Missionary Dilemmas in Times of Persecution
Case Ethiopia[1]
yvind M. Eide
(School of Mission and Theology [Misjonsh gskolen], Stavanger, Norway)
Abstract: During the period of
Communist rule in Ethiopia, from 1974 to 1991, the evangelical churches faced
severe persecution. Over 3,000 church buildings were forcefully closed, and
pastors were imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. In response to this dire
situation, the leadership of the Lutheran church requested a group of missionaries
to relay important information to the Lutheran World Federation. This request
carried significant political implications and involved significant risks.
Additionally, the harassment endured by the churches represented grave
violations of human rights. This article delves into the moral dilemmas faced
by the missionaries and their subsequent resolutions. Moreover, it sheds light
on the ethical quandaries faced by mission organizations and churches, both
locally and globally, when dealing with oppressive dictatorships. Ultimately,
it illustrates how a church can be coerced into abandoning its critical role in
society, embracing submission, and remaining silent.
.
During the Communist regime in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991, the
evangelical churches faced significant persecution. Over 3,000 church buildings
were closed, and pastors were imprisoned, tortured, and killed. In this
challenging environment, the leadership of the Lutheran church requested a
group of missionaries to convey information to the Lutheran World Federation.
This request was politically sensitive and carried substantial risks. Simultaneously,
the oppression of the churches violated fundamental human rights. This article
delves into the moral dilemmas faced by the missionaries and how they resolved
these dilemmas. Furthermore, it examines the challenges faced by missions and
churches, both locally and internationally, when dealing with brutal
dictatorships. The article also highlights the transition of a church from
actively engaging with society to a state of submission and silence.
In 1981,
while under the communist regime, I worked as a visiting professor at the Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary
(MYTS) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the same time, I acted as a liaison between
the Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). In my
official capacity, I was approached by Reverend Tasgara
Hirpo on behalf of EECMY President Emmanuel Abraham.
They asked me if I would be willing to gather information on the difficult
experiences faced by EECMY during that time and provide it to The Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). [2]
It was evident that the president
himself could not openly speak on the matter.
The
president had been a minister in the government of Haile Selassie I. Only by
forceful intervention by LWF, documenting his faithful service for the
Ethiopian people, did he avoid execution at the hands of the revolutionary
government in 1974.[3]
Later on, working as president of the EECMY, his position was vulnerable. In
the political climate of the time, with a Marxist-Leninist inspired
dictatorship in power, the question of information was most sensitive. The
request was therefore of great consequence and a risk to my well-being and the
work of my mission.
At the
time, the general secretary of the EECMY, Gudina Tumsa, had been kidnapped. His
location was unknown. [4]
The freedom to practice one's religion, hold beliefs, and gather was at risk.
Preaching was restricted, numerous church buildings were being shut down,
colleagues were imprisoned, and congregation members were being subjected to
hours of indoctrination in Marxist-Leninist philosophy. A
serious crisis in the relationship between the church and the state was
unfolding.
According
to my contract with the mission, I was explicitly prohibited from engaging in
any form of political activity while being a guest in a church and country. The
initial question was whether the government's harassment of the church had
political motives. Would sharing information be perceived as an unfriendly act?
This request presented a significant dilemma. This document aims to explain how
this dilemma was resolved. It also sheds light on the challenges faced by
missions and churches, both locally and internationally, during times of
persecution.
I was sent to Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's regime. Neither I nor my
mission were aware that the permission to work in Ethiopia was part of the Emperor's political ambition to modernize the empire. [5] The Imperial Decree on
Mission, issued in 1944, came about after a long struggle between the Patriarch
of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) and the Emperor. The Patriarch believed
that it was a serious political mistake to divide the ideological foundation of
Ethiopia through the existence of two different churches. In the context of
Ethiopia, ecclesiology has a political dimension. [6]
The Emperor's feudal regime was autocratic and had a poor human
rights record. Interestingly, it was the last country in the world to abolish
slavery in 1933. [7]
When my mission responded to a call from
the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), a debate arose in Norway about whether it
was politically neutral to work in Ethiopia. The mission stated that our main
task was to save souls and that the political situation at any given time was
not relevant. [8] In making this statement,
the mission drew on a long-standing Lutheran pietistic tradition to separate
the duties of the church and the state. [9] This statement was soon put to the test.
