of those who are using religion to incite violence. They are every where people like you who look for fight & loot. Good luck fellow citizen. This is not 16th century as someone mentioned it. We never get distracted by someone like you from our focus. Our focus is to bring freedom & prosperity to our people…Orthodox, Evangelicals, non-believers, aethists, muslims…to all Ethiopians. I mean to all Ethiopians. You can argue until the cow comes home; YOU’LL NOT HAVE ANY IMPACT ON THE UNITY OF ETHIOPIANS YEMISIRACH! WE LEARN A LOT FROM HARDSHIP.
good luck
Adam I think you ar gone crazy for good I can not answer for your insult of Getu however I know for sure trust me Getu knows the bible 1000 times better than your so called 1000 pastors all together so do not make your point a simple insult when you lose the game do not go too low. By the way as you can sense from the word itself Debtera is realated to the meaning learning because if you see the word Debtera means, note book so you may not see the true meaning just you might have seen your own creation for Debtera which you thought as an insulte that you might have learned from your pastors. I hope Getu reads your fullish and childish answer and gives you his deep full of biblical knoledge answer. From my side for now look the next links and open your closed eyes. By the way if you do not have time save those links and watch them whenever you have time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dglw1d0Qs7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSYIHlQ5ZI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEpJl_JyWtY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow644ROeJ5I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsnjExXjwKM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPBzlS5Le_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47C_SCkjIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh97_rC3czw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpBm1Z9DqyA&feature=related
Well mister Guna #22 first of all I can not quote the bible like Getu in order to prove my points because of my lack of knoledge on the bible however because of common sense I can say to you that christianity does not belong to Jerusalem and its people. Despite of Christ’s birth there, as you know the birth of Christ and belief in his birth and death resurrection has made everybody his chosen children unlike the old testament time if any church preaches both the old and the new testament that church can be counted as a true church I think. The biggest problem with these Pents is they do not have the whole bible from year to year they have reduced to paragraphs Therefore you should not acuse Getu. Getu’s point of view is the protestants can not accuse the Ethiopian orthodox church because of their short span of life some of the churches are 50 years in existance actually most of the pastors are a product of the Ethiopian revolution first they tried to be a cadre when they fail they became fake pastors I personally I know 3 individuals who call themselves pastors 2 of them live in my city here in USA and the remaining third person I use to know him in Ethiopia I was a frend with his son. In short most of the old current pastors first they tried to put on Mark’s hat then when the go got tough they put on their dull head another made in German hat which is Martin Luther’s hat and became pastors over night. By the way have you read Bahilu Girma’s book Oromay his girl friend Roman has tried to be a Pent however she left after she witnessed their deception. In addition I do not think christianity was imported to Ethiopia as you tried to say it in your answer to Getu. As you know Ethiopia is the oldest country in the world. as a result Ethiopia has been mentioned so many times in the bible that is why Ethiopia was able to be the first christian country. Therefore nobody should object the Ethiopian orthodox church trueness because of her early acceptance of Christ Ethiopia did not wait until Martin Luther the ex monk coming of the 16th century. On the other hand your and my country Ethiopia was a christian kingdom with christian citizens for 1500 years before the coming of Luther the creater of Protestantism. More over Ethiopia was for many thousands of years a believer of one god under the old testament. The main problem with protestantism is they think they are the true christians at the same time they accuse the old and ancient Ethiopian church as unchristian as you know protestantism was found in the 16th century by a Catholic monk whose name is Luther that is why the earliest and the oldest protestant religion is called Lutheranism. Now days the protestant sect has grown over 2,700 brands even in Ethiopian how many protestant sects we have they are too many to count them. However the oldest Ethiopian orthodox has been in existance with out revision since the early days of Christianity. By the way, why it becomes hard for most Pents to undestand the Ethiopian orthodox church because I am sure when they left their fathers and mothers Ethiopian Orthodox church they did not wrestle with their mind they just disappear to nowhere without trace.
My dear Guna #22,
Indeed, you cannot dance my spiritual dance, and, to know that kind of spiritual dance, you have to pack up your belongings and go and join the students of the spiritual dance at Baita-Mariam, Gondar, where the famous Aquaquam instructor Memhir Kifle used to teach there. If you couldn’t find him, go to other spiritual dance teachers; there are many of them in the Ethiopian Church schools anywhere in Ethiopia.
