A group of self-proclaimed “apostles,” and “prophets” are commanding some of the country’s largest spiritual audiences through pulpits and television cameras. They, among others, promise direct access to God through miracles and healing and give assurance of prosperity and abundance. Ministries like Tamrat Tarekegn, Eyu Chufa, Yontan Aklilu, Jeremiah Hussen, Tibebu Workeye, and Birtukan Tassew claim millions of followers and their brand of prosperity gospel is winning the public’s hearts and minds. In stark contrast to traditional Pentecostal churches such as Mekane Yesus, Meserete Krestos, Qale Heywet, and Mulu Wongel, the new breed of preachers use a multi-level marketing system to sell faith and optimism to connect directly with millions of customers, allowing them to reap millions in donations. Yet, the often aggressive strategy in compelling believers to show their faith through payments, which they say will be recompensed in the form of wealth makes many wary. Some accuse of them of being motivated by pure greed and exploiting the poor and miserable.

“We are welcoming the new Ethiopian year, 2012. This will be a year of prosperity. 12 is an abundant number. This is the year God would accomplish a miracle in this country. … hallelujah!” Apostle Tamrat Tarekegn screams.

Speaking to thousands of people who attended the Saturday morning service in his low-roofed church, Christ Jesus Life (CJ) Ministry located in Kotebe area of Yeka sub-city, Addis Ababa, the charismatic preacher said God loves and rewards his faithful servants with earthly goods. He talked about a lady who gave testimonials at the church a few weeks ago. “She went bankrupt and she came out the other side. Now she possesses ten factories. These days she goes to Dubai for hairdressing and to Italy for breakfast,” he says, talking with lots of vibrato, creaky voice.  

The atmosphere initially felt heavy and suffocating, but soon for about five hours, the congregation was kept rapt with a medley of upbeat messages of God’s goodness, intense and mesmerizing sermons, prayers, speaking in tongues, Holy Spirit fire and of gospel hits. The service was being recorded to be transmitted across the Christ Jesus International Church TV, a station that has been broadcasting for the past year the preaching of the pastor around the world, as well as the accounts of people who say the course of their lives were changed for the better because of the ministry. The testimonies include stories about financial prosperity, recoveries from illness and substance use addiction and exorcising of evil spirits.

On that particular Saturday, Tamrat was delivering the signature message he is reputed for. “God increases the riches of those who give.” He pauses about every five minutes for applause. “The victory is mine when the battle is the Lord’s. Say that to the person sitting next to you,” he ordered the audience members. “This is the year God would do miracles. God would manifest his glory. Rejoice because you are among those privileged to  witness a manifestation of  his Glory in your lives .”

He then approached a young man, started addressing him. “I know you are struggling financially. Your home town is Ambo? Isn’t it?” he said. The cameramen approached. The young man responded in the affirmative. Then the whole audience roared in applause. “But originally you are from Wollega,” he said. But the young man did not affirm this piece of a  word of knowledge, as it is known in the parlance of the subculture. The preacher kept on holding forth. “All you need is trust in the face of discouragement. God would pave the way for your foreign travel and you would be blessed with incredible wealth.”

On the stage, some dramatic things were happening as congregants rose to their feet to confess to spell of attack of witchcraft, disease. Some streamed through, running, hobbling or wheeling themselves in. Others blurted out insults, blasphemies. The ushers would quickly come and carry them to the pulpits, all the proceeding being watched on a TV set and listened on loudspeakers.

In between, the prayer service was interrupted and congregants were asked to pledge money to Back To School, a state-sponsored project to pay for student’s uniforms and exercise books for the new Ethiopian school year and gives alms to the church. A pay-per-call number–four-digit was also given to the congregants so that they could call immediately and receive verse and messages. A certain sum would be debited from their account, the announcer warned.

