Why do Rastafarians hate whites and Catholics?

I just said thats a reason that Rastas hate it. I was baptized Catholic.

 

That is not only a petty reason, but a moronic one as well. I mean who hates a whole church becasue of one of many titles the pope has?

 

Here's some more info i've just found at http://www.bobmarley.com/life/jamaicanpolitics/confrontation/

It talks about bob marley rasta and the pope, also the connection between Freemasons and Rasta.

 

i would think, in reference to the first question, that it's because a few people in every group think they've found the right to hate someone who just pisses them off. there's always a few bad apples.

 

Greetings all. Jozak, you are not a good apologist for your faith. Calling people morons, etc. for responding to the questions you asked borders on belligerence, and does not do justice to the ideas that you are trying to defend. This goes the same for other supposed "rasses" etc. who have posted here.
So let's get back to the original question: why do rastas hate whites and Catholics?

First of all you sould probably look back to the origins of Rastafari in Jamaica, etc. where a severely racist political, economic, and religious (albeit Anglican) system were in place during the time when much Rasta ideology was being formed. Marcus Garvey (who no one has even mentioned yet!), the "forerunner" of Rasta ideology, in his debates with W.E.B Du Bois over the role of Africans in the diaspora, clearly laid the groundwork for "racial" (not racist) trends or tendencies within Rastafari.

Addressing the Catholic question, I have to say Pope Pius XI's blessing Mussolini's planes, which were loaded with the chemical and biological weapons that devestated Ethiopia, is the biggest reason for animosity. Most reasoning starts there. On top of that you have the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which separated the Ethiopian/Coptic/Oriental Orthodox Churches from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Rite churches, etc. I could go on and on about the opulence of the church, the live of fear that the pope lives, and the other countless abuses through the ages of Peter's See.
I could go on forever about these things, so i will follow up if anyone has any questions.

Blessings

 

i haven't heard anything about their hating anglicans, which is basically the same as catholicism, minus the pope. how come they don't bring that up much, considering that slave holders in the islands were brits?

 

good question...they do voice there criticism of the Anglican church, but not as often as they do for the pope. I think that it is the person/position of the pope, in the city of ROME (see revelations), that bothers them more than their rituals, etc. Also, I don't know if this makes much of a difference, but Haile Selassie had an excellent relationship with Queen Elizabeth, staying with her on more than one occassion in England; she visited him and stayed in his palace for 40 days in Ethiopia. Some rumor that they had an affair, but others concider this a blasphemous rumor.

 

If you hate a religion becasue of the fact that we have a Supreme Bishop that was created bythe Apostole Peter, or because of some conspiracy theory on a Bob Marley website, that is moronic. The guy would not even address the points if you go back and look.

Okay, good explanation, as I said I am not an expert on Rasta, but I have seen many post on other sites and they come off as very racist.

Do you have a source for that? Also consider the fact that he was a dictator, it's not like the Pope could raise an army and throw him out of office.

The Orthoodx and Catholic Church did not split until 1054. All the Council of Chalcedon did, like many other councils of this time, was define the, "Orthodox Catholic Doctrine" of the Christian Church--there was no split, that did not happen for another 600 years.

Opulence? The Church has many priceless possessions, such as cathedrals and relics, but as to actual money, most of it goes back to fund churches, schools, clergy, charity and mission work.

The Church has done some corrupt things, I will admit that, it is not perfect, and certainly no clergyman is. Indeed, some Popes in the Medieval times were very, very corrupt, but the Church has corrected these abuses and the only thing that irritates me are the myths and ignorance about the Church.

 

I mentioned the schism at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 which split over the nature, or "physis", of Christ. The ORIENTAL ORTHODOX (NOT GREEK, RUSSIAN, the Byzantine Churches, etc. which separated in 1054) maintained that Christ's divine nature absolutely permeated his human nature. This position was declared heretical largely because of translating difficulties, and slight theological subtleties. There were extremists on both sides as well, tipping the debate. Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, condemed at the Council of Ephesus in 431, separated Christ's human and divine natures, and proclaimed that title of "Theotokos" (God-Bearer) for Mary, Jesus' human mother, was blasphemous. The Monophysites (one-nature), preferably called "Miaphysites" (one-united-nature), felt that the Nestorians created a intolerable schizophrenic Jesus. The council of chalcedon basically decided on a middle ground, keeping his human and divine natures distinct, yet somehow inseperable. This is a very simplistic explaination of the origins of the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

This debate still continues within the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches as they try to coax the Oriental Orthodox Churches back into the fold.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It was the second country in the world (before Rome, after Armenia) to declare Christianity as the official religion of State. Black Ethiopia has a liturgical language, Ge'ez, which dates back over 3000 years, a monarchy (ending with HIM) that arguably stretched back 2800 years, and was the only african country exempt from the Conference of Berlin (1871?) where European powers divided African territories and prohibited the sale of weapons and armaments to african peoples. It was believed by medieval christians that Ethiopia was the land of the fabled Prester John, and figured large into Portuguese ambitions for circling the horn. All of this and more for a black nation.

In order to keep the institutions of slavery based on race intact, Christians across the board, told African slaves that there home was a savage place, animist, without language or culture.

Black Christians started looking toward Ethiopia for strength based on the reasons that I gave above. They can be considered a "proto" rastafarian movement.