As you have said, most of members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church are friendly people, but you and your likes have taken their humbleness and sincere friendship as a weakness, and you have tried to exploit them by converting their Christian children to your cultish religion – Pentecostalism; therefore, you are not a trustful friend of the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; rather you are a hidden enemy of my Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and I am ready to expose your deception and theft to my Orthodox Tewahido Church unless you stop deceiving her young children and converting them to your foreign religion.
If you know what a theme is, then read again the topic very carefully: “TYRANT’s PILLAR OF SUPPORT – THE RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.” You can see the theme includes religious organizations: aren’t Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches also religious organizations supported by the donations of the South American Pentecostal Churches? In reality, any democracy that excludes religion is not a democracy at all. Communist Russia converted many magnificent Russian Orthodox Churches into a museum or library. For over 70 years, Russian Christians suffered tremendously under Communism; however, Christianity there, at last, triumphed when Communism was tumbled and fell apart by the intervention of the divine hand.
It was Alexander Pope who once said: “A little learning is a dangerous thing….” Your petty knowledge about the Communist Russian history renders you a laughing stock when you blindly or recklessly stated: “Do you know what Lenin said ‘Religion is opium of the people.’” You crack-head idiot, it was not Vladimir Lenin who said “religion is the opium of the people”; it was Karl Marx who said that famous statement. Mr. Guna, I advise you to ask one of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church historians to help you understand about the history of the Russian people. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church sends many students to Russia to study the history of the Russian people and especially the Russian Orthodox Church; many of these students are now back at home, serving the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in their capacities. Mr. Guna, learn the true knowledge from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; if you reject the kind of knowledge the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church teaches her children, then the prophesy of Hosea will be fulfilled upon you: “…because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you…” (Hosea 4:6).
Mr. Adam, there is no limit for your excessive lack of understanding my comment; I have never said in my comment the Apostle Philip is from Ethiopia, but the eunuch was an Ethiopian who went to Jerusalem to worship God. My friend, people get their revelation from the Holy Spirit, not from Jerusalem or New York City or Addis Ababa. You are still in dark the Holy Bible does not say the Ethiopian eunuch got his revelation either from Jerusalem or Ethiopia, and that is not the issue: the main issue is that the Holy Spirit commanded Philip to go and baptize the eunuch, and he baptized him; therefore, the Christianity the Ethiopian eunuch brought with him to Ethiopia was not from Philip; it was rather from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is responsible, not the Apostle Philip, for convincing the Ethiopian eunuch to be baptized and to introduce Christianity to the other Ethiopian people in Ethiopia around 34 AD. At this early Christian era, no one came to Ethiopia from the outside world to spread Christianity in Ethiopia. It was only the Ethiopian man, eunuch, who introduced Christianity to Ethiopia; for this reason, Ethiopian Christianity is not a Christianity that came from the Apostle Philip: it was a Christianity that came directly from the Holy Spirit through the Ethiopian eunuch. Once again, Ethiopian Christianity is not a mistletoe or epiphyte like the Ethiopian Pentecostalism; it is a natural growth planted by the Holy spirit, watered by the servants of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church – the deacons, the clergies, the bishops, the memhirs, the debteras, and by many other members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church – bloomed and fruited by the will of the Almighty God.
You have tried to mingle your superficial Christianity with the pure Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Christianity manifested by the Holy Spirit, preached by the Ethiopian eunuch for the first time, and accepted by the Ethiopian kings, queens, and millions of the Ethiopian citizens. I ask you to leave the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church alone and go to the Amazon jungle and help the native Indians there. We don’t need people like you who speak in strange tongues, disturb in their uncontrollable convulsions the innocent audiences, and collect money for their pleasure.
My dear Stoned Peter #23,
Some people say, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and I hope Mr. Adam and his likes will read what you have posted for all of us to look at those memorable pictures.
Thank you so much for your great contributions and for supporting the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church at this difficult time in her long history when the Church itself is divided, and some of her well known theologians are still in exile somewhere in the west. Using this physical fissure or crevice, the Ethiopian Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches are striping our Church of her young Christian Children by making them captives to their perfunctory Pentecostalism.
Correction: This comment is in response to Mr. Guna’s comment #22; therefore, the opening of the fifth paragraph should be read, Mr. Guna, not Mr. Adam.
