The Ethiopian Church Journal Blog

Christians and Politics Amare Tabor  The idea of Christians engaging in politics has never been a popular or a noncontroversial one. There were times when the church got too involved in politics and lost her prophetic voice or withdrew altogether from engaging in issues of social justice. Ethiopian evangelicals have always looked on politics with wary eyes. Interestingly, those outside the Christian community never fail to censure Christians for participating in politics - except when they need them on their side! So where is the balance? How does Jesus' instruction that Christians are 'in' the world but not 'of' the world translate in practical terms? How could Christians play a role in the political process without compromising their witness? Or to state positively, How could Christians bring to bear their faith values on social policy issues? We believe those and similar questions could be tackled intelligently and with grace. We appreciate brother Amare Tabor f...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas....

Pope says African church must oppose 'toxic waste' of materialism Source: By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Africans must tap into the strengths of their cultural and religious values to promote reconciliation on the continent and to resist the "spiritual toxic waste" spread by the West, Pope Benedict XVI said.Presiding Oct. 4 over the opening Mass for the special Synod of Bishops for Africa, Pope Benedict said the vocation of the Catholic Church on the continent is to work for peace and to promote the holiness that will lead to justice, strong families and care for the weakest members of African societies.Although there was a sprinkling of the languages spoken most in Africa, the major part of the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica was in Latin or Italian, including the pope's homily. The Mass booklets used by the congregation and concelebrants were illustrated with sacred art from Congo, Togo, Burundi and Ethiopia . Accompanied by guitars and drums, a choir f...

credit: m.dnevno.hr Once a communist guerilla fighter and now a staunch Christian, Tamrat Layne, the former prime minister of Ethiopia, visited and spoke with administrative and missions officials at the Grand Rapids office of the Christian Reformed Church on Friday. The visit was social and was a time for Layne, who spent 12 years in prison on charges of corruption, to learn more about the ministries of the CRC, especially in Africa. Layne lives in Denver, Colo., where he bases a ministry called Global Healing in Love & Unity Ministries. He has spent several days speaking to groups on the campus of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary about the conversion he experienced while serving 12 years of an 18-year sentence in an Ethiopian prison. He was just released late last year and then came to this country to be with his wife and children. "I fought as an atheist communist in the mountains of Ethiopia and used to offer freedom through the barrel of a gun and now I try ...

A Graham Slam Source: Newsweek Anne Graham Lotz, the second of Billy and Ruth Graham's five children, says it's all right: as long as you have a personal relationship with Jesus, church doesn't really matter. Neither does denomination. "Religion is an impediment to knowing God," says Lotz, who is promoting a new book, The Magnificent Obsession. "Procedures, rituals, creeds: how in the world can they help you connect with God? … If you're sprinkled when you're baptized or dunked when you're baptized, it doesn't matter as far as your salvation goes." Given her maiden name, you would think that Lotz, an evangelist who travels around the world urging people to come to Jesus, would embody old-fashioned, conservative evangelism. Her father has always strongly advised Christians to attend church; the Billy Graham Evangelistic Asso-ciation Web site tells new Christians to make church a regular part of their lives: "Whatever it meant to you ...

Andrew Geogheghan reported this story on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 07:22:00 Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes); Alternate WMA version MP3 download This transcript is a record of the Radio National broadcast. It will be replaced by the updated local radio broadcast at 10am. TONY EASTLEY: In Australia, international adoptions are handled by the Government and are highly regulated, but that's not the case elsewhere in the world. In the United States international adoptions are a big business, where a large number of private international adoption agencies are paid on average $30,000 a time to find a child for hopeful parents. The number of Americans adopting Ethiopian children has quadrupled, especially since American celebrities adopted African children. A Foreign Correspondent team has been investigating American adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia and has uncovered some alarming practices. Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan reports. ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Famine, disease a...

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the ...