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 Msg  : #4151 [218]                                                             
 From : Carl E. Olsen                       1:2613/335      Tue 23 Aug 94 23:52 
 To   : All                                                                     
 Subj : Israel Zion Coptic 3                                                    

From: Carl_E._Olsen@commonlink.com (Carl E. Olsen)
Organization: Common Link Consulting & On-Line Service

Coptic testifies about his faith
By Lyn Hanson Jerde
  PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. -- In some churches, "giving testimony" means talking
about one's faith.
  That's what it meant Thursday when Michael Matteson took the witness stand
in Crawford County Circuit Court.
  Matteson, 47, told Judge Michael Kirchman of his faith journey -- which took
him from a Catholic school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to an Ethiopian Zion Coptic
Church confession in Jamaica.
  Along the way, he said, he tried being a Pentecostal "holy roller," a
Methodist, a Lutheran, a Hindu and a Buddhist.
  He also pursued "every kind of drug and pleasure."
  The turning point came in the spring of 1971, when a group of friends, whom
Matteson described as drug dealers, came back from Jamaica to Iowa City.
  They gave away possessions.  And some of the activities they used to enjoy
-- such as watching pornographic films or using drugs other than ganja,
including alcohol -- were now sinful.
  They taught Matteson that the name of Jesus should be pronounced "Jess-us,"
or "just us."  That's because the spirit of Jesus is in all people, he said,
not in the heavens looking down on people.
  To get in touch with the divine spirit inside oneself, Matteson said, God
gave people ganja.
  "People can't have the fullness of the truth without ganja," Matteson said.
"Without it, they're denying themselves the full insight they're entitled
to."
  "So you don't smoke ganja just to get high?" asked Crawford County District
Attorney Timothy Baxter.
  "In my mind," Matteson replied, "to get high is to be one with God.  For
that purpose, I smoke ganja at all times.  But to use it in a drunken and
careless manner is wrong."
  Not long after Matteson embraced the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church faith, he
broke away from it and accepted the Israel Zion Coptic faith, over doctrinal
differences.
  Matteson said Israel Zion Coptics believe spiritual things, especially
ganja, should never be bought or sold.
  For Matteson, that belief is rooted in an experience he had when his mother
died.  Matteson, then 11, asked a priest to say a Mass for her.  The priest
said he would -- for $25.
  Other "mainstream" religions he tried were not much different, he said.
  "Most of the faiths I went to were more interested in the collection plate,
the style of the building or dress of the people in the congregation."
  Baxter asked Matteson if he would be offended if someone called the Israel
Zion Coptic faith a "cult."
  Probably, Matteson said, if he or she defined a cult as a group brainwashed
by a charismatic leader.
  The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Friday, May 7, 1993, Page 3A.

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