First of all please everyone of us let us go to the 20th year the Ethiopian review anniversary if we can. Then I would like to say to My friend Assta B. Gettu I wish I was blessed just like you with deep knoledge of the bible especially with the Ethiopian orthodox church theology or teaching. To be onest with you I do not have the biblical knoledge therefore I just try to find to get the knoledge from people like you. I personally I feel it is a blessing to have people like you on this web sight as a guardian of the Ethiopian orthodox church to guard from web sight parasite Pentecostals. As you can see Adam’s elementary knoledge of the bible he and people like him should not talk about the Ethiopian orthodox church. If anyone asks me about the Ethiopian orthodox church I would say to anyone that the Ethiopian orthodox church is the yeast of all christianity, instead of trying to insult try to learn from the Ethiopian orthodox church it will save you from life and after life purgatory. Dear Assta B. Gettu have you ever wandered why the protestants reject saints and angels at the same time they believe with their pastors pray and healing?. What kind of hypocrisy is that? to me it seems that just like Meles’s talk or preaching of democracy. For that kind of hypocrisy there is an Amharik saying, which is Lam balwalebet kubet lekema. So brother do not under estimate your contribution therefore please fight their evil perception of the Ethiopian orthodox church, let us keep hope alive god willing one day the truth will bring Adam and people like him to the oldest and ancient original true church of god which is the Ethiopian orthodox church. Dear Assta B. Gettu I wish from this talk comes one thing my wish is I would be happy if Adam asks you and you answer him the things he think wrong in the Ethiopian orthodox church and the things he thinks right in the Protestant church then he will get more knoledge even he might come back to his forefathers religion let god guide him with his wisdom really I feel sad it is very hard to understand when a fellow Ethiopian hates himself beyond no return.
Adam,
Thank you for you assessment. Please, ignore this Getu. He doesn’t look like an Orthodox Christian for himself. Like you said he is trying to capture the moment to incite violence among religious groups.
Do not go low to confront a very confused person. How come a person claiming religious filled with hatred & insult ? This man is a shame to himself. Please, leave him alone. Let him yell & scream aimlessly at everyone until he get tired. May be he is debtra. That’s true. Seytan gotach metetegna! If his dream of violence come true, Do not be surprised seeing him on TV looting someones property. I swear to God he is not an Orthodox believer. Never never never!
My dear Stoned Peter #28,
Thank you for lifting up my spirit through your sweet words, and I am proud of you because you are a very knowledgeable person about the eternal word of God, the Holy Bible we share together and thank you very much for not letting down the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
Indeed, I am blessed that I am a member of this historical Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. I grew up with this Church from my infanthood to my adulthood; therefore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is in my blood: come poverty, come hunger, come thirst, come disease, come intimidation, and come persecution, I will be always with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and I am sure you, too!
You stated “…the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the yeast of all Christianity….” I am sure you are not talking about the old yeast of the Pharisees Jesus denounced: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1) Yes, The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church must always denounce the hypocrisy of Pentecostal preachers that they think they are more righteous than the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church clergies. These Pentecostal preachers may spoil the whole batch of dough – the true teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church – mixing their old yeast into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church’s way of worshipping God. It is against this new yeast the Holy Scripture has something to say: “…Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are…” (1st Corinthians 5:6-7). In addition, the Apostle Paul tells us about the yeast: “For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth” (1st Corinthians 5:7-8). You can clearly see that St. Paul is not denouncing the yeast of sincerity, humility, righteousness, and honesty; he is denouncing “the yeast of malice and wickedness.” So, when you said “…the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the yeast of all Christianity…,” you are saying, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the yeast of sincerity, honesty, and purity, which the true Christianity is.
My friend, I know very well why protestants disrespect and reject the sainthoods of many dedicated Christian saints because these worldly protestants know they cannot rich to that level of sainthood; they have too much money to lose in this temporary world: they don’t care about life after death; therefore, they work hard to enrich themselves and at the same time they pretend they are the servants of God. To such fickle-minded Protestants the Lord Jesus Christ says: “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13). We should not bother at all about the glamorous life styles of many Protestants in our country and somewhere else. David, the man of God, once said: “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way… Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked” (Psalms 37:7, 16).