I agree that there is alot of ignorance concerning the Catholic Church and alot of animosity wrongly directed at Pope John Paul II. I believe that this Pope has done more perhaps than any of the Popes in the last 1500 years +/- to heal the rifts between Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other faiths. He has apologized where he believed the Church was in err, and has spoken out against evil in the world. He was a main player in the fall of the Soviet Union (via Solidarity in Poland), and has criticized the corrupt foriegn policy of the US and Israel.

Haile Selassie had cordial relations with the vatican following his return from excile in 1941.

 

Oh defenintly, I see what you are saying. I took a class called, "The Vision of Christianity" that talked about ALL of what you said about what were considered heresies, what councils did what, which church fathers had which, "schools of thought" etc. There was a ton of debate about the nature of Christ, and I would venture to say that about 50% of the course covered that material alone and the controversy around it. What the Church did basically was combine the Antiochain and the Alexandrain schools of thought and said: "You both are taking the extremes". "He was both, let's just leave it at that", as it says in the Nicence creed that most Christian denominations accept as truth.

I disagree with the Oriental Church's view that christ was not 100% man and God, to me it takes the whole point of the Crucifixion, birth, and everything else Christ did for us. That also includes Mary not being the Mother of God, as I beleive she is. What is your personal view about it, your school of thought you agree with?

 

No, they were the defenders of the title "Theotokos". It was the Nestorians who didn't believe she was the mother of God. The Oriental Orthodox Church also believes that he was 100% human. Like I said before there really is only a slight difference in terminology and emphasis. Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Church members can now recieve communion within each other's churches on certain occasions. I am not sure what the situation is with Rome.
I visited an Ethiopian Rite Catholic monk inside Vatican City where they have a college of Ethiopian Studies, library, etc. Most Ethiopian-Orienteal Rite Catholics (they have another name, i can't recall it) are Eritrean and where under heavy Italian colonial influence for almost 125 years.

On a similar note, I have never seen more Ethiopians in my life than in the city of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church gave the Ethiopian Orthodox faithful, without allegiance to the pope, a 16th century Church about a block away from San Pietro in Vincoli, the Saint Peter in Chains Basilica.

 

Christ was weed wrapped in a philly.

 

well in the end you look at the black mans skin and its thicker than whites. so who has been around the longest must have the thickest skin

 

dumb ass! i am white, i was baptised as catholic, and rastas have always loved me. i think youre racist and a religious persecuter. youre a lowly piece of shit for labeling people. and for assuming that others are filled with your ignorance and bigotry.

 

There is every reason to dislike Christianity anyway...

 

thank you! hit the nail on the head or however they say

 

Who are you talking to?

 

I think some people in here need to use the internet to their advantage!! Instead of fighting and the whole he said she said, I read this. Why dont you go out and search Rasta! You will never meet a Rasta that say I hate this color man. Rasta say I hate their thoughts and teachings. If you met a Rasta that says I hate whites, They are not Rasta. I am white and have dreadlocks. I have been excepted by Rastas for my dreads and one love more so than the white babylonian structure. Rasta only wants to bring down babylon and get rid of oppersion, not only for blacks but for all who have been oppressed. If you would like to recall, not only white men where selling slaves, it was the rival African tribes who were caputuring them and selling em. Also there were white people enslaved also! Rasta wants all this injustice brought down. What about the Jews and the Holocaust? The Christians being oppressed and persacuted in the biblical times? All these are points of one man holding down another. Rasta simply wants everyone to love everyone-ONE LOVE! I and I means we are all equal and one!

As far as the catholic church is concerned. Use to be the clergy was not allowed to get married, but as soon as all the child molestation came out, Well, now all of a sudden the chruch says its it ok???? They have a history of doing this. Most Organized religions today have lost the point, they change their veiws to keep up with times and better serve their own needs. The Bible is a man made document and anybody quoting it for religious perpuse is fighting a loosin battle! The Bible is very old and has been translated into many tongues, who knows how correct it is after all of this translation.

And lets not foget how many people go to church on Sunday after gettin drunk on saturday night and cheating on their wife(just an example). Many people believe I can live like this during the week as long as I go to church for an hour on Sunday and all is forgiven. Rasta lives his life the same everyday and rejoices in the blessing of Jah everyday. Rasta using everyday as a day of worship!

 

I think this is true to up to a point. Old school rasta was much more rooted in, yes, racist, ideology. This was something that Bob especially had a hard time with as he was mixed. I think that he more than anyone helped bring it to a wider racial audience, yet there is even some controversy over this. Many black rasses feel like he wouldn't have even become as popular as he did if he were fully "black".

If you want to quote His Majesty, then sight, but Ethiopia was/still is a very racist country as well. In fact, most Amhara/highlanders believe that they are white! The name for a dark skinned person is the same name for slave in Amharic.

What it comes down to is this: the fact that we are even reasoning about this topic shows that rasta is still trying very hard to shake off its racist roots. The seperatist/segregating policies of Garvey, in particular, have had the most harmful lasting influence. While there are probably authentic rasses that are racist, they probably just have not met the heights ones and ones!

 

How true that is. The old school elders are like that, but younger ones are not. I think that even the elders who feel that way are being true to the one love!

But I do hafta agree with you. Rasta started out as a black movement, but now I think it is more about equality across the board. Not only for blacks, but all who have been and are being oppressed. I think the movement has evolved!

And for anyone to say they are pure white or pure black is either living in denial or stupidity!