Deadly Cocktail of Ethnic Hatred & Prosperity Gospel
Part Two 03/29/2023
“An aberrant theology that teaches God rewards faith—and hefty tithing—with financial blessings…“
“Church without a theological foundation …False prophets, pastors, & gurus take the place of God.”
“The prosperity gospel succeeds by exploiting desperation caused by economic dysfunction and social instability.”
”Pride, envy, excess, and the search for physical, material, and spiritual security make them spiritual prisoners of these cults.”
These are just a few descriptions of the Prosperity Gospel from those who have done independent in depth research and analysis. In order to get to the bottom of the problems facing Ethiopia we must attempt to understand one of the many underpinning drives, philosophy, and motivations behind its tyrannical regime.
It is well known that Abiy Ahmed Ali, an unabashed partisan of the Oromuma ideology, is not only a follower of the Prosperity Gospel but claims to be a pastor himself. We have also in our previous articles demonstrated with proof, the utter disdain he has for non-Oromo ethnicities including Oromo Orthodox Christians. We will illustrate that this deadly combination of ethnic and anti Orthodox hatred (supported by an ethnic apartheid constitution) and the debasement of religion (prosperity gospel) has ravaged primarily the Amhara people and also the remaining Ethiopian population. To note is also the dangers of the regressive Oromuma tribal ideology which has been discussed in much detail by Prof. Girma Berhanu in his well researched article "Oromuma Unchained Ethnic Apartheid and Territorial Expansion in Ethiopia"
The prosperity gospel teachings, which sprung up in the 1970s/80s with well known and now discredited televangelists have continued to exploit the minds of many vulnerable communities worldwide. This has become prominent on the African continent with promises of riches and wealth not through hard work and perseverance rather through some magico-religious cult upon which these followers base all of their existence. In the Ethiopian context this exceedingly small minority that represents a tiny fraction of Christians, has through the direct support of the regime managed to proselytize many officials at the behest or encouragement of Abiy Ahmed Ali and his cronies. This has created a minuscule circle of cadres who live in an echo chamber and are afraid to tell the Emperor he has no clothes for fear that they would lose their status and wealth. For clarity in countries like Ethiopia the main source of power and wealth for many has unfortunately been through the regime's structure and not the private sector. Given the poverty rate it is easy to prey and corrupt vulnerable individuals. It is noteworthy that Abiy Ahmed's creation of the Prosperity Party is an on your nose irony which has not been lost on the Ethiopian people.
Abiy Ahmed and his deputy Shimelis Abdisa’s hate speeches against Amharas are a matter of record. The combination of this violent animosity in an ethnic apartheid political system such as Ethiopia, added to the self serving interpretation found within the prosperity gospel manifests itself with Abiy walking in a farm of papayas and wheat while at the same time tens of thousands of Amharas are being massacred and decapitated in Welega by his regime backed Oromo paramilitaries and special forces.
Ethiopians have witnessed this episode ad-nauseam over the past five years to the point that Abiy Ahmed bellowed cynically and arrogantly to the parliament that "he would plant trees over the dead bodies of Amharas". This mindset pretends to hide from the true nature of the horrors he has created, and attempts reconciliation by adhering to one of the tenets of the prosperity gospel, which is intense positive reinforcements to banish negativity. His clique, the so-called gurus of positive thinking and mindset lurking in the shadows are enablers of this delusion of grandeur.
The Prosperity Party in its training manual (pp. 167-170) identified the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as an obstacle to be removed. Prosperity Party's policy based religious discrimination and demonization of other faiths, in particular followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the traditional Islamic faith has been the primary focus of the followers of this pseudo christian cult resulting in unprecedented violence, murders of Priests, Deacons, the faithful and burning of hundreds of churches.
2. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/topics/p/prosperity-gospel/
3. https://wng.org/sift/the-prosperity-gospel-in-africa-1617252047
4. https://allafrica.com/stories/202201130282.html
Other references
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/worst-ideas/prosperity-gospe l.html
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-you-should-know-about-the-prosperity-gospel/