Reno Omokri
Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has shared an eyeopener with
Christians by revealing that closing eyes while praying is not biblical.
He said he got the information after visiting Ethiopia and attended an Orthodox Church where he joined them in prayer.
According to him, he was approached by a priest who proved to him that the act is not scriptural.
He wrote: “I am in Ethiopia, where I went to an Ethiopian
Orthodox Church. The priest asked the congregation to pray and I closed
my eyes to pray.
The priest came to me and asked in Amharic ‘why are you closing
your eyes’. I said ‘because we are praying’. He said ‘where do you see
that in Scripture’. I was speechless. Ethiopians are the oldest
Christians in the world, bar none.
They became Christians a year after Christ’s death (Acts 8:38).
Jews and Ethiopian Christians do not close their eyes to pray. The
practice is a European tradition, originating from the practice of
making petitions to kings, of which protocol demanded that your eyes be
closed. So many traditions we think are Scriptural, are not!”