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Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church
Drink the Kool-Aid Cults |
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But you WANT to stay! |
Cults of personality |
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a slight complete misnomer. It is not Ethiopian, it is not Coptic (which is a native Egyptian form of Christianity that split off from Rome before the Eastern Orthodox Church did), it has nothing to do with Zion, and probably isn't a church. Instead it is a "Christian" spin-off of the Rastafari movement. Founded in Florida in 1975 by Thomas Reiley (aka Brother Louv) the church presented the idea that the eucharist wasn't wafer and wine, but was instead marijuana. This meant that they "needed" to import pounds of high grade cannabis from Jamaica, which the Feds intercepted. They have since sought the same protection that some Native Americans have, which allows them to use Peyote in religious rituals.