The article has shamelessly used fallacious arguments to prove disdainful and weird positions. According to Professor Howard Kahane “A fallacious argument is simply an argument that is not cogent, which means an argument that either (1) is not valid; (2) contains an unwarranted premise; or (3) ignores known or available relevant information” (Logic and Philosophy, fourth Edition, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont CA 1982 p.206).

The following critique illustrates how the editorial attempts to prove its erroneous points by using invalid inferences, unwarranted premises, and suppressed evidences.

The editorial commences with the following denigrating statement: “It is a pity to observe that Ethiopia is lagging far behind the world in everything – more importantly in the celebration of Christian festivals”.

The author has used the universal quantifier “everything” to probably emphasize his/her points. However, using the universal quantifier “everything” defeats the purpose and makes the statement invalid. Here the author has ignored the fact that we are at the vanguard of the world (for example) in long distance athletics. If this is so then we are not “far behind the world in everything”. As to the celebration of Christian festivals our Timket, Demera, and Buhe celebrations have no parallel in their exquisiteness and grandeur anywhere in Christendom. Ask any foreigner who has observed us celebrating our religious festival. They will tell you that they are awed, enchanted, captivated! That is the feedback that we always get when we invite guests to our Orthodox festivals here in Winnipeg, Canada.

The article blatantly continued: “Perhaps in a country where the antediluvian calendar itself is nearly eight years behind that used by the rest of the world this may not be very surprising.” (Emphasis added) Once again in order to put down Ethiopia known facts were ignored. Does the rest of the world include the two most populous nations on the planet who use their own calendar - China with an estimated population (for July 2003) of 1,286,975,468? and India with her estimated population (for July 2003) of 1,049,700,118? Add to this the countries that use the Islamic calendar, Iran and so on.

Another point, if according the editorial our calendar, which is 8 years behind the Gregorian is “antediluvian”, then what about the Indian national calendar which has the present year as 1925 – and is thus 79 years behind? How about the Islamic calendar which considers the year now to be 1424 – and is therefore 580 years behind? What about the Persian calendar, which has the year as 1382 now and is 622 years behind?

Are these even worse than antediluvian?? By the way the Jewish calendar is now in the year 5764 so they are 3760 years ahead! Is it super modern? See the argument is ridiculous to the point of being harebrained. The author fittingly recognized that December 25 was not the actual Date of Birth for Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that it was adopted from a pagan festival. If this is so then we presume that a follower of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church should be full of pride of his Church. Surprisingly the author has chosen to humiliate the EOTC and jab at the esteem and pride of her parish.

The author claims that: “To many modern-minded Ethiopians it seems that this country cannot just break away from its traditional psychological state of isolation from the rest of Christendom.”

We wonder how the author defines the term modern-minded. Gone are the days when bashing the Holy Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is considered as a mark of modernity. Gone are the days when most of those who have attended the University are estranged from the Holy Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The parish of the Holy Ethiopian Orthodox Church now includes some of the most advanced, highly skilled and educated members of our society. I reside in Canada and personally know professionals such as computer scientists, engineers, people holding PhDs in Economics, Physics, Medicine and so on who are passionate followers of the Holy Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Sure we do worship the Lord Our God as our fathers, mothers and generations of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians have done in the past. Yes we do wear our traditional attire when we go to church. Even the men put on their netelas while attending church services. Indeed we observe the fasting regimen of our church. But this does not make us not modern minded. For your information our vibrant youth who are in their late teens or early twenties attending universities are among the best in their league. We have no words to express their devotion to the Holy Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Most importantly they walk their talk and they are proud of their heritage…they will roll with laughter if we call them “Faras”. And for your information we are successfully raising our children born here in this spirit.

The blasphemous nature of the article comes to light by the frivolous statement:“… the truth remains that Christianity has been everywhere grafting itself on a pagan stock since its birth.” May the Lord have Mercy on you for daring to write such a statement! The Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ founded on his Sacred Blood and the Martyrdom of his disciples has no need to graft itself to pagan stock!!

Any Orthodox Christian who knows her religion seriously will understand that the author is clueless on matters pertaining to the faith or at most has cursory information on the religion. As the Amharic saying goes “Ke Metemtem Memar Yikdem” – so we recommend to please get the education before giving us the sermons!

To see that the article is nauseatingly hollow and full of contradictions, please read the following. “We can celebrate Christmas on December 25 with the rest of Christendom in accordance with our own tradition – that is without adulterating it with certain practices of extraneous pagan origin.” (Emphasis added) Does this not contradict the previous assertion that Christianity “has been grafting itself on a pagan stock since its birth”?

The mendacity continues: “Christmas is celebrated on January 6 by a minority of even Orthodox Christians – by Egyptian Copts, Armenian Christians and by followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.” (Emphasis added) Just clicking on the following links will show that the assertion is absolutely bogus.