The Pente Church is recruiting young Ethiopians unlike the Orthodox Church. Mezmur & Hip Hop! what's next?
Its been a while since I went to a Pente wedding. I find it very very boring. No music, I mean no good music, only Machebcheb with some singing.
A lot of Pente people are getting married. I hear men in their forties are settling down with young girls in their early twenties. From what I hear, the pastor hooks them up and Sunday contributions play a major role. Fifty dollars a week will get you the youngest most prettiest girl. Young girls will do whatever the pastor asks.
Ok ok, this is actually a joke in DC., but there is truth in every joke. Aydel?
Enjoy the Hip Hop Mezmur! Especially the part that says "the lord says yo man that is my son, you better take a hick!"
Published by June 6th, 2006 in Music and Social.
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That is what you get when you have a religion without any central authority. Any lay person can claim to know all…and they trivialize religion. When you take something as unique and refined as religion and you destroy (discount) the institutions that made them (catholic, orthodox or any other) you end up with meaningless clapping and crying…
I prefer the music of the Ethiopian Saint YARED.. than a religified version of 50 Cent!
simone, are you saying that every religion has a central authority…or every religion that you approve of? and besides, the insitutions did not ‘make the religion’. institutions always come later, along with the politics and the collection hats.
I actually like it! It is cool! They are doing a fine job of attracting the youth from otherwise 50 cents! I would take this from 50 cents, everytime.
What a disgraceful comment!! This is what happens when we think we know it all!!
If i were you i would think really hard before making this kind of comment. Any religon have its good and bad side but nothing come close to what you said.
TAZABEE
Rahel just wondering as to whose comment you are refering… where has our culture gone to? no one can say anything about anything?
My 50 cents: most protestants I know don’t like to be referred to as “PenTes”.
THE 50 cents: Yes, he says some nasty stuff, but the man’s voice is so … sexidelicious!
I was referring to the main topic “Mezmur & Hip Hop”!
Culture and religion don’t mix well all the time. This are two different things. For example TENKOLA, METETE, DEGEMTE… stuff like that are like a culture in our country side nations. They say they are Christian and at the same time they do this things on a side as a culture.
So one thing i know for sure is my religion and culture are completely different from one another and i do love both so much but i make sure my culture doesn’t clash with what i personally believe in with.
There are things i really really love about the orthodox religion at the same time there are things i don’t. i feel the same about all religion even my own. No religion is perfect but we choose to believe and stand with what we agree the most.
TAZABE
Are you kidding me with this? culture and religion dont mix?
we eat doro wot in hoildays in our culture… the holidays include gena fasika…
religion and culture do not mix, huh
As i said earlier “Culture and religion don’t mix well all the time.”
Tazabe
Culture [noun] - the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, or people; the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
religion [noun] - a particular system of faith and worship; the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God.
Culture and religion ARE inter woven. They have every thing to do with each other. All orthodox religions across the globe are not the same because of the culture factor. Ditto for protestans, lutherans, evangelicans, etc. Now, the mis-guided and tourtured souls of the stuff you mentioned is a whole different beast. Please don’t blame it on a certain religion.
wow! TAZABE
u said every religion have a good and bad side>whoops i dunno wut u try to say.u betta say like dis …every religionist can have a good and bad side not the religion bro
I love what pentes are doing with mezmur these days… It’s a positive alternative to the negative message found in today’s music.. plus the youth have love for hip hop as an art form and if they incorporate it in their faith, then even better..
Raise the Roof for I.Y.E.S.U.S!!
P.S.. the mc was not all that but hey it’s a nice try
ha ha ha ha ha
woy gud, hiden amemegn.. @ raise the roof for iyesus…
next it the j to the e … jesus pimping…
taraw yenesa legiziabher…
what an oxymoron jesus and hip hop right?
just a few quick points:
1. gospel hiphop is not an oxymoron. if you think it is, then i’m afraid you’ve been hoodwinked into thinking ALL hiphop is about debauchery, materialism, mysoginy, etc … hiphop with a positive and uplifting message DOES exist. maybe you need to turn your tv and radio off.
2. all this applause for monotheism is borderline idiotic. but i’m sure in real life, some of you just might be nice people.
3. the whole penTe vs. orthodox vs. catholic axis of evil … i don’t even know where to begin; suffice it to say that a lot of people can’t see beyond the bullshit they’ve been breast fed from god’s left tit because they’re comfortable rocking lifelong religion diapers.
4. suggested reading for the churchgoers: check out The Gospel of Thomas.