Towards the end of the service, a specific demand came from the evangelist Tamrat who called out those who wish to pledge ten thousand Ethiopian birrs. “Don’t delay,” he urges emphatically. He repeated the message that faith and donations to the “House of God” will boost the participant’s financial wellbeing and their spiritual health. Around 25 people came out, this writer counted. Then people were asked to pledge 5,000 birrs. Then those who stepped forward were in hundreds. Afterwards, those who would give 1,000 birrs were asked to come forward. This time so many people responded to the call that it became hard to count them all. Then the Pastor led a prayer to the pledgers so that they enjoy God’s blessings.

Apostle Tamrat is one of the dozen prosperity preachers who had become household names in the Ethiopian religious scene. His church has been in existence for the past seven years, gaining more followers in the past year with the opening of his TV station. People from different parts of the country and even abroad come to the church to seek healing and to witness prophecies and hear words of hope and victory.

Fast-growing Protestant movement

Ethiopia is already one of the most religious countires in the world and it has one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches. According to the World Christian Database, in 1970 the country had about 900,000 self-identifying evangelicals, about 3 percent of its total population. By 2015, that number swelled to almost 19 million, or 19 percent of Ethiopians.

The Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Tibebe Eshete author of the seminal book, The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia, wrote that ever since its introduction by Western missionaries in the 1950s, the new Christian faith has provided an alternative model to the one that pre-existed it in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Several autonomous Ethiopian Pentecostal and charismatic churches, such as Mekane Yesus, Meserete Kristos, Qale Heywet, and Mulu Wongel have made their presence felt during the feudal regime and military regime. With the 1995 constitutional provision of freedom, several neo-Pentecostal or Charismatic independent denominations have appeared. The new-breed of property gospel churches, who represent a narrow and often controversial segment of the faith, have proliferated in the past decade.

Joachim Persoon, a scholar of Ethiopian monasticism and professor at the Orthodox Theological College in Addis Ababa agrees the prosperity gospel is a growing movement, though he doesn’t know to what extent it is growing in relation to before but “certainly it is a tendency which is present here and which have manifested itself in certain circles, not as much as in other places like Nigeria,” he told Ethiopia Observer.

While there has always been a subdued stream of self-help gospel in the mainline Protestant denominations, the prosperity gospel teaching conspicuously stands apart from traditional Pentecostal teaching for its focus on earthly health, wealth and happiness and the practice of planting financial “seeds” through monetary contribution to pastors. Ruhama Gezahegn, an instructor at International Evangelical Church College in Addis Ababa says that the prosperity gospel is not just a movement within a church. “I don’t believe that the gospel could be the prosperous pool or whatever. I think it is the interpretation of the Scripture and how people see the Scripture. Dealing with the practice is one thing but dealing with the teaching is the most important thing,” she told Ethiopia Observer.

While there are numerous prosperity gospel churches in Addis Ababa and other large cities, the most prominent ones are the Gospel of Kingdom International Church led by Prophet Jeremiah Hussein, Christ Army International Church led by Eyu Chuffa, Addis Kidan church led by Yonatan Aklilu, Christ Jesus Life (CJ) Ministry led by Tamrat Tarekegn and two others churches led by Tibebu Workeye, and Birtukan Tassew. The latter became famous when her prediction about Abiy Ahmed, himself a devout Pentecostal, becoming prime minister some six years earlier was transformed into a reality. Yonatan has become darling with secular media with his initiative “Good Youth” that aims to prevent addictive behaviours among youth with the use of life-coaching and the personal empowerment techniques. Eyu Chuffa has become the talk of the town for a fight with a demon-possessed man during a deliverance session at his church, ostensibly using a karate punch.

The common features of those churches are their strong visibility and capacity for their words to travel far with their own 24-hour TV channels that reach a large audience far beyond their own congregations. “Prosperity gospel has been always related to televangelism. Televangelism is not something new. If you go the west one of the proponents of the prosperity gospel is the seed movement, which has become famous with TV channels,” Ruhama explains.

