Here’s a response from a respected Net-friend and orthodox priest, ‘Father James’… unedited.

> >”Chief_Sinner” <> wrote in message

> .

> >> On Tue, 9 Jul 2002 13:15:46 +1000, “Rowland Croucher”

> ><>

> >> Orthodox Church

> >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> >> politics are quite painful, especially in the big cities.

> >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> ><>

> >

> >O.K. James, a question to get us going again (and, yes, it’s very good to

> >have you back: we’re not the same without you, seriously)…

>

> Thank you for your kind words.

> >

> >First, read this…

> >

> >** Persecution Strikes Close to Home in Ethiopia **

> >

> >On June 20, Mehret, a 28-year-old believer in Ethiopia, was severely

> >beaten with sticks and an axe and left for dead by his brothers and

> >relatives because of his faith. According to a source for The Voice of

> >the Martyrs, even his own mother joined in the attack, which took place

> >in Gimjabet Mariam. After beating him unconscious, they left him for

> >dead and then completely destroyed his house and stole his belongings.

> >After lying on the road for an hour, Mehret was taken to the hospital by

> >local Christians. He is still under medical care and his wife and two

> >children are being sheltered by a Christian family.

> >

> >Those who assaulted Mehret are members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church,

> >which has frequently been unsympathetic toward those who convert to

> >evangelical Christianity.

> >

> >The Voice of the Martyrs recently released a video titled “Gathering the

> >Scattered” that documents the persecution facing evangelicals in

> >Ethiopia. To order this free video online, go to the “Free Materials”

> >section of the VOM online catalogue at http://www.persecution.net/catalog.htm

> >or you can email your request (with mailing address) to

> .

> >

> >~~~

> >

> >We’ve occasionally addressed the issue of various branches of the

Orthodox > >church persecuting Evangelicals (the Catholics do it in various places

too, > >in the Philippines and Latin America)…

> >

> >But why…???

> >

> >My (conspiracy) theory has it that branches of any ideology – not just

> >religious – committed to ‘orthodoxy’ over ‘orthopraxis/orthophilia’ will

> >persecute others in the cause of (their perception of) ‘the truth’…

>

> Your theory comes close, the matters are very deep and long

> entrenched. For example, you have chosen Ethiopia to discuss (but

> currently there is a defrocked orthodox priest beating evangelicals in

> georgia and there is a Jerusalem Patriarchate Priest apparently

> supporting and promoting suicide bombers against Israel). But I am

> happy to discuss Ethiopia as it is so close to the Coptic Church both

> geographically and in sister church status as an Oriental Orthodox

> Church.

>

> I have personally worshipped with Ethiopian Orthodox Christians a

> number of times and attended one of their feast day celebrations in

> Brisbane. I have visited the homes of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians

> and seen videos of their homelands and Orthodox church/faith. I feel I

> am able to somewhat speak on this matter from a balanced perspective.

>

> There are -so many- angles to this matter where do I start?

>

> Okay first-history. Christianity has existed in Ethiopia since the

> earliest times of Christianity. Not only the Ethiopian Eunuch was sent

> bavck to the Kingdom of Cush to witness for Christ but at the time of

> St Athanasius the first patriarch for the Ethiopian Church was

> installed. So point one is that Christianity is not an unknown thing

> in Ethiopia, hence it is somewhat juvenile for evangelical

> missionaries to be -even- in the place. But as with so many countries

> in the Middle East and Africa foreign missionaries prefer to come to

> the ‘Christian’ areas rather than the intenxsely Muslim areas of Saud,

> Sudan, Somalia which are all right nrext to Ethiopia. 🙂 There is of

> course a reason for this and their lack of attendance at the real

> ‘lands of mission’ does not lead any of the Middle Eastern Christians

> to have respect for those missionaries that turn up in Christian

> villages to convert Christians to some form of western materialistic

> or emotional experience devoid of deep spirituality.