We pray to St. Mary; we pray to St. Tekle-Haimanot; we pray to St. Christos Semra, and we pray to all the Saints, the Angels and the Arch Angles, and it used to be that way until the 16th century; millions of Christians including the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church members still believe Saints and Angles can intercede between the living, the dead, and the eternal God.
The saints in heaven dedicate our prayers, our requests, our petitions, and our praises to our heavenly Father, the Almighty God. The Apostle John writes: “And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8). John’s testimony indicates that the Saints in heaven are aware of our prayers and our petitions, and John’s testimony further confirms that the Saints in heaven can indeed intercede on our behalf.
It is common knowledge in the ancient Christian Church that Christians should offer intercessory prayers on behalf of others, and such prayers would, in fact, please God the Almighty. St. Paul to his spiritual son, Timothy, says: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth” (1st Timothy 2:1-5).
Some Protestants would quote the Scripture that says: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men…” (1st Timothy 2:5-6). For example, if I say to my friend, “Please, pray for me,” and if I say, “Please, Mary, the Mother of God, Jesus Christ, help me to overcome my egos,” do such sincere requests of mine would interfere with Jesus’ exclusive mediatorship between God and man? Not at all! St. Paul has already said that Christians should intercede and pray for others (1st Timothy 2:5). Some Protestants still persist that the dead Saints are dead and cannot listen to our prayers.
Moses died long time ago and was buried in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor…” (Deuteronomy 34:6); however, we see him and Elijah the prophet on Mount Tabor conversing with Jesus Christ. St. Matthew records that glorious event in the lives of Peter, James, and John the brother of James: “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters–one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’” (Matthew 17:1-4). You can read also Luke 16:19-31 about the Rich Man and Lazarus.
To whom is Paul talking to unless it is for the Saints in Heaven when he says: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of first born, whose names are written in heaven…” (Hebrew 12:22-23)? This passage tells us Christians in Heaven are holier and can intercede between God and earthly men and women.
Once again, St. John says: “He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand” (Revelation 8:3-4). Therefore, the prayers of Saints that went up before God can indeed help many of us to come closer to God, so we could ask Mary the Mother of God, the Saints, and the Angels to intercede between us and God the Father.
I hope not only Adam and Guna but all the rest who left the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to come back and join the family of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and serve their country with great pride and dignity!
Assta B. Gettu, your friend in Jesus Christ our Savior and eternal Father
Thank you Elias for giving us this opportunity to discuss important issues as this one on your web site, our web site.
Sory Gettu for the confusion. I was trying to say the starting of all true christianity or pure unadulterated christianity so I am sory again.
Dear Stoned Peter #31,
Don’t be sorry, my friend; there is nothing wrong in what you have stated about the purity, originality, continuity or durability, and magnanimity of Christianity whose architect is Jesus Christ.
To the two friends, Guna and Adam #29,
You have the absolute right to ignore me, but I don’t have the privilege to ignore you as you continue deceiving the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church by misleading her young Christian children and converting them to an unknown religion, a religion based on the merit of speaking in strange tongues and fake exorcists.
I will yell, scream, and curse the day Pentecostalism touched the holy land of Ethiopia with all its sorcery, magic, and exorcism. The exorcism you have been performing in your Church in Ethiopia is not the kind of exorcism that famous exorcist Abba Wolde-Tinsae has been conducting at one of the places in Shewa province for many, many years. This holy man, Abba Wolde-Tinsae, has healed through his prayer and fasting hundreds of demon possessed people, and among such people whom this holy man has cured could be found even some white people.
Years ago, Like-Siltanat Abba Habte-Mariam Workineh, now Archbishop Abune Melchizedek in exile, took some students with him to the place where this holy man lives and works. I was one of those young students who attended the full services of the exorcism and witnessed what happened to the one person possessed by an evil spirit. Abba Wolde-Tinsae put his cross upon the four head of the evil-possessed person while another person was pouring holy water from a jar on the head of the demon-possessed man. As the sick man was held down by two other strong men, Abba Wolde-Tinsae would say: “You evil spirits, in the name of Jesus Christ, get out of this man!” Abba Wolde-Tinsae would repeat the same words, and then the evil-possessed man screamed, convulsed, foamed, and finally the evil spirits left him. After the evil spirits left the man, the man couldn’t wake up; he was so weakened, exhausted, but any way he was cured: it was amazing to watch such miraculous events. At the end of the services, I was asked to speak to the audiences. I stood up and narrated the history of exorcism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church history that our Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Fathers have been doing it by praying, fasting, and by asking guidance from the Holy Spirit and healed many evil-possessed people. I don’t really remember the entirety of my speech; I hope his holiness Abune Melchizedek would say something about that especial event on this web site.
