Ethiopia’s religious dynamics from 1994 to 2019 (via zemfort1983):
Oriental Orthodoxy: 50.6% to 38.9%
Islam: 32.4% to 34.6%
Protestantism: 10.1% to 23.4%
Pagans: 4.6% to 1.5%
Catholics: 0.9% to 0.4%
Other: 1.0% to 0.9%
So you basically have the Orthodox converting to Protestantism – mostly Pentecostalism at that – while Muslims edge up as a share of the population through greater fertility.
Sad fate for one of the world’s first Orthodox nations.
Sad!
Orthodoxy is dying and has been declining since the great schism. I think it’s pretty obvious a religion is in decline when your most important church is in the hands of infidels.
The Oriental “Orthodox” (Armenia, Ethiopia, the Copts) are not Orthodox.
Theologically and historically, they’re the first protestants. They’re farther apart from Russian Orthodoxy than the Catholics. So maybe their shift to a more modern form of protestantism makes sense.
The split was long ago, so people tend to forget and lump all old things together, but calling the Ethiopians “Orthodox” is just plain wrong.
Calling the Hagia Sofia “the most important church” is a bold claim.
Swarthy Greek—it’s pretty obvious a religion is in decline when your most important church is in the hands of infidels
Not forgetting the decline of Western Christianity, reduced to a laughing stock by infidels of the Chosen variety.
Never understood how Penetcostalists are Biblical literalists yet love Jews and Israel. Do they just tear John 7 out of the the Bibles they distribute?
I think around a fifth of Latin Americans are evangelicals by now – apparently low church traditions are for some reason appealing.
Converting to Pentecostalism is a global phenomenon for the stupid.
A large number of Latin Americans also convert to Pentecostalism.
The Palin family is (in)famously Pentecostal as well.
Pentecostals are dumb.
But from what I read about Brazil, it is the upwardly mobile middle class who are converting to Pentecostalism, and I would assume it is the same in Ethiopia. So what is stupid in the US is (relatively!) bright in those countries.
It’s not just Brazil. Pentecostalism is spreading throughout Latin America as well as hispanics resident in America.
Admittedly I don’t know what the class breakdown within Latin America or Ethiopia is.
It would be amusing if the smart fractions of these countries were converting to a snake handling sect where speaking in tongues is widespread.
Perhaps Protestantism is seen as aspirational in these inferior countries since it’s associated with the United States and Northern Europe.
But why Pentecostalism in particular?
We can rule out the mainline denominations from Europe and America of course since they’re thoroughly pozzed. And now even some of the evangelical sects are pozzed–the Southern Baptist Convention’s leadership is a disgrace.
Perhaps the other based denominations like Missouri Synod Lutherans place too many cognitive demands on potential converts? Who wants to memorize the Book of Concord?
Jehova’s Witnesses and Mormons also attract a lot of Latin American converts. I don’t know a lot about the Jehova’s Witnesses, but I believe Mormon missionaries quietly deemphasize Mormon scripture because of how ridiculous and embarrassing it is. They focus more on the very real social and professional benefits of joining the Mormon community.
Doesn’t Pentecostalism have all that crap about prosperity gospels and the like? One can see why that would be attractive to the (far more materialistic) middle classes of the developing world.
Maybe it is just a religion perfectly designed for the 90-100 IQ range
In Europe, Protestantism worked perfectly, helping to educate the masses and fight laziness. Orthodoxy, with its icons and rituals on the contrary showed itself the worst branch of Christianity in these areas. So perhaps for Ethiopia, the success of Protestantism is the best option.
Anglicanism is a strange beast, their mainline leadership is all you describe and more, but, the thing is, they’re also so desperate to keep the whole thing together that they tolerate far more ‘based’ subgroups. High anglicanism (at least the real kind) is conservative without being loopy or pseudo-islamic like mormonism, authentically European, free of pederastasy and is the denomination of choice for smart reactionaries.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jan/19/news.comment
Correct. People do not understand the necessity of ‘rectification of names’, their use in their proper sense. Hence the sloppy use of ‘Orthodoxy’ (orthos-right, correct, true, doxa- opinion, belief) applied to the Oriental ‘churches’. They are not just ‘heterodox’ (hetero-different, doxa-opinion, belief), but really ‘kakodox’ or ‘pseudodox’, peddling a false (pseudo) or wrong, bad (kakos) opinion (doxa).
Both ‘nestorianism’ and ‘monophysitism’ are faces of the same essential heresy ‘arianism’, the judaic negation of the divinity of the Christ and of his Incarnation (taken over by the false prophet Mahomet) in the person of Jesus. These pseudo-‘churches’ cut themselves out from the trunk of the Church of the Incarnate Logos.
As the beloved disciple of Jesus and witness of his Glory, the Apostle John forewarned us:
“18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. 20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:18-29).
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:1-16).
They did that because they loved the world more than the Christ.
“15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
The spread of Islam wouldn’t have been possible without the betrayal of the ‘Oriental’ churches.
Hagia Sophia was the most important Church in all Christianity. All visitors realize this instantly and understand the ‘boast’ of Justinian “Solomon I have outdone you”!
You will understand why the envoys of Prince Vladimir in search of the ‘true religion’reported back to him that ‘We ‘did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth because you can’t find on all earth such view and beauty. We are not able to describe it, but one thing we know, that God lives there among men, and their service is more marvelous than in any country. We will not forget this beauty, because a man who tested so sweet a thing cannot ever suffer the bitterness. That’s why we cannot live here” and that made the boyars of the Prince to tell him: “Had the religion of the Greeks been bad, your grandmother Olga, the most wise among all women wouldn’t have adopted it”. And Vladimir accepted the Baptism and baptized all the Russians. And immediately started building the Cathedral Church of Saint Sophia in Kiev (desecrated by the Soviets and transformed in ‘museum’).
You will understand why the first thing that the Papist Crusaders and the Mahomedans did when they occupied Constantinople was to desecrate Hagia Sophia. The Crusaders and Mahomadans pillaged and desecrated the Church of the Holy Apostles also, scattering or destroying the relics of the Apostles and of Constantine and Justinian (who was found incorrupt – a sign of sainthood!).
The Temple of Solomon must be rebuilt and become the ‘most important’ in the world!
Yeah – generally, smart people who convert become Catholics or Orthodox. There are smart Mormons, Baptists, Pentacostals too but these people were born into their faiths and stayed loyal to them. Those religions don’t attract intelligent people.
If you can type anything which has figures after the comma (or point if you’re American) Karlin will believe it.
I don’t even know what you’re blathering about at this point.