In 1974,
the Ethiopian revolution began. The country descended into chaos and internal
conflict. In February 1977, Mengistu Haile Mariam orchestrated a coup d tat.
One of his initial actions was the seizure of Radio Voice of the Gospel on
March 12, 1977. In the aftermath of Mengistu's takeover, numerous youth lost their lives during the infamous Red Terror
period. [10]
As a result of the severe human rights
violations, the United States withdrew its support. Mengistu then sought
assistance from the Soviet Union. The ultimate outcome was a communist
dictatorship, guerrilla warfare, and a battleground of the Cold War. [11]
In 1974,
the Ethiopian revolution started. The country plunged into chaos and internal
conflict. In February 1977, Mengistu Haile Mariam led a coup d tat. One of his
initial actions was to seize Radio Voice of the Gospel on March 12, 1977.
Following Mengistu's takeover, numerous young people were killed during what
became known as the Red Terror. Due to severe human rights violations, the
United States withdrew its support. As a result, Mengistu sought assistance
from the Soviet Union. The outcome was a communist dictatorship, guerrilla
warfare, and a battleground for the Cold War.
The question at hand was whether the change in a dictatorial system had
any impact on the missionary enterprise. The rapid and dramatic developments,
along with the spread of propaganda, exerted significant pressure on all the
supporting missions. [12]
Consequently, the security of missionaries became crucial during the spring of
1977. The dilemma of whether they should leave or stay caused great conflicts
of conscience for them. Eventually, the missions brought up this matter to
their respective boards, and decisions were reached to withdraw personnel from
the vulnerable regions.
In May
1977, the missionaries from the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), who were
collaborating with the Kale Hiwot Church, were evacuated from their positions
in Ethiopia. [13]
The number of missionaries was reduced
from 200 to forty. By February 1978, the Norwegian Lutheran Mission (NLM) had
decreased its staff in Ethiopia from 158 to fifty-eight. [14]
The Norwegian embassy had advised the
NLM four times to evacuate its missionaries. The mission only partially adhered
to this advice, although all the stations in the southeast had already been
evacuated. The Danish Lutheran Mission, working with the NLM in Bale, also
evacuated all of their staff. The NMS, operating in
remote areas in western Ethiopia, evacuated all but one of their sixteen staff
members. They had faced severe hardships and an attack by a guerrilla movement.
The Norwegian Lutheran Free Church, working in Ghion,
also evacuated their staff. The Finnish Missionary Society did the same. The
Swedish Evangelical Mission and the German Hermannsburg Mission withdrew their
staff, some to Addis Ababa and others back to their home countries. All in all,
77 percent of Lutheran missionary personnel were withdrawn from Ethiopia. [15]
One point
of particular interest is the different strategies chosen by the Norwegian missions.
To fully comprehend the decision made by the NMS, it is crucial to consider the
extremely painful experiences associated with the evacuation of China in 1949.
[16]
In China, one of the problems arose from disagreements among the missionaries
regarding their approach towards the Communists. In order to
avoid the possibility of a similar incident repeating itself, the board of the
NMS heeded the advice of the Norwegian Embassy and officially decided to
evacuate from Ethiopia. [17]
When the security situation improved, a few colleagues and I were called back
to service in 1980. The request from the president of the EECMY put the matter
of missions and politics to the test.
Human rights can be viewed from multiple perspectives. I will discuss
three of them in the following sequence: (1) The right to life and
preservation, (2) Economic, social, and cultural rights, (3) Individual human
rights. [18]
During my theological training, human rights were not given much
importance. Instead, the life and teachings of Jesus influenced the way
missionaries worked. The fight for human dignity and against evil
was thus motivated by the beliefs of Christ. In a traditional role, I served as
a preacher and leader of literacy schools, a clinic, and an agricultural
project. These activities were aimed at supporting life and ensuring survival,
and they seemed to remain neutral in terms of politics.