5. colonial mentality has nothing to do with having your head up your ass. it MIGHT have something to do with how we seem to think “ethiopia” didn’t have a credible belief system before the good ol’ bible thumpin’ portuguese stepped in. makes you wonder why a country of black people would paint the devil as black and saints and angels and gods as … well … *ahem* … “fair-skinned”
oh and nolawi, thanks for the info, man. i’ll consider trading in my agnostic passport for a penTe one whenever my mid-life crisis kicks in. i could use some young flesh with a speedy ferrari (at least until the lease expires … on the passport … or is it the ferrari? it can’t be the girl! me saying that would be … mysogynous, wouldn’t it? hm. points to ponder)
that’ll be all from me.
you know it’s amazing to hear various negative comments about pentes nowadays. yet, most ethiopian parents complain as to how far their children’s moral values have deteriorated due to the so-called “modern day cool doings” such as partying, smoking, sex, and things of such nature.
look around you! look at the world! everything, from the 3rd world countries up to the great nations such as the US, is in a chaos. lot’s of killings and evil doings are filling the world today. yet still, many people don’t realize we’re approaching the end of the world.
you know, i am 24 years old. i am young and have it all. name it; is it car? yes! is it a good school career? yes! is it looks? yeah! but, all this is worthless if i don’t have Jesus in me. i can party and do all the “cool” things this earth has to offer. but why waste my time and “life” for something that will pass soon. instead, it’s better for me to hang on to what’s really worth hanging on: a saved life through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
in the Bilbe, Jesus said, I am the Life, the Truth, and the Way. Noone can get to the Father expect through me. then, what else do i need?
i am sure most of you reading this have seen the Passion of the Christ. you know, it has affected many lives. there’s nothing i can do to repay what Jesus did for me. but i know one thing, the least i can do is to follow Him in all the days of my life until i die.
please, don’t let the word “pente” throw you off. it’s just a name that’s been giving to a denomination. however, its doctrine is what you should try to find out about. the only way to find out this doctrine is really to start reading the Bible. here’s a tip for you: if you want to be saved from the tormenting fire when all comes to an end, then know Jesus. make Him your Lord and Savior. believe me, you won’t loose anything. you will gain an eternal life. start reading the Bible from the Gospel of John, then go to Mathew, Marc, and Luc. then go to Galatians, then Romans, then 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and so on. this will help you all.
God Bless
Well said!
Pente vs Orthodox rivalary is foolish in my opinion. In the end, the heart of Christianity is Jesus Christ. Follow his teaching and live not talk the principles.
Love your enemies and respect those that have different opinions…
Stop being dogmatic, religion after all has been tainted by humans which are imperfect…
Mahn, I should be a preacher and make me some fat doe!! Just kidding
Peace!
Raise the Tara for Igziabher!!
what i don’t get is, if purgatory’s so bad for you, why it feel so good?
and f’real f’real david blaine spent eight days in a water tank but you don’t see me worshiping his father. but then again…maybe his father’s a really cool guy
all to say, raise the roof for rufael too. (and yes, rufael church in addis is in actual need of a tara, so don’t be a fara and raise some funds)
jesus walks, mohammed hitch hikes, but the dalai lama got a charter
hah haha hahah hahaha
I am no expert on the matter, but there seems to be a misconception regarding this particular faith.
First of, it is ‘Evangelical’ and not ‘Pentecostal’. There is a slight difference between the two doctrines.
Secondly, you don’t “recruit” people to accept the Lord; as the name implies, you “evangelize” or preach the gospel to people so they will accept the Lord as their savior.
Mat 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.
Anyone who is an expert on the matter, please feel free to correct me.
Shi – Shimbera
Ku – Kuli
Ge – Gembo
For only $9.99, you too could become an Amharic buff!
I think you guys need to check out this web site
http://jga.misirach.org/
you know meto aleqa, i know for 9.99 i could be an amharic bluff, but i disagree
I disagree to the claim that recruitment in religious inistitutions doesnt happen… it does happen.
Nice – I like the ‘buff’ to the ‘bluff’ rebuttal – for real!
To me, the word ‘recruitment’ implies an involuntary (or perhaps a semi-voluntary) participation.
You “recruit” soldiers
But when you “evangelize”, you are “teaching” people the rules of the Christian doctrine. As the result, they may end up becoming “followers” of the rule (voluntarily I might add.) Quite frankly, when you take away all the “presentation fluff”, there is very little difference between the various Christian doctrines.
