War on Christianity

City Safari: The War On Christianity

The latest score from the Coliseum: Lions 10, Christians 0.
Wed, Aug 19, 2020
By Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor

A friend of mine, a Russian Orthodox priest, believes that there’s a war on Christianity being waged in the United States. This war is not only happening in the United States but it is happening internationally.

A quick Google check on the topic will reveal many news sites devoted to reports of increased hostility towards Christianity, especially in the United States. These reports include calls for the destruction of religious statues, most notably the destruction and attempted destruction of statues of Junipero Serra, the Spanish missionary that Philadelphia essayist Agnes Repplier described as "Spain’s gift to America,” a gift that was altogether one "of disinterested benevolence.”

A parallel attack on religious statues occurred when one U.S. Congresswoman (she will remain nameless) openly condemned Catholic saint, Fr. Damien of the Hawaiian Island of Molakai who devoted a decade of his life to the care of lepers and then contracted leprosy himself, by saying that Fr. Damien’s statue in the U.S. Capitol was a part of "white supremacist culture.” In a Tweet on August 4, the Congresswoman softened her words when she said,

"At no point did I say Fr. Damien was a bad figure - in fact, I explicitly stated that my observations weren’t about litigating his or any individual statue. It’s about the fact that a huge supermajority of statues in the Capitol are white men. Barely any women or BIPOC. "

The only acceptable form of Christianity being promoted today is a milquetoast Christianity that does not challenge the mores and beliefs of the progressive secular culture but seeks to blend in with it so as not to cause offense. This is the Christianity of Benedictine nuns like social activist Joan Chittster of Erie, Pennsylvania, and scores of others who see Christianity as a kind of United Nations of the soul where the latest social justice cause must become Christianity’s latest cause regardless of out of date scriptural warnings or prohibitions. This new form of Christianity is penetrating every Church and denomination, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy included.

Covid-19 has also had an effect on the question of religious liberty.

International Religion Freedom (IRF) watchdogs agree that authoritarianregimes around the world have already "shown a knock for taking advantage of the covid-19 crisis and will continue to do so under the guise of public health measures.

In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has worked overtime in tearing down Christian crosses. The CCP has also forced Muslims to work factory jobs made vacant by covid-19.

Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department sided with a Baptist church in Greenville, North Carolina when the city of Greenville attempted to prevent the church from holding drive-in church services even though the outdoor services complied with social distancing guidelines. The city threatened to hand out $500.00 citations to everyone attending the drive-in services. Here we have a clear cut case of a city targeting religious conduct but thanks to the U.S. Justice Department’s swift action the city of Greenville backtracked. Not only will the fines not be collected but the U.S. Department of Justice has ensured that houses of worship "not be targeted by state or local governments for special restrictions caused by the virus.”

Reuters also reported that 9,488 churches and church buildings were attacked in 2019.

Totalitarian governments tend to view Christianity as a threat to power and to the majority cultural faith.

Lela Gilbert, Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom, writes that in India Christian churches are regularly attacked by the Hindu national movement, and that in Pakistan as of May 2019, 200 Christians were executed on charges of "insulting Islam of Mohammad.” China instituted new legislation in late 2019 stating that "religious organizations must adhere to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The proposition that Christians are persecuted in the US often raises eyebrows and comments like, "You can’t be serious!” The mere thought of such a thing suggests the tin foil hats of conspiracy theories. Even among Christians there’s a disparity of opinion when it comes to the word ‘persecution.’ "Persecution’ is viewed as burning churches, arresting clergy and forbidding church services whereas the beginning stages of persecution are often so subtle that they may not be noticed by everyone.

My Russian priest friend reminded me that just ten short years ago most television news panels included a member of the clergy. This is hardly the case today when the opinion of clergy doesn’t seem to matter.

That there are deep divisions within Christianity today is not mere conjecture. The American Catholic Church of 2020 is not the American Catholic Church of 1955.

In June 2020 Christianity Todayconducted a poll among Catholics to find out where Catholics stood when it came to the question persecution of Christians. The poll asked Catholics to list what they thought were the most pressing issues facing the Church today. The results were surprising. The most pressing issue for Catholics was human trafficking, followed by poverty, climate change, and the refugee crisis. The persecution of Christians came in last, obviously not much of a concern except for tin foil conspiracy theory believers.