In-depth
studies of why people shifted their affiliation to evangelical Christianity
demonstrate that the church's involvement in healthcare and education played a
crucial role. People who had only experienced harsh exploitation were taken
aback when they encountered love and kindness. Whether they were landowners or
slaves, they were treated with equal respect. As a result, the missionaries
conveyed a new understanding of human worth and brought about a drastic change
in values. Through their actions, they thus criticized the prevailing values
and political systems of society. [19]
The Oromo, with whom I worked, were subjected to imperial rule in the
late nineteenth century. The Amhara, due to their social position, language,
and Orthodox Christianity, dominated Ethiopia at the expense of other ethnic
groups. Against this backdrop, American anthropologist Donald Donham provides a
compelling interpretation of the evangelical movement: It re-established the
people s identity. [20]
African theologian Lamin Sanneh further explains this interpretation by stating
that missionary work, especially through Bible translations and educational
efforts, provided the people with " cultural self-understanding, pride of
their own language, social awakening, religious renewal." [21]
The initial
phase of the revolution partially addressed these aspects, particularly
cultural rights, with the introduction of the "First Charter" on
December 20, 1974. This document envisioned Ethiopia as a nation free from
"ethnic, religious, linguistic, or cultural differences." [22]
However, unknowingly, the church's efforts to empower marginalized groups had
an unintended ethnic dimension, which exacerbated the ethno-political tensions
of the country. When a liberation movement emerged in areas associated with the
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), led in part by former EECMY students, the
church found itself caught in a difficult situation.
As a missionary, I gradually became aware of how the evangelical faith
was being interpreted by the listeners. The reception showed how a message that
appeared to be non-political was transformed into a political reality. Gudina
Tumsa provides a clear example of what this means: In Gemo
Gofa, a group of Christians took a landowner to court
after he confiscated their land. They fought their case all the way to the High
Court of Ethiopia and emerged victorious. For them, justice was an integral
part of their understanding of salvation. [23]
This
interpretation of salvation was a key issue raised in the famous EECMY letter
to LWF in 1972. In this letter, the young church criticized the missions for
not speaking out against colonial exploitation. The letter also highlighted the
structural injustices that existed. By acknowledging the systems that oppressed
and degraded humans, the church expanded its concept of sin. This letter became
a defining moment in EECMY theology, which later became known as
"holistic." [24]
The letter
partly reflected the ongoing ecumenical debate of that time, including
discussions at the World Council of Churches (WCC) meeting in Uppsala in 1968
and the LWF General Assembly in Evian in 1970, where human rights were a key
topic. These conferences pushed the EECMY to focus on issues of social justice
and human rights. These concerns continued to be prioritized at the WCC meeting
in Nairobi in 1975 and the LWF assembly in Dar-es-Salam in 1977. As a
missionary I only gradually became aware of how the evangelical faith was
reinterpreted in the minds of the listeners. The reception illustrates how a
seemingly non-political message was translated into political reality. Gudina
Tumsa gives a vivid example of what this means:
When the
revolution occurred, the church could have chosen to disengage from politics
and remain quiet. However, instead, the church actively participated in the
political discussions of the time. [25] The Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) played a role in advising during this process. In a pastoral
letter from 1975, the church expressed its support for the revolution, but only
if the state adhered to the principles of law and human rights. [26]
As the
revolution continued, it became evident that freedom of faith was a critical
aspect. Gudina Tumsa, in an effort to counter the
influence of atheist Marxism, organized the Council for Cooperation of Churches
in Ethiopia (CCCE). At this point, the government approached Gudina Tumsa for
cooperation, but he declined due to the continued persecution of evangelical
Christians. As a result, he was denounced as an enemy of the state. The CCCE
was seen as an effort to form an ideological opposition, leading to Gudina Tumsa's elimination and the government's intention to
dismantle evangelical churches. [27]
The first to speak up was the Swedish Ecumenical Council in a letter to
the Ethiopian government.[28]
This was followed by a paper from a group under the British Council of Churches
at the beginning of 1979.[29]
The Ethiopian government gave an indignant reply calling the accusations
calculated malicious lies, adding: If there are impossible things, tampering
with religion in Ethiopia is one of those impossible things . The government at all times denied any persecution of evangelical
Christians. This left the missions with a number of
options. Let me indicate four of them:[30]
The government s reaction and the abduction of Gudina Tumsa a short time
after left no one in doubt of the government s will to silence any opposition.
The prevailing attitude among the missionaries was to do what was possible and
not provoke the government by revealing its violations of human rights. One
should be grateful for the opportunities still available in a Communist land
and avoid provocation that would lead to expulsion and increased suffering for
Ethiopian Christians. On the official level this was the position of NLM. The
NLM worked in southern Ethiopia where conditions were easier than in the west.