>

> History continued. Ethiopia has literally survived as Christian

> surrounded in a sea of Islam. You -must- comprehend that in -every-

> country that borders Ethiopia that murderous wars of religious hatred

> have raged for nearly a century. Somalia, Sudan, Egypt are all now

> Islamic majority with some of the strongest fundamentalist and radical

> Islamic brotherrhoods on earth. This is what Ethiopia finds itself in

> the middle of. We are totally unable to comprehend the intense

> pressure this creates to the national Christian Church of Ethiopia who

> have seen -every- Christian church in every country around it as

> decimated totally by war and forced arms. Western Christians in their

> homelands have not suffered persecution to the spilling of blood, our

> missions and people are supported by the strongest armies and hi tech

> weoponery on earth. Case in point. American Missionaries caught in the

> Islamic jihad in southern Phillipines. Now the whole US army is

> casmped up there to avenge the deaths of that male missionary who was

> beheaded. Ethiopia has no safety net that evangelicals have. They have

> learnt to adapt and survive in Islamic culture. Which leads me to my

> next point.

>

> Islam and Ethiopia. At the time of the ‘prophet’ Mohammed and his

> armies were sweeping the Arabian peninsula they had sufferedd a number

> of defeats and were literally on the run being chased by their

> adversaries. They either crossed the red sea or fled through the Sinai

> and reached the borders of the kingdom of the then Abysinnia (SP?).

> This kingdom was Christian, welcommed Mohammed and his men and women

> and offered them shelter and sanctuary and gave them time to re-group

> and build up. If it was not for this act of brotherly love offering

> sanctuary many historians say that Mohammed and his religion would

> have been wiped from the earth at that time. Because of the generosity

> of the Christians, Mohammed married a young Christian bride to seal a

> sort of treaty between the kingdom and himself. He then declared

> safety for that land and that it was -not- to be invaded but left in

> peace. So Mohammed was eventually able to return to the Arabian

> peninsula and win his battles and take Mecca. In history every other

> nation apart from Ethiopia has been taken by ther Muslims but not

> Ethiopoia. The Ethiopians would say that it is because they still

> retain the treasured Ark of the Covenant of the Holy of Holies as to

> why God has spared them from destruction. We must understand the type

> of country Ethiopia is and the richness of the land to invade. It has

> some of the richest fields, purest water, the headwaters of the blue

> nile, a rich treasure to be easily taken, but the Muslims do not take

> it nor intend to. The countries that surround it are far poorer,

> Somalis, Southern Egypt, Northern Sudan, all sparse lands with little

> water and poor farmlands. Yet Ethiopia which sits in the middle of all

> these Islamic lands is a jewel of beauty and agricultural wealth. Why

> am I -not- surprised western Missionaries from comfortable USA have

> chosen to go to Ethiopia instead of Somalia? Or Northern Sudan? or

> Southern Egypt where the fierce Egyptian Brotherhood operates out of

> and frequently kills Christians en masse for sport?

>

> Effects of Islam upon Ethiopian Orthodox. Quite naturally and quite

> understandeable a country surrounded by Islam would over many

> centuries of co-existence tend to develope the same manner of

> behaviour, dress, cultural beliefs as those of the stronger and more

> powerful powers around them. This can be seen in the official Egyptian

> Orthodox policy of no alcoholic drinking socially. Although Christians

> from all over the world enjoy light beer, beer, wine etc in peace, the

> Egyptian Christians are -horrified- that we all have a drink socially.

> They have completely embraced the Islamic rule of non-alcoholic

> society. This is quite understandeable of course since Christians

> drinking would have been a stumbling block to their Muslim brothers.

>

> However, and quite shocking to the western Christian mindset these

> African Christian nations have embraced a number of Islamic/African

> behaviour that would never even be considered in the West. For example

> -most- that is about 90 per cent of Ethiopian women suffer the

> indignity of Femal Genital Mutilation (FGM). And about 30-40 per cent

> of Egyptian women and most Northern Sudanese and Somalian. This is

> where a young girl (6-10-pre-menstrual) is held down by her mother and

> grandmother and a local holy woman or approved female cuts off the

> outer labia (major) and clitoris of the young girl. Often these

> operations are done on the ground with no anaethetic at all and no

> swabbing to reduce infection. In extremely strict Islamic cultures the

> labia minor are also removed and very often the vagina is sewn shut

> apart from a very small opening for the release of menstrual blood.