The refugee crisis response on the questionnaire struck me as a perfect example of how Churches are drinking the ‘United Nations Church of the mind” Kool Aid.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference has issued statement after statement condemning current US policy on the deportation of illegal aliens, supporting sanctuary cities and condemnations of the infamous southern wall.

But over the decades U.S. Catholic bishops have raked in billions of dollars from the US Government to fund Catholic based migrant and refugee services. Does money from the government comes with a stipulation? You do what the government tells you to do or the money will be taken away. I am also reminded of how millions of dollars were taken out of the 2019 annual Catholic Peter’s Pence collection and handed over to George Soros’ funding agencies where they were given to illegal immigrant caravans as they headed towards the Mexican-USA border in 2019.

During the 2019 U.S. Catholic Bishops Annual Assembly, 69 out of 212 bishops voted against language identifying abortion as the pre-imminent issue facing the Church today. Some critics cite this vote as proof that the American Catholic Church is aligning itself with the Democratic Party.

When hearings were conducted for attorney Brian Buescher, a devout Catholic and Knights of Columbus member nominated for the US District Court for the District of Nebraska, Senators Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Kamela Harris, D-California, mercilessly drilled Buescher on his Knights of Columbus membership, asking him about possible conflicts of interest, as if the Knights of Columbus had a game plan similar to that of the KKK. The Knights of Columbus might have a politically incorrect name (it therefore deserves the Left’s wrath) but it is basically a weekend fun group responsible for BBQ’s and Friday night parish fish fries.

As for being a Christian on the campus of most universities, forget it. On most campuses Christians are regarded as hateful and bigoted and to be a Christian just isn’t cool.

In that same Christianity Todayarticle, the most anti Christian attitudes, or examples of Christianphobia, were found among white educated wealthy males who identify as politically progressive and irreligious.

George Yancey, a writer for Belief.net, addressed the question of Christian persecution in the US.

"By a clinical definition of persecution, yes, Christians are persecuted in the US,” he wrote. "But I discourage Churches in the US from saying that are persecuted since what we face today isn’t what most people envision when they think of persecution.”

Yancey goes on to say that while there are no beheadings in the USA it is still a growing problem. He points out that it’s traditional Christians who face growing intolerance, law suits, jobs lost and public disdain.

The milquetoast Christians and Churches who parallel their beliefs with the ever changing sliding scales of the beliefs of secular world, are pretty much home free.

As my Philadelphia Russian priest friend commented, "They want Christianity to be a nice little charming thing you do at Christmas or Easter…but something never to taken too seriously.”

Flattening the Curve

City Safari: Flattening The Curve…Or Is It Politics?

Thom Nickels
Fri, Aug 14, 2020
By Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor

The institution of overkill-corona-virus-lockdowns has now become the favorite sport of fear-mongering politicians.

But revisiting the fear and panic of March 2020 is not an option for intelligent people. As of this writing, there are still Philadelphians quarantining themselves as if the city were stuck in a perpetual March 2020 time warp. I know of men still fearful of going out and getting a haircut, couples who won’t socialize or dine outdoors (even with masks), and people fearful of using public transit. Fear like this seems excessive to me. Living your life in this state of mind (for months) truly has the makings of a nervous breakdown.

I’m reminded of two famous quotes about living in fear:
"Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” ―Rudyard Kipling.
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” ― Marcus Aurelius

Because of fear not much is happening in the lives of healthy people (without pre-existing conditions) afraid to take the slightest liberties because of the virus. Sadly, they remain stagnant like swamp gas, some of them waiting for a vaccine to be developed, although when a vaccine is available they will more than likely still find reasons to hibernate: "We have to wait a year before the effects of the vaccine becomes evident,” or, "The vaccine is only 75 percent effective so we won’t be out and about for another 10 months just to be safe.”

Just to be safe. And are you prepared to wait a lifetime just to be safe?

The corona virus doomsday predictions about what might happen this fall and winter are discouraging. These predictions are based on dramatic news reports that indicate a surge in "infections.” Some "experts” claim the virus will be here until the end of 2021, while others suggest that social distancing might be necessary for a decade, while the really dour prophets suggest that we will be wearing masks for the rest of our lives.

Whatever spike Philadelphia may go through this fall and winter, it’s important that Philadelphians watch that the city avoids following a totalitarian approach as set by the city of Melbourne, Australia. That totalitarian game plan might be called the Maoist offspring of George Orwell’s, 1984.