They were very cautious about aggravating the government and putting the whole
flourishing work in jeopardy. The general secretary of the NLM, Egil Grandhagen, in an editorial in their mission magazine, Utsyn, put heavy
emphasis on the missionary task to win souls. Therefore
one has to draw a clear line between our call as Christian citizens and our
call as a missionary organization, he wrote.[31] Against this policy it is
quite remarkable that the NLM board permitted their representative in Ethiopia
to join the information group.
The alternative option was to pressure the government with a threat to
withdraw all humanitarian support and, with it, much needed foreign currency.
Both church and mission deemed it ethically impossible to use sick and hungry
people s right to life in a power struggle with the government.
A third option was to deem the violations of human rights as so grave
that one s conscience forbade silence, whatever the consequences. The Berliner
Mission (BM) opted for this approach. BM publicly denounced the Ethiopian
government, in particular for its oppression of the
Oromo ethnic group.[32]
Experiences from the Confessional Church s struggle during the Nazi regime had
taught them that silence was a dangerous path. When the Hermannsburg Mission
(HM) made a protest against BM for linking the
violations of human rights to the Oromo s situation, the BM reiterated by
accusing the HM for once again keeping silent about concentration camps.
EECMY protested against BM, maintaining that their
action increased the pressure on the church. BM was not willing to yield. This
forced the EECMY to break off relations with BM.[33]
This was the context of Emmanuel Abraham s request to me in 1981.
Emmanuel Abraham gave one condition: In order to avoid
any suspicion that information on the EECMY was linked to the Oromo ethnic
cause, he demanded that only facts without interpretation be conveyed. Since
the request came from the president of the church, it was seen as urgent to me
as well as my mission. How did I reply? I could not carry responsibility for
such an undertaking alone. The first move was therefore to invite the
representative of the Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM), Rev. Ingvar Nilsson,
the Hermannsburg Mission (HM), Rev. Willy Kalmbach, and the Norwegian Lutheran
Mission, Rev. Osvald Hindenes, for a meeting with the president s liaison. We
decided that each of us would pass the request on to our mission boards. All of
them solved the dilemma by allowing us to convey information.
The general
secretary of the NMS, Odd Bondevik, tried to
establish criteria for relating to the Ethiopia situation. In the mission s
magazine he wrote that violations against basic human rights, whether they are
against Christians or others, is our concern and we cannot pass by in silence.
Bondevik defined the criteria by reference to the
Norwegian Church s position during the Nazi regime. He quotes the Norwegian
Church s stand in Kirkens grunn:
It is a sin
against God if the state starts to tyrannize the souls and claims the right to
decide what a person shall believe, think and feel as his conscience. . . . Where the power of the state separates from justice,
there the state is no longer a tool of God, but becomes a demonic power. Therefore there are limits to obedience against the state.[34]
All
missions were thankful for the accurate information given by the group. By
letting an international organization coordinate the information process, a
uniform policy was possible and the missions and
churches could speak with one voice. It was left to LWF to decide whether to
publicize information or not.
On 10 December 1981, the group got a tip, via a leak in the government,
that it was decided to confiscate the EECMY Central Office as a first step to
nationalize all church institutions. The decision only waited for Mengistu
Haile Mariam s signature. When the order was given to evacuate the Central
Office two days later, information was sent to LWF. Through their contacts with
the WCC, all member churches were alarmed.[35] The result was a storm of
protest from all over the world. No other institution of the EECMY was touched
until 25 January 1982, when the Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary was confiscated. The seminary
was, however, returned later the same day. The most plausible reason was that
the decision to confiscate was made at department level. Mengistu could simply
not risk a second international storm, and so he ordered the return of the
seminary.[36]
It is
obvious that the government was furious about the bad press Ethiopia got in the
West. Thinking the BM was behind the information, the secret police sent two
agents to East Berlin. There they were equipped with a bomb in
order to blow up the BM headquarters and kill its mission secretary,
Gunnar Hasselblatt. However, the bomb went off while
they were arming it. One of the agents was killed and the other arrested by
German police.
At this
point the LWF saw the situation as so serious that Oberkirchenrat Christian Krause,
on behalf of the LWF, established contact with the Ethiopian Embassy in Bonn to
inform them of the role of LWF. The ambassador rebuked him for intervening in
Ethiopia s internal affairs. Krause reiterated the LWF position, with a reference
to human rights declarations, and told the ambassadors that the Christians in
Ethiopia were our brothers and sisters.