Meto Aleka saaaaaaaaays! Gera, Kegn… Gera, Kegn… Gera, Kegn… Gera, Kegn……
BTW, you misspelled my name. It is Aleka, not Aleqa (you must be from Dega, we do it differently up here in Weyna Dega…ahahah…just kidding… peace out!)
looooooooooooooooooooooolllllll
you recruit to make them volunterly accept…
why are there so many missionaries through out african villages… they are trying to promote and expand the following of the particular religion…
you recruit soldeirs the same as your recruit followers and preists…
google religious recruitment kefelekh…
yes i am from dega…
Well, let’s take this discussion one step further and take a look at the original meaning of the word “recruit”…
The word recruit is a derivative of the Greek word
ROC-TOE-OMINOS. Which means, divulging or revealing…just kidding, I am just making things up…I barely speak English, let alone be an English historian
In any case, I am one of those guys that people would label as ‘Pente’. I honestly don’t think that I am an involuntary participant of the movement. I believe I am capable of thinking for myself, and making decisions for myself.
You may laugh at me when I say this, but when God calls you into his Kingdom, you will know it, you will feel it, you will live it, and YOU WILL PASSIONATELY FOLLOW IT. It is a spiritual thing! Follow Not some “missionary”, but the actual Word of God. The missionary, pastor, Kes (Qes as you degas spell it), or whatever you name it, is just the conduit.
As the famous mathematician Pascal once said “human knowledge needs to be understood in order to be loved, but divine knowledge needs to be loved in order to be understood!”…Amen to that! You really have to love the doctrine before you can understand the intent of the movement.
I believe (this is a pure speculation on my part as I have no real supporting facts behind my viewpoint), the main concern that people have is that, someone would end up getting financially rich of off his/her followers’ pockets. Does that happen – yes. Should one be too overly concerned about human shortcomings and never take the time to follow a spiritual self awareness – NO!
The passion that we have for the movement is no different than the passion you may have for this website. Assuming you are one of the creators of the website, I would assume (my apologies for speaking on your behalf) that you would want to see more hits today than you got yesterday; you probably would want to sell more t-shirts today, than you did yesterday. Why? Not necessarily to make more money today than you did yesterday (I hope not), rather, because it would mean to YOU that you have more people that are accepting your creative mind today, than you had yesterday.
You are not just producing the same old “konjo lig”, “ye DC lig”, “Ethiopia Agare”…blah, blah, blah…you are producing an original concept to attract a “different” crowd. But you know what, if you take away the “Addis Ababa Classic” piece, what’s underneath is just a t-shirt.
In the case of the “Pente” (truly the Evangelical church), you are creating an original style to spread the Word of God and in the process, attract those that were not touched by the original teaching. But you know what, if you take away the shouting, and the crying, and the loud noise, what’s underneath it is just Worshipping God!
BTW, military recruitment is not totally voluntary. I know that - after all, I am the “Meto Aleka” that has been stuck in this dead end job for the last Twenty Fiiiiiiive years!I should never have signed on those dotted lines. As Nancy Karrigan once said “Why!?”…”Why!?”…Why!?”
For only $9.99, you too could learn an Amharic military cadence
Wedeeeeehwala ZUR! Aa’nd…Aa’nd…Aa’nd, Hulet…Aa’nd..
lol u guys take things to personal i love the very idea of makin the most borin thing exciting the lord says to love and praise him and be joyful doing so not bore your self to death lol i like that sng good article nolawi
I was search for amharic military cadence and this post came up… Meto aleka if you are around do you know where I could get the cadence music
I am surprised that people still think that the Yared Mezmur is original to Christianity. Yes, it is older than Hip Hop but never ever think that it is original to Christianity, it was born somewhere down the road.
If we all take off our religious glasses, it should be so obvious that in order to be relevant, the church needs to be able to speak in the language of the people. That is what this song does and it is a brilliant creation. Here is what the writer of this song said on his website http://amelkhalehu.com
———————————–
This song is a mix of AMBASEL and Rap. AMBASEL is a traditional Ethiopian key unique to Ethiopian music. Rap is modern western style of music. That is a strange mix. Ebenezer, who did the rap, is half my age. That again is another strange mix. Yes, we have very different styles and backgrounds but what is more important is that we have one purpose, one love, one Spirit and one God. Our message especially to all the Abesha Christians in diaspora is that it is about time that we all learn to love one another and respect our differences as we are raising a new generation that may not conform to our cultural standards.
To the younger generation we say: Don’t ever think that you are better just because you are the new generation. The old was new and the new will be old. To the older generation we say: Don’t promote your tradition at the expense of love.
We are all the same no matter how different.