However, the Ethiopian Pentecostal pastors have tried to associate their fake exorcism with the genuine exorcism performed by the holy fathers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. There is no relationship between the Pentecostal exorcism and the exorcism by the holy fathers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Fathers perform exorcism to heal the sick; the Pentecostal pastors conduct exorcism to receive money. They do it for money, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church holy fathers do it to heal the sick without asking money from the sick. Curse is upon the Pentecostal Church pastors who try to sell one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the healing of the sick, for money.
Naaman, commander of the Arameans’ army traveled a great distance from Aram to the land of Israel to be cured from his leprosy by the prophet Elisha, the man of God. He had brought expensive gifts with him to give to the prophet. Elisha commanded Naaman: “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and you will be cleansed.” After Naaman hesitated to go to the Jordan River, he finally changed his mind and did exactly what the prophet Elisha had told him to do. Instantly, he was cured from his leprosy; then Naaman said to Elisha: “Please accept now a gift from your servant.” However, Elisha the prophet, unlike today’s Pentecostal pastor, told Naaman: “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing” (2nd Kings 5:1-18). I am sure, a Pentecostal pastor would charge his patient over a million dollars if he by chance performed such a great miracle.
Nevertheless, following the footsteps of Elisha the prophet, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Fathers have never received a dime from any person healed by the prayer and fasting of these distinguished Ethiopian Holy Fathers.
Mr. Guna, I know you are very ashamed of yourself because I have exposed your chicaneries to the Ethiopian people, and that is why you called me ደብተራ ሰይጣን ጎታች ምታተኛ. You may understand the three Amharic words: ሰይጣን ጎታች ምታተኛ but you never comprehend the word ደብተራ. A debtera is a highly educated and talented person, a singer, a musician. In the Old Testament days, there were Levites or priests; there were musicians or singers, and there were gatekeepers. The Musicians were the descendants of Asaph while the Levites were the descendants of Aaron. The duties of the musicians in those days were to serve God by dancing and singing just like the debteras do in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church: “For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God” (Nehemiah 12:46). First Chronicles also tells us: “Those who were musicians…stayed in the rooms of the temple and were exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night” (1st Chronicles 9:33). The debteras every Saturday night and in many other Church holy days stay in the Church for the whole night, reading the Scripture, singing and dancing a spiritual dance. These highly educated Ethiopian Debteras do exactly what David, the man after the heart of God, had said: “A song of ascents. Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD” (Psalm 134:1). Therefore, when you maliciously called me that I am a Debtera, you think in your ignorance Debtera is a kind of stigma, but I assure you it is not. My friend, get your education from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; don’t be a conceited person. Humble yourself; respect the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, and learn humility from her highly educated Debteras.
‘ጳጳሶቹ አይረቡም’ – ስብሐት ነጋ
Deje Selam | July 1st, 2011 at 6:28 pm | |
(ደጀ ሰላም)፦ የሕወሐት/ኢሕአዴግ የፖለቲካ መሐንዲስ መሆናቸው የሚነገርላቸው አረጋዊው አቶ ስብሐት ነጋ ስለ ቤተ ክህነት በሰጡት ግልጽ አስተያየት ላይ “ጳጳሶቹ አይረቡም”፣ ቤተ ክህነቱም “ወደሞት አፋፍ እየሄደ ነው” ሲሉ ተናገሩ። ዛሬ አርብ ሰኔ 24/2003 ዓ.ም በወጣው “ፍትሕ” ጋዜጣ ላይ ረዥም ጽሑፍ ያስነበቡት አቶ ስብሐት ነጋ (በተለምዶ አቦይ ስብሐት ይባላሉ) ስለ ቤተ ክህነቱ በከፋ አስተዳደራዊ ብልሽት ውስጥ መውደቅ ምክንያቱ “ራሱ ቤተ ክህነቱ” እንጂ መንግሥት አለመሆኑን አብራርተዋል። (To Read in PDF, click HERE).