In January 1985 Emmanuel Abraham was replaced by Francis Stephanos as
president of the EECMY. At the time more than 3,000 churches (1,700 Kale Hiwot,
1,000 EECMY, 300 Pentecostal, Baptist, and Mennonite) were closed, and church
life was brought to a standstill. Francis Stephanos was then invited to
participate in the drafting of a new state constitution. The church officers
saw that the church s stand against the state had almost led it to destruction.
They, therefore, stepped down and resolved that the president should accept the
invitation. At the same time there was a shift in leadership of the LWF, with
Gunnar St lsett as the new general secretary. The LWF
endorsed the EECMY decision according to the pattern of relationship to East
European churches. The suffering of the Christians in Ethiopia was silenced!
Two years later Francis Stephanos was elected as a member of the national
congress. He took his seat together with leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church and the Muslim community.[37]
The EECMY
had come full circle, from Emmanuel Abraham participating in Haile Sellassie s autocratic government, through the EECMY letter
of 1972 that criticized the missions for keeping silent on human rights abuses,
through critical engagement during the revolution, to silent participation in a
state with one of the worst records on human rights in recent history. The
EECMY was domesticated, and has never since dared
speak up on human rights issues in Ethiopia.
Did
international pressure have any effect on the Ethiopian government s handling
of the church? It seems that it merely aggravated the political authorities.
The bomb in Berlin shows how far the government was willing to go in order to silence critics. However, in 1981 the proposed
takeover of EECMY institutions never occurred, and in 1982 the Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary
was handed back. If this came as a result of the LWF
channel, something substantial was achieved.
Let me
finish with a reflection by Meseret Sebhat Leab, a
scholar of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. At the time I did my research on the
persecution of the EECMY, I asked how the church could cooperate with a
government that had killed the Patriarch and appointed its own person against
canonical law. He paused for a while before he answered, Canonical law is one
thing. Survival is another. What you are witnessing is a question of
survival.
[1] This article is a development of a lecture given at a conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, on the Nordic-Baltic churches and the Cold War, February 28, 2012. The article is based on yvind Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia: The Growth & Persecution of the Mekane Yesus Church, 1974-85, 2nd ed., Eastern African Studies (Oxford : Athens : Addis Ababa: J. Currey ; Ohio University Press ; Addis Ababa University Press, 2000).
[2] At the time Rev. Tasgara Hirpo was president of the Western Synod of the EECMY and at the same time my colleague at the Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary.
[3] In his autobiography, Emmanuel Abraham gives a detailed account of his time in detention. Emmanuel Abraham, Reminiscences of My Life (Oslo, Norway: Lunde forlag, 1995), 229-242. On November 23, 1974, the acting prime minister and fifty-nine members of the government of Haile Sellassie I, along with other top officials, were summarily executed. See Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia, 98.
[4] Gudina Tumsa was abducted on 28 July 1979, and executed the same night. A detailed account of the imprisonment and abduction of Gudina Tumsa is found in Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia, 175 79.
[5] The very title of the autobiography of Haile Selassie I indicates the centrality of modernization by introducing into the country Western modes of education. My Life and Ethiopia s Progress, 1892-1937: The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Sellassie I (Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press, 1976).
[6] The political consideration that religious unity was an important basis for national unity constitute the religio-political background for the opposition and persecution of evangelical Christianity by local authorities prior to the revolution in 1974. Eide, Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia, 25 39.
[7] Teshale Tibebu, The Making of Modern Ethiopia: 1896-1974 (Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1995), 53 70, http://www.gbv.de/dms/bowker/toc/9781569020012.pdf.
[8] Gudm. Gjeldsten, Kritiske Sp rsm l, Norsk Misjonstidende 124, no. 13 (n.d.): 5.
[9] The main points of the debate are referred in Oeyvind Eide, Politikk, misjon og menneskerettigheter i Etiopia, in Misjon og kultur: festskrift til Jan-Martin Berentsen, ed. Thor Stranden s (Stavanger: Misjonsh gskolens forl, 2006), https://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2013090408004.