> This behaviour is so common and is occurring to this day in all of the

> coiuntries I have noted above, sadly amongst the Christian population

> as well as the majority Islamic cultures. As abhorent and disgusting

> as this practice is, it is a good example to show how the indigenious

> Christian cultures have adapted over the centuries (either by force or

> coersion) and embrace a totally unChristian behaviour, not known in

> Christianity or Judaism at all to my knowledge apart from the African

> tribes who practiced it pre-Islam and pre-Christianity.

>

> Now the obvious embracing of culture is easy to spot when most

> Ethiopian women wear the hijab even in countries where they immigrate

> to. In fact many woemn you see who wear the veil are not always

> Islamic, very many of the dark ladies are actually Christian women who

> are so entrenched in wearing the veil they continue to do so in

> societies where it is not needed.

>

> Now, you refer to a beating and the report in the VOM which is an

> evangelical missionary magazine. Some hints can be seen in the very

> report where it was ‘Christian’ who took in the battered man and

> Christian who assisted him etc whicle it was Ethiopian Orthodox who

> beat him up. 🙂 This dichotomy is not lost of me or the Ethiopians

> either. Simple put, some missioanaries in these Christian lands

> consider themselves (Baptists, methodists etc) to be the Christians

> and the local population to be pagan, cultureless non-Christians who

> are open slather to try to steal away to their hybrid form of modern

> religion (in the eyes of the local Christian anyways). It is no wonder

> that these missionaries leave a trial of havoc and with respect the

> amount of false reports of ‘conversions’ to keep the home country

> support flowing. It is common knowledge amongst the African and

> Mediteranean peoples that each new missionary brings a wealth of free

> gifts, money, opportunity to immigrate out, by stealth or legal,

> monetary support for colleges etc. These are basically ‘rice

> Christians’ and last in that missionaries sect for as long as the

> money and goods keep coming from the west. No sooner has the

> missionary returned and the next arrives from some other sect that the

> rice Christians then become converted into the next group. In fact

> western Protestants joke about how Englishmen tricked a Catholic

> Cardinal to buy Bibles at an inflated price which then in turn kept

> the bibles being priduced for the reformation in England but do not

> realise that Orthodox in the Middle East have been milking protestant

> finances and materials for nearly two centuries without any

> substantial growth of protestant Christianity in the middle east in

> that time. 🙂

>

> Now regarding the beating. Basically Islamic culture makes it illegal

> to convert and this attitude is embraced as well by the Egyptians and

> Ethiopians. The Ethiopians who beat the -already Christian- convert to

> western religion were no doubt believers in the local idea of to

> convert is wrong. I can understand their feelings but of course

> strongly disagree with how they responded. We must remember that even

> in our own lands there are beatings, stabbings, rapes, dates rapes,

> murders, rampant homosexuality, theft, adultery (this is the Church by

> the way) all of which is missing in the same numbers in these

> cultures. Just yesterday a Baptist pastor in Brisbane I think was

> arraigned on charges of child sex offences. I wonder whether the

> Orthodox priests in Ethiopia today are generally asking the

> Missionaries ther5e about how and why that event took place?

>

> Ethiopia is Christian. Islam has an internal pact to leave it alone.

> Ethiopia has been Christian since the ancient days and still is. I

> would suggest that any missionaries in Ethiopia are not missioning to

> unbelievers at all but are in fact spreading their sect not Christ. As

> such they have no reason being there. That missionaries have -now-

> infected the Orthodox lands of Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt and

> Ethiopia shows that they rather make appeals tyo those who knof of

> Christ rather than those who do not or reject him. Let them all go to

> Papua New Guinea, Indfonesia, Saudia Arabia, then the Orthodox will

> have some respect for them. As our Missionaries did, rather than go to

> Rome, Canterbury or Athens. 🙂

>

> I have answered this in depth to show the ignorance that is behind

> missions to Christian countries as well as the faults of -all-

> cultures.

> >Shalom!

> >

> >Rowland Croucher

> James+