- Nov 26, 2019
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Neither was Emperor Haile Selassie, and the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church officially prohibits smoking marijuana. St. Haile Selassie tried to convert the Rastas who were improperly worshipping him, and indeed the Ethiopian church has had great success in Jaimaca and elsewhere in the Carribean, converting many Rastafarians and convincing them to give up smoking marijuana and to focus on sobriety.
Indeed in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church members aren’t even permitted to drink alcohol other than in the context of the Eucharist and also on parish feast days, each church member gets rationed one can of mild syrupy African beer brewed from maize, at a communal meal, which helps them stand in church for the prayers that last all night. No other Orthodox church is as strict about alcohol, marijuana or other intoxicants as the Ethiopian church.
Your suggestion that the people of Ethiopia or Emperor Haile Selassie and anyone who is Ethiopian Orthodox abuses marijuana (which I have never used, am deathly allergic to, and am opposed to marijuana legalization, and all Orthodox churches object to marijuana consumption by their members (as far as I am aware, we are the only Christian denomination that is utterly opposed to marijuana consumption on a fundamental level, as we believe it constitutes Pharmakeia as proscribed in Scripture and interferes with prayer to God).
Thus I respectfully request you withdraw that remark, which smears all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians based on the misconduct of the Rastafarians who worshipped Emperor Haile Selassie against his wishes, but to his credit, he attempted to persuade them to instead become Orthodox Christians and worship our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, and which is particularly offensive given that the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, of which Emperor Haile Selassie was a member, forbids its members from using marijuana or even consuming alcohol on occasions other than their parish feast days, when a single can of weak beer is distributed before the all-night vigil (which unlike Eastern Orthodox All Night Vigils, actually lasts all night).
Furthermore, Emperor Haile Selassie is counted as a martyr by all Oriental Orthodox Christians, all of which (along with all Eastern Orthodox churches) prohibit the use of marijuana and oppose the Rastafarians; these churches include the persecuted Ethiopians who have endured considerable martyrdom at the hands of ISIS and before that, the Derg Communist regime, but also the persecuted Armenians, who are being killed by militant Muslims and also the Islamic regime of Azerbaijan and before then were being killed by the Soviet Union, and before that by the Turks, and the persecuted Copts of Egypt who are being killed by ISIS (18 were killed along with a Ghanian Christian who declared “their God is my God” while on a construction project in Libya, and 60 Ethiopians were killed that same year in Chad, also by ISIS-affiliated terrorists), and the persecuted Syriac Orthodox Christians who, like the Ethiopians, are largely, in many cases, entirely, descended from the Jews, both those of the Holy Land and Syria and Mesopotamia and the Kochin Jews of Kerala, India, and who worship in and in many cases speak dialects of the same Aramaic language spoken by our Lord.*
Lastly, fun fact: Martin Luther was inspired to separate from Rome when he realized the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had never been under the control of the Pope of Rome, so without the Ethiopians there would be no Protestant reformation.
* Note that the Ethiopians speak a different Semitic language with a confusingly similar name, Amharic which is descended from the ancient Ethiopian semitic language known as Ge’ez, in which many important scriptural manuscripts were written.
Neither was Emperor Haile Selassie, and the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church officially prohibits smoking marijuana. St. Haile Selassie tried to convert the Rastas who were improperly worshipping him, and indeed the Ethiopian church has had great success in Jaimaca and elsewhere in the Carribean, converting many Rastafarians and convincing them to give up smoking marijuana and to focus on sobriety.
Indeed in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church members aren’t even permitted to drink alcohol other than in the context of the Eucharist and also on parish feast days, each church member gets rationed one can of mild syrupy African beer brewed from maize, at a communal meal, which helps them stand in church for the prayers that last all night. No other Orthodox church is as strict about alcohol, marijuana or other intoxicants as the Ethiopian church.
Your suggestion that the people of Ethiopia or Emperor Haile Selassie and anyone who is Ethiopian Orthodox abuses marijuana (which I have never used, am deathly allergic to, and am opposed to marijuana legalization, and all Orthodox churches object to marijuana consumption by their members (as far as I am aware, we are the only Christian denomination that is utterly opposed to marijuana consumption on a fundamental level, as we believe it constitutes Pharmakeia as proscribed in Scripture and interferes with prayer to God).
Thus I respectfully request you withdraw that remark, which smears all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians based on the misconduct of the Rastafarians who worshipped Emperor Haile Selassie against his wishes, but to his credit, he attempted to persuade them to instead become Orthodox Christians and worship our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, and which is particularly offensive given that the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, of which Emperor Haile Selassie was a member, forbids its members from using marijuana or even consuming alcohol on occasions other than their parish feast days, when a single can of weak beer is distributed before the all-night vigil (which unlike Eastern Orthodox All Night Vigils, actually lasts all night).
Furthermore, Emperor Haile Selassie is counted as a martyr by all Oriental Orthodox Christians, all of which (along with all Eastern Orthodox churches) prohibit the use of marijuana and oppose the Rastafarians; these churches include the persecuted Ethiopians who have endured considerable martyrdom at the hands of ISIS and before that, the Derg Communist regime, but also the persecuted Armenians, who are being killed by militant Muslims and also the Islamic regime of Azerbaijan and before then were being killed by the Soviet Union, and before that by the Turks, and the persecuted Copts of Egypt who are being killed by ISIS (18 were killed along with a Ghanian Christian who declared “their God is my God” while on a construction project in Libya, and 60 Ethiopians were killed that same year in Chad, also by ISIS-affiliated terrorists), and the persecuted Syriac Orthodox Christians who, like the Ethiopians, are largely, in many cases, entirely, descended from the Jews, both those of the Holy Land and Syria and Mesopotamia and the Kochin Jews of Kerala, India, and who worship in and in many cases speak dialects of the same Aramaic language spoken by our Lord.*
Lastly, fun fact: Martin Luther was inspired to separate from Rome when he realized the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had never been under the control of the Pope of Rome, so without the Ethiopians there would be no Protestant reformation.
* Note that the Ethiopians speak a different Semitic language with a confusingly similar name, Amharic which is descended from the ancient Ethiopian semitic language known as Ge’ez, in which many important scriptural manuscripts were written.
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