[10] The terror and cruelty of the time are unparalleled in Ethiopian history. Estimates of the numbers killed wary. Andargachew Tiruneh gives a careful number of 1500. Other sources give higher numbers. The Ethiopian Revolution, 1974-1987: A Transformation from an Aristocratic to a Totalitarian Autocracy, LSE Monographs in International Studies (Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 211.
[11] For an overview of the larger political framework, see Michael E. Latham, The Cold War in the Third World, 1963 1975, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, ed. Odd Arne Westad and Melvyn P. Leffler, vol. 2 (Cambridge: University Press, 2010), 258 80, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521837200.014; The shift of political alliances in Ethiopia during the Cold War is analyzed in detail by Edmond J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People s Republic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 191 212.
[12] Vinskei, Situasjonen I Etiopia i dag, 6. desember 1976.
[13] Peter Cotterell interview, 3 May 1990; Kay Bascom interview 12 March 1995; cfr. Eide, 169.
[14] Oswald Hindenes, rsmelding fra Etiopia , NLM rbok (1978):78.
[15] The number of Western missionaries working
in the EECMY was reduced from approximately 390 to 90.
[16] As the Red Army advanced in China, most of the missionaries of the NMS were evacuated, but some remained. This created turmoil in the mission. Cfr. E. Eggen, Kina, in T. J rgensen, ed., I tro og tjeneste, Det Norske Misjonsselskap 1842-1992 (Stavanger, 1992).
[17] Cf. Kjosavik, TD Etiopia, in T. J rgensen, ed., (1992), I tro og tjeneste: Det norske misjonsselskap 1842-1992 (Stavanger, Norway: Misjonsh gskolen, 1992), 140-146; Eide op. cit., 141.
[18] A. Tergel, Human Rights in Cultural and Religious
Traditions (Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala : S. Academiae Ubsaliensis, 1998),
gives a broad presentation of the churches handling of issues related to human
rights. In addition to the three areas mentioned here he also discusses
ecological rights.
[19] Cfr. Eide, 29, 63, 82.
[20] D. Donham and W. James , The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 45.
[21] L. Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1997), 1-8.
[22] Eide, op.cit. 96.
[23] Gudina Tumsa, Witness and Discipleship: The Essential
Writings of Gudina Tumsa (Addis
Ababa: Gudina Tumsa Foundation, 2003), 131.
[24] The full text of the letter is
published in Eide, op.cit.263-268. For
an analysis of the letter cfr. Eide, 68-70.
[25] Four seminars on Christianity and
socialism were conducted at Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary in 1975-76.
[26] The full text of the pastoral letter
is published in Eide, 269-70.
[27] Patriarch Tewoflos had been
arrested and was killed 27 July 1979, the night before Gudina Tumsa was killed.
Hadji Mohammed Sani Habib, a leading Muslim, was forced into submission when
the government killed his son and threatened to kill his second son. Cfr. Eide,
op.cit., 113, 127-8, 164-5, 175-6.
[28] Archbishop Sundby, Swedish
Ecumenical Council to Ethiopian Government, Uppsala/Stockholm, 18 January 1979.
[29] M. Blair, Christians in
Ethiopia: A Background Paper on Recent Events, 19 February 1979, unpublished, Lutheran
World Information, 22 March 1979.
[30] Getahun Ijigu, Ambassador
Extraordinary to Archbishop Sundby, 24 January 1979.
[31] Egil Grandhagen, Misjon og politikk, Utsyn, 8 Februery 1981.
[32] The mission secretary of the BM,
Gunnar Hasselblatt, published a number of articles mainly in German newspapers
1982-86, cfr. Eide, 209-10.
[33] The debate and the documents are
presented in Eide, 211-12.
[34] The public debate in Norway is presented in Eide, 213-4. Cfr. Austad, Kirkens grunn: Analyse av en kirkelig bekjennelse fra okkupasjonstiden 1940-45 (Oslo, 1977).
[35] The general.secretary.of LWF, Carl
H. Mau, called upon all its member churches to demonstrate solidarity with the
Mekane Yesus Church in any way they deemed appropriate (Eide, 214).
[36] Cf. J. Launhardt, Uns erschrecken die Trommeln nicht mehr:
Stadtrandgemeinde in Addis Abeba (Erlangen, Germany: Evangelishe Mission
Erlangen), 212.
[37] For this paragraph, cf. Eide, 235-48.