ባለፈው ሳምንት አርብ ሰኔ 17/2003 ዓ.ም ወጥቶ በነበረው የፍትሕ ጋዜጣ ላይ አቶ ተመስገን ደሳለኝ የተባሉ ግለሰብ ለሰጡት አስተያየት መልስ በሆነው በዚህ የአቶ ስብሐት ማብራሪያ ቤተ ክህነት ከጥንት ዘመን ጀምሮ ከመንግሥት ጋር ተጣብቃ እንደኖረች፣ አጼ ኃ/ሥላሴ “ቅዱስ ተብለው ታቦት ተቀርጾላቸው እንደነበር”፣ ለዚህ ደግሞ በዋነኛነት ተጠያቂው ቤተ ክህነቱ ራሱ መሆኑን ዘርዝረዋል። “ኦርቶዶክስ ከመንግሥት ሳይለያይ ለመቆየቱ ዋናው ተጠያቂዎች የቤተ ክህነት ኃላፊዎች የነበሩ ሰዎች ናቸው። መንግሥታቱ በሁለተኛ ደረጃ ይጠየቃሉ። ‘ፕሮፌሰሮቹ (እነ ፕሮፌሰር መስፍንን ለማለት ይመስላል) እና ሌሎች አማኞች ያን ጊዜ ባለመናገራቸውና ባለመጻፋቸው በምን ደረጃ ይጠየቃሉ?’ የሚል ጥያቄም ሊነሣ ይገባዋል” ሲሉ ጽፈዋል።
“ዋናው ነገር ቤተ ክህነት ከመንግሥት ተጣብቆ በመቆየቱ፣ የሃይማኖት ተቋምነቱ እየወደቀ መጥቷል። አሁንስ ሃይማኖትና ፖለቲካ በሕገ መንግሥቱ ደረጃ በጽኑ እምነት ከተለየበት ወዲህ (ቤተክህነቱ) ከደረሰበት ድቀት እያንሰራራ ነው ወይስ በነበረበት ጉዳት ደረጃ ነው ያለው? አሁኑ ፓትርያርክ ሥራ ከጀመሩ ጀምሮ ስለ ቤተ ክህነቱ የሚወራው እጅግ በጣም ዘግናኝና አሳፋሪ የአስተዳደር ጉድለት ተነሥተን ወደ ሞት አፋፍ እየሄደ ነው የሚያሰኝ ነው” ብለዋል።
በመቀጠልም “የቤተ ክህነቱ አስተዳደር ብልሽት የሚባሉ ዘርፈ ብዙ ናቸው። አማኝ ሐቁን የመስማት መብት ያለው ይመስለኛል። ሌሎች ሃይማኖቶች እንደ ቤተ ክህነት ለምን ክፉ ወሬ አይወራባቸውም። በራሱ ውስጣዊ ድክመት እየተጎዳ የመታ ቢሆንም ኦርቶዶክስቤተ ክርስቲያን በታሪኩ የሀገር ፀጋ ሆኖ ነበር የቆየው፤ ፀጋነቱ በዚህ ደረጃ መውደቅ የለበትም ነው የምለው በዚህ አጋጣሚ” ሲሉ አበክረው አሳስበዋል።
ብዙ ጊዜ እንደሚነገረው “የቤተ ክህነቱ አሳዛኝ ቦታ መውደቅ ተጠያቂው መቶ በመቶ ራሱ ነው። ሕገ መንግሥት ከፖለቲካ ነጻ አድርጎት እያለ ለምን?” ሲሊ ይጠይቁና “ባይኖርስ (ከፖለቲካ ነጻ ባይሆንስ?) ለእምነታቸው ለምን አይሠሩም? ጳጳሳቱ አይረቡም ያልኩበት ምንክንያት ከዚህ አጠቃላይ መርሕ ብቻ ተነሥቼ አይደለም። አብዛኞቹ ከድሮ ጀምረው በአቡነ ጳውሎስ አስተዳደር እንደሚያለቅሱ አውቃቸዋለሁኝ። ነገር ግን ትርጉም ያለው ሥራ አልሠሩም። ለዚህ ነው አይረቡም ያልኩበት ምክንያት። አሁንም ልጨምርበትና ለእምነታቸው አልረቡም።” ብለዋል።
ስለ ማ/ቅዱሳንም እግረ መንገዳቸውን ያነሡት አቶ ስብሐት “እኔ እንደሚመስለኝ፣ ባለኝ ቀጥተኛ ትዝብትም፣ ማህበረ ቅዱሳን የቤተ ክህነት እዳ ነው። ቀጥተኛ ትዝብቴ፣ የቤተ ክህነትን አስተዳደር ለማሻሻል መጠነኛ እንቅስቃሴ ሲጀመር ገንቢ ተራ ከመጫወት አፍራሽነት ይበዘበታል። አልፎ አልፎም ብልሽት እያዩ ዝምታ ይበዛል። የተቃዋሚ ፖለቲካ መድረክነትም እንዳለበት ይወራል። ይህ ትክክል ከሆነ እጅግ በጣም የሃይማኖት ብሳ ሳይሆን የሃገር ስርዓት ማለት ህገ መንገስት የመጣስ ክህደት ነው” ሲሉ ተናግረዋል።
“ቤተ ክህነት የራሱን ድክመት እንዳያይ ማድረግ … ቤተ ክህነቱንም በጣም ይጎዳል። … ቤተ ክህነትን ፖለቲካዊ ጣልቃ ገብነት ነው የመዳከምህ ምክንያት አንበለው። ድክመቱ የራሱ የውስጡ ሁለገብ አስተዳደራዊ ብልሽት ነው። ተደጋግሞ አቤቱታ ቀርቦለት ያላጣራው ከሆነ አሁንም ብልሽቱ የራሱ ነው።” ሲሉ አብክረው ገልጸዋል።
DejeSelam,
Thank you for refreshing my mind with news from home far away from where I reside, but I politely ask you to spell my name correctly. My full name is Assta B. Gettu, not Getu. Thank you for your cooperation!
አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ, a mendacious political animal, does not represent the true nature of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; some innocent Ethiopian Tegaru, out of fear and intimidation from their master አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ may call him አቦይ ስብሓት, which means in Tigrigna language “my dad or my father.” He is not the father; he is the enemy of the Ethiopian people, especially the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
When he purblindly puts the present deteriorations of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church his evil big master Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) created on the powerless, poor, and helpless Ethiopian Christian’s bishops and archbishops, he is evading his responsibility for this glorious Church of God, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, the foundation for the existence of the Ethiopian Christians.
When Church and state were one for hundreds of years, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church was one of the shining stars on the African continent. Back then the Church enjoyed its full freedom given to her by her anointed kings and queens, and other prominent Christian leaders. Financially she was strong because her kings had given her some acres of Ethiopian lands to run her regular Church services. Spiritually, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has always been the envy of the world.
