The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia: Resistance and Resilience

7. The 1960s Rise of Pentecostalism

145 The 1960s Rise of Pentecostalism 07This chapter deals with the history of Pentecostalism in Ethiopia, which has been the cutting edge of contemporary evangelical Christianity in that nation. By tracing the origin and development of the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia, the chapter records the account of the movement leading up to the formation of the Mulu Wengel Church, the first independent Pentecostal church in Ethiopia, by pulling together the religious and sociopolitical stirrings that led to its emergence and its expansion; the next chapter follows the movement through the late 1960s to the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. I intend to show that Pentecostalism has given birth to a new experience and articulation of Christian faith that has become a major force for the expansion of Christianity in Ethiopia as the movement overflowed its boundaries and significantly influenced the practices of other churches. I also try to situate the rise of the Pentecostal movement within the larger socioeconomic, religious, and political conditions of Ethiopia; its encounters with diverse forces in the 1960s; and the responses of Ethiopian youth to these encounters. General Notes Pentecostalism, which originated in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, has become a widely shared global religious movement . Its rapid expansion, especially in the third-world countries, is increasingly attracting the attention of a wide range of scholars.1 The Pentecostal movement is one of the least understood and most understudied phenomena in modern Ethiopian history, which partly stems 146 The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia from the fact that both expatriate and Ethiopian scholars have paid little attention to the new religious movements, which are appearing in bewildering varieties. Given the rate of expansion of the movement, and the growing demographic and social impact it is making upon Ethiopian society, one should make a careful and nuanced historical investigation concerning Pentecostalism’s origin, development, the various trajectories it has taken since its beginnings, and the reasons for its baffling explosive growth. In particular, the enlargement of its base and influence—now making substantial inroads in mainline churches like the Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus, Qale Heywet, and even the historic Orthodox Church—demands closer scrutiny and explanation. The current popular appellation “Pente,” referring to all the denominations of various Protestant backgrounds in Ethiopia, has now become a generic label for all non-Orthodox and non-Catholic Christians in Ethiopia. The term came into usage in the late 1960s as an aftermath of an episode in Debre Zeit in August 1967, which is detailed in the next chapter.2 Pente initially referred to the new “religious outsiders” as a shortened allusion to their Pentecostal faith experience, the most salient aspect of its expression being speaking with tongues, glossolalia, as an evidence of the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.”3 The utterances are believed to be heavenly languages inspired by the Holy Spirit as marks of supernatural touches to transform the life of a believer and empower the believer to hold on to his or her faith. Ethiopian Pentecostals insist that speaking in tongues is not a modern-day invented religious practice , but something described in the Bible in the New Testament. They mostly quote verses from Acts 1 and 2 to validate their claims.4 Young Ethiopians, mostly from colleges, training institutes, and high schools, consider their new spiritual experience to be a gift of the Spirit, which they avidly employ in their meeting places. As they perceive it, speaking in tongues is a manifestation of closeness to God, a substantiation of the authenticity of their faith, and demonstrative evidence of an encounter with God’s power. In a way, their newfound faith, especially its emphasis on power, invests them—they claim—with a measure of authority to withstand fear and anxiety and enjoy relative autonomy from societal norms and restrictions. The somewhat strange nature of this experiential and expressive form of the Christian faith in Ethiopia manifested as the pejorative designation , known as Pente, for a movement considered not only outlandish but The 1960s Rise of Pentecostalism 147 also heretical. Intriguingly, the notion has remained lodged in the public imagination even to this day. From a small and scattered beginning in the early 1960s, however, a vibrant independent Pentecostal movement eventually crystallized in the formation of the Mulu Wengel Church, one of the most powerful agents in the diffusion of Pentecostal experiences across other non-Pentecostal denominations. The name Mulu Wengel...