Why do I want him to "prove" he's a rasta?
For the same reasons StJB did, over a year ago.
If he can't answer basic questions, or debate theology he has no right to call himself a Rasta
StJB said:
So tell us, elijah. In what way do you have links to Africa--or more accurately--Ethiopia/Eritrea? Do you come from there? Does any of your family come from there? If so, do you hope to return to your motherland? If you can't answer any of these questions then you have no right to claim Rastafarianism as your religion.
Sorry, but smoking pot, having dreadlocks, & knowing all the words to the Bob Marley songs does not qualify.
and:
This guy keeps repeating the same shit over & over. No matter how much respect we show for the Rastafarian religion, he will keep on doing the broken record thing.
He seems to me like a bored white fella with a soap box & a thesaurus.
Elija: you never answered my earlier questions, so shall I take that as a no?
Rastafarianism, unlike Judaism, Christianity, and the extreme majority of other religions, was founded because of oppression (yeah the Jews were oppressed, but their religion existed before their oppression).
Unless you either know that oppression or you have some relation to it, then how dare you behave like such a patronising little prick toward those people who've fought for their human rights and thus--unlike you--have the right to call themselves Rastafarians?
Like I said--smoking pot, having dreadlocks, & knowing all the words to the Bob Marley songs doth not a Rastafarian make.
Bet you don't even know what the Red, Green, & Gold represents.
And he keeps evading it.
I note that his latest (and only, as far as I can see) reference to anything of Rasta "theology" is him calling us Babylonians.
And only after I referenced it first.
If he'd walked in here and said "I'm not a Rasta, but I take umbrage at your use of the word", he'd actually have a bit more of my respect, than a clown who CLAIMS to be a Rasta (or an Xtian, or a Muslim, or a Zorostrian), yet won't (or can't) actually be pinned down to finer points to the religion he purports to be representing.
Oh, and Ed to add: and also cos he pissed me off going back in and editing his posts AFTER I responded to him, and that makes me feel like poking the penguin a little bit
)
Give us this day our daily taste. Restore to us soups that spoons will not sink in and sauces which are never the same twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to blot it with Give us pasta with a hundred fillings.
Robert Farrar Capon