To say for አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the main cause for her decline, not the government, is totally disingenuous. Most Ethiopian Christians know, including አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ, every year thousands of foreigners visit several historical Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Churches, such as Lalibela, Axum Zion, and many other historically significant Churches; however, the money collected from tourists who visited those churches and paid their money goes directly into the pocket of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi), not to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. This money could have helped the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to run its Church schools and missionary work adequately even though most of her clergies, deacons, memhirs, and debteras work for the Church voluntarily.
The main causes for the decline of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church are አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ and his crime boss Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) when they purposely appointed a dormant patriarch who cares only for a particular group of people, the Tegaru, as he and his soul child, Meles, are from the same town – Mekelle. When Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) appointed Aba Paulos (Diabilos) over the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church while the other legitimate Patriarch, Abune Mekarios, is alive, Meles was purposely breaking the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church’s Holy Synod that prohibits the appointment of another Patriarch before the present one dies.
To enervate the most powerful Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, to allow the Pentecostal and the Evangelical Churches to have full access to evangelize the indigenous Ethiopian Christians, and to send into exile the most educated and influential bishops, archbishops, and clergies of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) embraced Abba Paulos as his right hand Patriarch, and he refused any negotiation with the exiled Patriarch Abune Merkorios, the legitimate Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at home and abroad.
Meles’ regime’s patriarch Abba Paulos follows what Meles tells him to do: Meles tells Abba Paulos to oppress the Church, to exploit its valuable articles, to expel any educated member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, to collect money from members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to build Abba Paulos’ Statue in Addis Ababa, and to go to Jerusalem to sell some houses that belong to the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem – Abba Diabilos has done what Meles has told him to do. Of course, he has failed in his Jerusalem’s mission to sell the Church properties there; the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Holy Fathers refused his demand to sell the properties for millions of dollars, so they sent him back empty handed and humilated. Therefore, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is being attacked by her dying Woyanne regime, by her illegitimate Patriarch, Abba Paulos, by Meles criminal family such as አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ, and by the present regime collaborators, the Pentecostal and the Evangelical Churches. It is hard for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to bear all these uncalled for charges. But by the grace of God and by the prayers of our Church Fathers, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church will triumph as always as she has become victorious throughout its historical long journey.