—————————————————
You have so much spam in here.. (
Awesome, man
getting errors… couldn’t listen
its fixed now…
nice collab! dinich, I hear u’re behind this? hats off to ya… sounds so fresh and so clean …
ere begzaer aygebam.
Hey Brother did you know the word Wisdom, I think you need one of them. before saying something you should study and do your homework before saying what you don’t know. I will pray for you that God will give you Wisdom and Understanding Who is God is.
Check out exministries.com if you want the real story behind hip hop. Jesus and hip hop don’t mix. Hip hop is a religion just like islam and budism. Find out the REAL TRUTH behind hiphop. Go to exministries.com
I like it
I wonder when most Ethiopians are going to wake up from this ignorant notion that people that choose to be Protestant (Pente) are just plain fools that can be easily brainwashed by some church leader. Sad to see very childish comments like this from someone that is educated and has the skills to see/think outside the box. Every thought process has a choice and we can choose to be narrow minded and ignorant. And it is very simplistic to blame the Hip/hop Mezmure for the mass exodus of the youngsters to the Protestant church.
Why can’t we separate the message from the messenger? Is there any evil in the message: “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16.31)Guys it is all about the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST! And practice it as you wish. Don’t impose traditions, practices, styles, opinions etc. I think some of you wrote excellent words and some of you base stuff. And somebody said “it is brainwhashing”. Think again Is the love of Jesus and proclaiming his Gospel which is YEMISRACH brainwashing? I don’t think Jesus died and rose again to brainwash people but to give life to others like you and me. Praises to him for ever!
I think People these days are getting mezmur and hiphop thesedays.It’s okay to do a christion rap but Hiphop is way beyond just music it is a culture/religion.
I didn’t know this either, I just found out a few weeks ago.
don’t get it twisted people!!
if you want more information…go to exministires.com
I think its right. Religous recruitment is becoming like a competition amongst religons .Its not anymore about serving God ,its about who has the most congrigation .And belive it or not people make a lot of money out of this .There was a documentray by CNN on this a while back .It really showed the consumer produces in relation to the expandign christainity .Try to google how much money Binni Hin or Joyce Mayor or T.D Jakes are making over religon .
Another issue is no matter how we try to diffrentiate between belif and religon as an institutions ,I think any belief will turn in to a religon when it creats a certain structure to manage the group .
We are debating about religon here but some one can question the existance of God ,where any religon is based on .So if that’s questionable wouldn’t it be more viable for us to follow a religon that goes with our traditon and culture ?
I agree with the idea that Penteism or any similar religon is a mind control system that is aimed at spreading neo colonialism .
Why is it that we are all so quick to say something negative about other religion when we don’t even have enough faith in what we believe. I feel like sometimes people look at others that are religous and look at them as a treat to their own faith so they try to manipulate as much as they can. Regligon is personal who are we to judge otheres believe. The first and the most importand thing the bible teaches us is not to be judgmental so we should love one another and practice what the Bible teaches us. As for the Mezmur and Hip Hop we are to praize our Lord in anyway possible, if the way others praise the Lord does not feel right for you then praise him the way you want to praise him but as for others stay out of their way. Let the Lord almighty be the judge of that.
In repsonse to Pentew: I hate to disagree with you but I do not’t believe in the whole ” we are chiristians therefore have higher moral standards speech.” As far as I am concerned you as a person, should have your own morals, and principles, reagrdless of your religion. But hear me out, I’m not refuting the fact that religion does some how contribute to good behaviours. However, what I am trying to say is that being a Pente doesn’t make ppl better that the other. To say the least, I am yet to meet a person that identifies themselvees as a “christian”a.k.a Pente…who is not a hyprocite….somewhere…somehow….they always seem to prve me right!
So…I suggest that we focus on educating the youth…instead of trying to solicit them into a religious cult! After all…if being a pente is the door to heaven…why bother soliciting ppl through hip-hop and so forth…last time I checked…religious sommunities were only concenrned at teaching, and preaching the word of G-d….whether they were muslim, jews….christians or watever….and they still keep on attracting the “lost Youth”……
Long awaited,
As the arranger and the singer of this song I can tell you the intent is not at all to attract young people. The person doing the rap part is one of the Canadian born kids in my church. I believe he was 19 when he did this song a couple of years back. We just decided to collaborate and I brought my ambasel and he brought his rap and did this together. In fact, my personal intent is to bridge the huge generational and cultural gap between the first and second generation immigrants mainly within the Pente church.
But, I hear ya on your complain about the hypocricy in the church. I admit that the church is overdue for some serious clean up…