lifestyle for luxury.54
It seems that these two respondents did not expect very much from church leaders and were seeking to understand their own situation in life, that prostitution was their means of survival, not a choice made out of greed. This runs counter to the pervasive
Ethiopian view of prostitution that women engage in prostitution for the purpose of procuring luxury items in life, and not for survival.
53 Transcript of Crippled Woman Healed on the Sabbath Pt. I, Flamingo Women, 26/3/2016, Addis
Ababa, 4.
Woman 2 desired for church leaders to understand that her engagement with prostitution was for survival. In addition, Woman 1 suggested that her hope lay in God and not in what a religious leader could do for her. This suggestion may indicate that Woman 1 expected God, not those tasked with the leadership of the church, to deliver her from her current situation. She had hope in God for deliverance from her current circumstances and instead of blaming God for her life, which would be quite
understandable in light of her situation, she said that she could only have expectations of God. Expectations and hope in God are markers of faith and could indicate this woman’s perception that He was the only one who can deliver her from her situation. As the discussion continued, the women were asked:
Translator: If you go [to the church] and ask for help, will they help you? Woman 1: We are not sure. But if we are prepared to listen to them and
also prepared to change our lifestyle, why not? Currently we are in adultery and we do know that we live in sin.55
Woman 1 expressed her uncertainty whether church leaders would provide assistance to her and she then told that she thought listening to church leaders and changing her lifestyle could have initiated her getting help. It is interesting to note that this woman did not categorically reject the idea of church leaders providing her with help, but rather outlined a program of actions that could incline church leaders toward her favourably, as conveyed through her rhetorical question: ‘why not?’ She noted her understanding that as an adulterer living in sin she was excluded from being helped. If she were to listen to the advice of church leaders, and if she were prepared to leave prostitution,
then, she believed, she could have been helped. Discussion: Church Leaders Compared to Jesus
The women articulated very few expectations of church leaders, primarily based on their lived experiences of prostitution: they did not view church leaders as people who emulated the principles and actions of Jesus. A sense of rejection was reiterated by the women when it came to their interactions with church leaders.
This experience of rejection was corroborated by Deacon EK from his leadership experiences within the EOTC. He says that when prostitution was addressed in a sermon, it often came in the form of criticism toward those engaged in prostitution and not of the actual institution of prostitution:
Preaching criticizes the prostitute. Only they [the priests] tell them their problem. I don’t want anyone to tell me about my problem but I want the
139
churches to come up with a potential solution which can help me to escape this life. But the problem is that the priest’s analyse their sin; prostitute sin. They never talk about the solution. So you tell me my problem, you can tell me my sickness, but you have to prescribe medicine.’56
Based on Deacon EK’s analysis, it seems that, in relation to prostitution, analysis and diagnosis of the problem is on offer more often than help. Unfortunately, this one-sided discussion on the causes of the sickness is not bringing healing to the sick. ‘We believe that the church is not a court. The church is a clinic.’57
Following this point raised by Deacon EK, I asked: ‘who is the church for then:?’,58
According to our theology and church teaching, church is for sick people. Because our church is a clinic, not a court. But people think that the church is only for heathy people which is not true. So like we have to teach our theology when even for people and I even – people’s attitude toward prostitute should be changed, right? These prostitutes are excluded even from the social life, not only from their spiritual life. They don’t have relationships with their neighbours…because they are excluded. People don’t want to have any conversation with them. I can say that they are hated people, or outcast people.59
In Chapter Five, the theme of rejection by human beings was explored as one of the possible ways in which the women in this research project made sense of humanity. Deacon EK highlighted that the church was for the ‘sick’ (those implicated as sinners in a multitude of ways), and that it should operate as a place that cares for the ill. Deacon EK said that the church should not act like a court but rather:
The church is a hospital. So you don’t need to be healthy to come to a hospital. You have to be sick to come to a church. That is the purpose of the church.’60
The differences between the official teaching and traditional practices of the EOTC are prominent once again and indicate the divide between what the church says it should be and how it is actually experienced, especially by people on the margins of the church such as women engaged in prostitution.
56 Transcript Deacon EK, 5/10/2016, Addis Ababa, 14. 57
Ibid., 3.
58 Ibid., 8. 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid., 4.
The theme of rejection by human beings identified by the Flamingo Women in Chapter Five was corroborated by Deacon EK and highlights a discrepancy between the teaching and practice of the EOTC with reference to women affected by prostitution.
Message to Church Leaders: ‘Help us out of this life…’
With respect to the theme that the women perceived the rich receiving preferential treatment by church leaders, the women were asked what they would want church leaders to know about them.
Translator: What do you want them [church leaders] to understand about
you?