Instead of calling the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Bishops “useless,” why doesn’t this ተመጻዳቂ አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ contribute his talent and money to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church if he is one of her members? After all, every Ethiopian Christian or non Christian owes this ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church gratitude, admiration, and financial support for her tireless advice to her children to remain united.
Accusing the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church for trying to canonize Emperor Haile Selassie as a saint and curve a tabot in his name is nothing new. If indeed the Church has tried to do such a noble thing, it is not a crime. If the Church deems his Emperor Haile Selassie as a good Christian who had done so many good things for his country and especially for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church he loves the most, I will encourage the Church to go ahead, build a Church in his name and in the name of his wife Menen. I will be the first person to offer my prayer in that newly built Church, named the Church of Saint Emperor Haile Selassie. If that indeed helps me to get rid of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi), the most hated Dictator on this planet earth, I will build more Churches for the Royal Families of His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie. In fact, when I was a student of Kine, I composed Melkia-Haile Selassie and Melkia-Menen in Geez language and gave my compositions to Abba Memhir Nesibu. I have no idea where Memhir Nesibu is now.
The most unnerving criticism against this holy Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, is a statement by the same person አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ: “ሌሎች ሃይማኖቶች እንደ ቤተ ክህነት ለምን ክፉ ወሬ አይወራባቸውም.” Any organization allied with the evil Woyanne regime, expects reward, glorification, and the complete blessings of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi), and these other religions are the Pentecostal and the Evangelical foreign religions. Those Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church members who vigorously opposed the ruthless Woyanne regime are in exile; they left the country for Woyanne but brought the true Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church with them to the west, and this division of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church crafted by Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) has accomplished two main things: it has helped Meles to stay in power indefinitely, and it has helped the Protestant Churches to expand in the Christian land of Ethiopia and to weaken the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.
What kind of complaints one can expect from the Pentecostal and the Evangelical Church organizations since Meles has selectively provided to the yes-religious organizations with an employment – high-paying jobs? Few days ago, one of my critiques by the name Adam #5 on the Ethiopian Review, June 16, 2011 at 2:40 PM confirmed that 70% of all attorney generals in Ethiopia are Evangelical Christians working for the Woyanne government. I doubt Meles hires such a big number from members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. It is true Meles loves the Pentecostal and the Evangelical Churches because these worldly Churches never raise their voices against the atrocities of Meles and his crime family. Do you remember what happened to Aba Melaku who raised his voice against the corruptions of Abba Paulos? He was gunned down at St. Stephanos Church.
Finally, if አቶ ስብሓት ነጋ wants to see a meaningful work by the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, he must participate in one of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church activities and bring a viable service to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church; other wise, we are all one in sinning against our Church as King David said: “ኩሉሰ ሐረየ ወሕቡረ ዓለወ” (“All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is not one who does good, not even one”) Psalm 14:3.
Well have you ever read the next article about a famous protestant singer Sofiya Shibaba Singer Jiji’s sister and her preacher husband doctor Wodaje story on Dejeselam
if you people have not read in the past read the next link.
?? ??? Deje Selam: Charismatic Protestant Preacher Mired in Scandal
http://www.dejeselam.org/2009/03/charismatic-preacher-mired-in-scandal.html
My dear Stoned Peter #36,
I have never read any article about the Ethiopian Pentecostal and Evangelical wicked pastors and cheaters until I read the link you gave me. I used to read about, if you remember, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, the American Evangelists, who later fell from grace.
I am very sad to hear those innocent Ethiopian men and women are being cheated by such worldly pastors, and the Church must follow the word of God that says: “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 22:21). In fact, King David prays for the destructions of the wicked: “Do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah” (Psalm 140:8)
I hope these lusty Pentecostal and Evangelical pastors leave Ethiopia before the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and the Woyanne government force them never to stay in Ethiopia. It is my wish the word of the Scripture will be fulfilled upon such filthy pastors: “The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).
Thank you for the link, my friend!