Bakul,

As I said, I am as Ethiopian as you or Bob Marley in the sense that I am a Black man, although I am not from the country of Ethiopia, so I do not delude myself that it is the same thing. I should let you know however, that I go to Church with Ethiopians every week and am a baptized member of the Ethiopian Church, so I am more familiar with the culture than you may think. I am aware that there are Ethiopian Christians who dread, etc. because they have eaten at my house. I did not just see them in a magazine. It is evident that you didn't understand me when I spoke of the Abuna advising people to cut their dreads WHEN THEY SYMBOLIZED A BELIEF THAT SELASSIE WAS GOD. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I did not say that dreadlocks in and of themselves were wicked. As you have seen, I have no beef with the Twelve Tribes brother who I consider a full Christian. However, only the mis-informed and the arrogant (who think they are "above religion") think that Rastafari and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are the same thing. Those Ethiopians with dreads you saw are not necessarily Rastas. Neither are the dreadlocked Sadhus of India. One cannot be Ethiopian Orthodox Christian AND Rasta, but only one or the other, just as one cannot be Buddhist AND Muslim. These are not my words but those of the priests who have taught me. If you think different, you are tricking yourself, unless you are a Messian Dread, who does not believe that the Emperor is God but that he is worthy of veneration, and so is a Christian and a Rasta in that sense (which is perfectly fine). Bob Marley, as I understand it (and as it has been relayed to me by both Orthodox and Twelve Tribes bretheren), was baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Therefore, he must have renounced the notion that Haile Selassie was God. I know a lot of folks who would like to delude themselves that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Rastafari are the same thing. But the fact of the matter is they are not. Ethiopian Christians to not believe that the former Emperor was God. That is the truth and the bottom line. Ask the priest at the Church out there in Berkely or wherever you are from. The problem with you folks who have convinced yourself that Selassie is God is this: you created an image in your mind about a person, and when you came face to face with the real thing, you couldn't come to terms with the fact that he wasn't who or what you thought he was, even when he told you himself. It's like you have convinced yourself that Denzil Washington really was Malcolm X, but when you met him, and he told you he was Denzil Washington, you didn't want to hear it. You made up reasons to convince yourself and others why "Malcolm" was telling you he wasn't "Malcolm". If Ethiopian Christianity and Rastafari are the same thing, Bakul, show me proof. Next time you say "now what you want?" to somebody, make sure they don't have anything left to say to you, and that you have really told them something they didn't know.

Nicholas