Australia, known as "The Lucky Country,” has had a relatively modest corona virus death toll even as that nation’s politicians are behaving as if this was not the case.

In the city of Melbourne, the death of 7 people within a 24-hour period has caused Melbourne’s Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, to put that city in the most draconian lockdown of recent memory. The six-week stage 4 lockdown, from August 2 to September 13, imposes a nightly curfew from 8 pm to 5 am (as if the virus operates within time perimeters). Melbourne residents are not permitted to leave their homes except to purchase food and essential items. Exceptions include health care workers and essential workers in other categories. You may leave home if there’s a risk of family violence (being cooped up in a small space with too many people, or even the "wrong” person, may generate animosity).

In Melbourne, when you go shopping you must do so alone (no couples allowed). You may only leave your house once a day to shop. You may exercise for one hour per day but you are not permitted to exercise further than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from your home. Masks are mandatory when leaving your home but if you are a jogger you are permitted to jog without a mask if you have an excuse like, "Masks aren’t practical while running.” People with medical conditions are exempt from wearing masks as are children under 12. Ironically, teachers are not required to wear masks in the classroom but students are. Teachers and students both must wear masks while traveling to and from schools.

Visitors are not permitted in your home. Residents are not permitted to visit another person’s home except for giving and receiving health care. According to The Guardian, you are permitted to leave your house if you are in "an intimate personal relationship” with another person but you must be mindful that your ‘bonk visit’ must end before 8 pm but if it does not (passion unhinged), you are required to spend the night with your special friend and leave sometime after 5 a.m. the next day.

Home improvement projects, such as remodeling, plumbing, painting, extensive gardening or putting up a fence, are all prohibited. Contractors may not visit your home for any reason, however if you have "an intimate personal relationship” with a contractor you might be able to sneak in a project appraisal or a night of work posing as love.

Melbourne’s home improvement project ban is reminiscent of Mayor Kenney’s recent announcement that Philadelphians stop their home improvement projects because these projects are adding to the city’s trash problem. Philadelphia’s mounting trash problem, by the way, has been blamed on "staffing problems” (an ambiguous phrase that warrants further explanation). Still, the added trash is to be expected when you are told that you can’t go anywhere, or when your covid-19 fears are so high that you won’t go anywhere even when you are told that you can. Rehabbing the bathroom or painting the dining room might help you from going insane if you’re the ultra-quarantine type.

In Melbourne, restaurants and cafes must offer take-out and delivery only. However, if you are a regular patron of that city’s brothels and strip clubs you will have to wait until after September 13. Melbourne’s churches and places of worship must limit participants to ten or under.

Fines for breaking any of these rules range from $200 to $5,000.

According to The Guardian, this stage 4 lockdown will cost Australia some nine billion dollars and put the unemployment rate up to 13 per cent.

Daily Mail.com UKreported that the Institute of Public Affairs has called the city's stage-four restrictions, "the greatest incursion into our basic liberties ever on Australian soil”. The stage 4 restrictions give the police unprecedented powers, "including the ability to seize private property, enter people's homes and stop them in the street.”

What caused the City of Melbourne to panic?

Those 7 deaths that occurred in the city within a 24-hour period, despite the fact that of the 7 that died, 3 of the deceased were over 70, 2 were in their 80s and 2 were well into their 90s. There is even some question as to whether some of the dead had pre-existing medical conditions.

Because the world is a global village, it’s almost certain that some United States mayors are studying Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown status for possible implantation in their cities this fall and winter.

It’s a well-known fact that politicians lie. In Melbourne’s case, the big lie surrounding the stage 4 lockdown can be traced to the reason given for the first lockdown in March 2020. That first lockdown was instituted "to flatten the curve,” a fair and benign judgment by most standards. Melbourne’s stage 4 draconian lockdown, however, has nothing to do with "flattening the curve,” but with politics.

As the controversial and indomitable Katie Hopkins explains in a You Tube video about the Melbourne lockdown: "Locking people down because someone dies…Is that good enough of an excuse?”

Melbourne, Hopkins believes, is nothing but a test case scenario. "This is a test case for how much control they can have over you and how much freedom they can take away. Remember, they told you initially that it was all about flattening the curve, now it is about stopping 90-year olds from dying of corona.”