A global movement

The prosperity gospel largely connected to revivalist and charismatic churches is not a purely Ethiopian phenomenon. In other parts of Africa, Latin and North America, as well as in Asia, there are self-appointed prophets and apostles who trade salvation for cash. The movement gained a larger following through the use of radio and television, and became firmly entrenched with the rise of televangelism, Ruhama Gezahegn explains.

In contrast to the traditional Pentecostal churches, the new breed of prosperity gospel focus sermons of ‘victory’, ‘ ‘abundant,’ or ‘conquerors’ and their website prominently features the pastors who market themselves as weapons against poverty, disease, joblessness. “I think what see in our churches is born out of a lot of problems, disciple-making and the problem in understanding on how we deal with the Scripture. It is the problem of understanding the Scripture properly. It is the problem of understating who God is properly,” says Ruhama.

In many of the prosperity churches, there is a practice of selling “anointed” oil to congregants with the belief that the purchase and use of the product will cure diseases, attract God’s blessings, and protection. One of the pastors often associated with the practice, Prophet Eyu Chufa of Christ Army International Church defends the practice saying that “it is intended to be dispatched to reach people who are in places where I myself could not reach. It is going to Europe, America and Arab countries……  We can’t distribute it for free because the church has no oil factory.  The oil is imported. So is the bottle and sticker. We don’t have a factory to produce the sticker. So, there is a cost to buy the products, that is why we charge church members,” he was quoted as saying by BBC Amharic.

Several religious leaders and critics say that the preachers of the prosperity gospel are increasingly becoming powerful and are enhancing their influence. Many clerics refrain from criticising them, even though recurrent rumours of abuse in fiscal management, or outright fraudulent practices. “I think the evangelical churches need to start thinking about who they believe God is, what they believe about his power, how they consider Christ himself because prosperity gospel is not just one area, it an amalgamation of so many areas, that you would consider as departing from the word of God. Because they start considering they have very ill-thought-out anthropological ideas, Christological ideas. Almost their ideas are derailed from what believe to be evangelical, biblical,” says Ruhama.

A lack of financial control and oversight is a point of contention for many of the prosperity churches, be it how donations are handled, or the existence of outright fraudulent practices. Christian groups ought to be completely transparent for the sake of their donors, and they have a responsibility to ensure that money was being used for community purposes and not personal gratification, an editor of the spiritual monthly says.

One of the prominent prosperity preachers, Yonatan Aklilu, in May 2018 television interview was asked how was finance managed in his church, and his slashed his wrists. “I am basically the one who manages the money. Those who say the finance should be managed by a committee also acknowledge that the exorcism should also be carried out by the committee.”  

“If you have a church led by one person and if that person is the only one who is “benefitting” from incomes the church is going to get through, that is the problem. I don’t believe that is the practice everywhere but it is the practice you find in different places. Not only in prosperity gospel but also in other churches,” says Ruhama.

The ethics of filming exorcism scene

Another of the persistent concern is the use of the media and the question of privacy in evangelical Christian broadcasting. Many questions the appropriateness of filming and showing footages of attendants in thier most vulnerable spiritual hour while the pastor allegedly banishes demonic possession. Yehualashet Kassa, a former Christian media head at Hiyaw Tesfa Spiritual Ministry and currently communication consultant says that there is a lot of misuse in the local televangelism. “Most of the 24-hour channels, with their format copied from their foreign counterparts, don’t respect local lore and culture. For example, what do you say when the TV crew focus and film a man who is vomiting, screaming and writhing? Is it right to bring the microphone close to the person and amplify his suffering? This is an intrusion of his privacy,” he says.

Whatever detractors say about the phenomena, the prosperity gospel and the celebrity preachers are going there to stay. After all, their recurring themes of social and financial empowerment appeals to a large segment of the urban faith community. The question would rather be, an expert said, how can it be influenced in more transparent, less exploitive, more people serving directions.

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com. Check individual images for licensing details.