TikTok video falsely claims Ethiopian Orthodox Church forbids songs praising Jesus

A TikTok video that resurfaced on Facebook recently claimed in a headline that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church had banned songs about Jesus. The clip used footage of former church singer Tizitaw Samuel responding to criticism about a popular gospel song. The claim, however, is false; while Tizitaw spoke about content considered non-Orthodox by members of the church, he did not say songs about Jesus were banned. The Orthodox church told AFP Fact Check that worship of Jesus remains a foundation of their faith. 

A Facebook post published in Amharic on February 16, 2024 reads: “A call has been made to singer Mirtnesh. Don'’t be afraid of anyone. Come to Jesus.” 

Mirtnesh Tilahun is a popular gospel singer in the Orthodox church. 

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 Screenshot of the false post, taken on February 22, 2024 

Shared more than 300 times and with more than 179,000 views, the post includes a TikTok video with an Amharic headline that translates to: “In the Orthodox church, singing in the name of Jesus is a sin.”

The TikTok account (archived here) that published the video regularly shares Christian content and has more than 138,000 followers. The video, published on December 30, 2021, has more than 370,000 views. 

The footage shows Tizitaw Samuel (archived here), a former member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and a popular singer, talking to the camera.

Tizitaw left the Orthodox church in 2018 to become a Protestant pastor and preaches on various digital media platforms. 

Orthodox Christians account (archived here) for about 43 percent of the population in Ethiopia, where religious tension is increasing. 

In the clip, Tizitaw talks about the criticism of a song by Mirtnesh. 

The song (archived here) was released in December 2021 and has been viewed more than five million times. 

Tizitaw recites the following lines from the song: “Praise you my Lord for what I have. Praise be to you for all that I have! I have nothing to claim; everything is yours.” 

The footage switches to another renowned singer in the Orthodox church named Fantu, who criticises the lyrics, saying “I was shocked when I heard the song that says ‘praise you…or glory to you’.”

The clip then resumes with Tizitaw, who responds to Fantu.

“There are those who claim that a song should always contain a verse praising the Virgin Mary to be an Orthodox song. This is their mindset; a singer has to praise the holy saints such as Michael and Gabriel only for the song to be an Orthodox song according to them.” 

However, the claim that the Orthodox church has banned songs about Jesus is false. 

Tizitaw’s video 

AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage. 

We found a longer version of the TikTok video (archived here) published on Tizitaw’s YouTube channel on October 19, 2022.

He discusses a variety of issues and comments on criticism surrounding Mirtnesh’s song.  

More than an hour long, the original video is captioned “#Crisis in Finote Tsidik #Mirtnesh’s song # why Fantu Wolde was offended.”  

Finote Tsidik is a religious association affiliated to the Orthodox church. Tizitaw spends the first 20 minutes talking about it.

Then he tackles the topic of Mirtnesh and her song, saying that “a certain ‘conservative’ group belonging to the Orthodox Church has repeatedly considered songs about Jesus Christ as non-Orthodox content”. 

He also responds to Fantu’s criticism. 

AFP Fact Check established that the footage in the TikTok clip is a compilation of different segments from the original YouTube video. 

The first minute of the TikTok video is lifted from the original video between 30’10” to 31’04” and then from 22’45” to 23’50”.

Fantu’s comments in the false video were found in the original footage at 25’15” to 25’24”. Tizitaw’s final statement in the falsely captioned footage is also taken from the original video from 28’42” to 29’02”. 

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Screenshots of the original video showing Fantu (left) and the false video (right), taken on February 26, 2024 

However, in both the original video and the TikTok clip, Tizitaw does not accuse the Orthodox church of banning songs about Jesus.

Furthermore, there is no text overlay in the original video claiming so.

No ban 

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the claim is unfounded. 

“The information is totally false and there is no change of worship in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church,” spokesperson Akalewold Tessema said in an email. 

“The church itself is established on a foundation of belief that says ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God’,” he added. 

Moreover, AFP Fact Check found songs online about Jesus that were sung by members of the Orthodox church here (archived here) and here  (archived here). 

Mirtnesh also released (archived here) a song titled “Jesus” in May 2020 which has been viewed more than 56,000 times on YouTube.