A couple hundred years ago, most well known socialistic political ideologies were totally against religion. They were against anything that has God in it. So, the people who were behind these ideologies used to persecute anyone who practiced any form of religion.

That is why in 1843, Karl Marx wrote, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Actually the full statement goes like this: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

So, they saw religion as nothing more than a drug to make people feel numb to the oppression of capitalism, imperialism, fascism, or anything else they wanted an escape from.

Then some crafty politicians came up with a better idea, saying, “Why don’t we produce and give this “opium” out so that they actually listen to no one but us? Let’s give our message to their preachers so the people pay attention to us.”

Ha! Very crafty idea, isn’t it?

Some people from London thought so, and they used it quite successfully to silence many good and religious people.

Now this same crafty tactic seems to penetrate the protestant churches in Ethiopia. While their name is “PROTESTANTS,” some of them have totally stopped protesting openly against evil.

What do they say?

They say, “We’re praying!”

This is the opium the politicians who penetrate the church want the church people to smoke, so that no one among them dares to speak up against evil.

But the truth is, Protestants are called Protestants because they always pray and “PROTEST” against evil according to the word of God. (Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, protested against the evil deeds of the Catholic church in 1517! That is where the term Protestant comes from!)

Today the definition of a good Christian is the one who is praying silently. If he prays and SPEAKS against evil, he is called a politician.

Martin Luther King Jr., an American Christian minister and activist, said, “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

Very true!

My friend, standing up against evil cannot be accomplished by prayer only, but also by being vocal about it.

John the Baptist didn’t just have “a special prayer program” to show that he was against Herod’s action (Herod taking his brother’s wife as his own wife – Mark 6).

Rather, this man of God, devoted to prayer, was vocal about this evil. He protested clearly against Herod’s wrongful marriage. That’s because there is no Protestantism in silence.

Protestantism in silence is just politics in church buildings – dead and useless!

Our prayer should include our vocal denunciation of evil. Until we do that, let’s forget calling ourselves “Protestants,” because we are not. We are just opium smokers.

Does this world and the people of this dark world want us to be Protestants or opium smokers?

That’s a no brainer!

Since our saltiness primarily demonstrates itself in our loud protest, the people of this dark world always want us to lose our saltiness (Matthew 5:13). They want us to silently pray and sing Gospel songs. If we do that, they will adore us. They want to attend/watch our prayer meetings and will even gladly send us their money as a token of their love.

Tragic! Tragic! Tragic! ///