Mereja Forum

[Naga Tuma]

He says Jesus.

He knows that the Romans bear the ultimate responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus.

There is no reason to believe that he doesn't know that, figuratively speaking, the Romans attempted to crucify Ethiopia at Adwa.

Jesus failed in foiling his crucifixion. Atse Menelik II of Ethiopia succeeded largely in foiling that attempt against Ethiopia at Adwa.

Yes, we have local issues to address in Ethiopia. That doesn't mean that our people wouldn't stand together to foil an aggression from overseas that came for all of our people in Ethiopia. It doesn't take rocket science to contemplate what would have happened on the African continent and beyond if Atse Menelik II didn't succeed largely at Adwa. If any Ethiopian thought that Adwa was a joke, one is terminally mistaken. It wasn't rambling insanely in the land of ቅኔ and መክማክሰ። A simple question that was asked at a moment's notice in the early 1990's about what some were doing when the Ethiopian rebels from the north marched all the way to the Ethiopian capital alone says a lot about it.

The Ethiopian pastor says Jesus will rise again. Simple logic dictates that His rise will invalidate His crucifixion. Simple logic also dictates that His rise will also invalidate the attempted crucifixion at Adwa.

Moreover, Protestantism is the protestant child of Roman Catholicism.

These are facts that even Einstein’s science about energy or relativity wouldn’t erase.

I had to think about all of this when I was approached recently, on January 14, 2023, to be specific, by what I wouldn't hesitate to call a dummy to preach to me about Protestantism. I politely declined the offer at a moment's notice. The dummy persisted despite my repeated declinations politely to not even talk about it at that time. When I couldn't resist anymore, I had to ask a simple question about the chronology of two historical happenstances. The surrogate neither didn't know the answer nor didn't want to answer that simple question and we had to part our ways because some light rain started to come down and was used as an excuse.

I have to admit that the persistence against my polite declinations and not getting a simple answer for my simple question has got to me and I feel the need to vent against the surrogate's pastor in specific. I would be within my values to not even shake hands with that dummy. I am assuming that such surrogates have pastors that train them to go around to preach. I do not know who that pastor might be, if he or she has any inclinations about Ethiopia's internal politics, and if so, where he or she belongs in its spectrum.

I have never preached to anyone to accept my faith or to stop the faith one is practicing. If a topic about faith comes up, I express my opinion about it when I have one. We have mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, in different faiths. We respect them as mothers and fathers, and sisters and brothers.

Throughout the ages, there have been a history of fierce resistance about everywhere in the world whenever values from without are introduced into any community. I have little knowledge about the history of resistance against Protestantism in Ethiopia by the community in which it was introduced from without. I assume people were free to accept it readily in places and continued to practice it even as they rightly call Abdisa Aga who fought in Rome one of Ethiopia's legendary heroes.

Then again, it doesn't mean that just because we share the same local culture in Ethiopia doesn't mean we all should march together against the common culture. As far as I am concerned, the resistance against marching against our common culture is at least one of the sources for the quest of Ethiopia’s renaissance.

Whether he lacked any organic sense of some basic local culture or deranged from it because of excessive preaching and rambling, he couldn't or wouldn't honor something as basic in culture as what the socialist Colonel Menghistu Hailemariam reportedly would.

The Ethiopian ቃሉ must have lived before Jesus and Mohammed. If both Jesus and Mohammed looked up to the culture of the people of Ethiopia, it is not hard to contemplate that the Ethiopian ቃሉ must have some contributions to the culture that both Jesus and Mohammed looked up to during their eras. In that sense, the Ethiopian ቃሉ has a far superior moral authority about Ethiopia's culture than the newly minted Ethiopian pastor.

Ironically, the Ethiopian pastor in this era looks down upon the culture that both Jesus and Mohammed looked up to during their eras.

No, nobody gets everything correctly. I don't think that even Einstein got everything correctly throughout his life.

If I wanted to be a protestant child of a faith, I would rather be a protestant child of the Ethiopian ቃሉ or Ethiopia's Orthodox Christianity.

So, what part of a polite no doesn't the pastor of that surrogate get? Is he or she a retard, a coward, or brain-dead to instruct his or her surrogate that a polite no means no. If one has a functional brain to parrot, it doesn't mean one has it.

This is the simple question that I have been asking myself ever since and will ask if he comes forward someday to explain to me why he wouldn't instruct any of his surrogates that a polite no means no.

Shame on this generation or any generation for letting the Banda of Adwa roam in Ethiopia in this ear or any era. No, history doesn't repeat itself because history is made at the time of action. The history of valid actions persist whereas any attempt to rewrite the history of invalid actions is futile.

[TGAA]

I really enjoyed reading your thoughtful piece, Naga Tuma, as always.

[TesfaNews]

I came back from Ethiopia to be eye witness of this great man of god "Eyu Chufa" in Hosanna

[sun]

I came back from Ethiopia to be eye witness of this great man of god "Eyu Chufa" in Hosanna

Now then, what does Eyu Chufa, the pastor you characterized as "great man" thinks about the tearful infighting of the Ethiopian Orthodox Clergies?