Hopkins is asking if it is it reasonable to lock down an entire city and to give the police power to enter your homes (without a warrant) because of 7 elderly deaths.

Melbourne’s police have been quite adamant in their threats to come down hard on Stage 4 lawbreakers. Although the police frame their threats in saccharin sentiments such as, "We hate to do this, and we understand your pain, but we must proceed nevertheless,” they mean business and are prepared to break into private homes.

Hopkins believes that other cities will eventually follow Melbourne’s example if the citizens of Melbourne don’t stand up and say enough is enough. Many Melbourne residents, it is reported, are already in a state of anger and despair.

It is unlikely that Philadelphia would survive another long economic lockdown. Many businesses here have already left the city, and many restaurants like The Bards, Dmitri’s in Northern Liberties, Mama’s Vegetarian, Lalo in Old City, Poi Dog and V Street, have closed their doors forever,

Philadelphia must notgo the way of Melbourne, Australia.

City Safari: A Riverwards Chronicle

Wed, Aug 05, 2020

By Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor

"The city through its lack of services and inept leadership allowed this problem to get out of control.” -Hector Fuentes, owner of Four Sons Pizzeria in Kensingtonas reported in The Juniata News

In this virus plagued mask wearing time, the homeless continue to make their way through Philadelphia’s Riverwards neighborhoods, congregating at special locations like the Huntingdon Frankford Market El stations, the Somerset station and Kensington and Allegheny. Public panhandling with cardboard signs, including walking in traffic along many city streets has increased significantly in the past months.

This spike in homelessness and panhandling is ironic when you think of the general health precautions prevalent now in society. With every business requiring face masks, it’s not uncommon to see a homeless person sprawled out on the pavement a few feet from the front doors of these establishments. ‘Sprawled out’ as in lying on their backs, in some cases looking seriously ill or seriously drugged into a comatose state. Security guards prior to the coming of covid-19 were eager about keeping storefronts clear of loiterers but they now seem to have reached the point of sheer exhaustion. Are security guards tired of regulating so many legal channels simultaneously - policing the wearing of masks while policing the panhandling homeless?

Sheer exhaustion seems to be the state of many in the city now, as more and more of the homeless sit for hours atop trash and recycling containers outside my neighborhood WAWA and Rite Aid. Regular customers who would formerly register their objection to scenes such as this now just walk by with a shrug. Add to this the city’s trash collection crisis—the fact that the stench from uncollected trash covers entire blocks of some city neighborhoods—and you have another distressing development: the smells from uncollected trash are barely noticeable anymore.

This apathy, this exhaustion is in stark contrast to old images of business security guards who were once ready to pounce at the slightest behavioral deviation. These same guards are now more likely to stare indifferently into space as a drugged-out girl in dirty yogi pants stumbles into a WAWA sandwich counter, or wobbles aimlessly into other customers. Why pick on one poor girl when there are twenty more behind her and ten of her friends outside the store walking around aimlessly looking for money or drugs?

The "new” normal isn’t very normal, of course. That’s especially true when it comes to city restaurants.

I met a friend recently at the Riverwards’ Mercer Café. This friend wanted to take me to lunch because of an editing project I did for her. There was outside seating at the Mercer Café but because the sidewalk tables were in the sun (no umbrellas) during a heat wave, the prospect of getting a sun burn while dining seemed like a hellish thing. Our lunch date was slightly before August 1st,the day when Philadelphia restaurants and cafes were supposed to allow indoor dining. The mayor, of course, postponed the opening for indoor dining for another thirty days, offering to look at the situation at the end of August when I suspect he will postpone the opening yet again, and so on and so on.

We chatted with the owner of the Mercer Café and listened to her as she talked about the open restaurants and cafes just ten minutes away by car (outside the city limits) where indoor dining was allowed.

Meanwhile, a restaurant-bar near my home, Green Rock Tavern, has always been a popular burger and beer joint. When the city moved into its version of the green phase, Green Rock added outdoor seating so that now the sidewalk in front of the bar is packed with diners. The cliental has taken over the sidewalk making it impossible for neighbors to navigate past the bar. Worse, some bar patrons bring their dogs on leashes and allow their dogs to stretch out across the sidewalk as if the leash was a yellow Police ‘Do Not Cross’ tape.

Passersby have two choices: walk out into the street to avoid stepping over the dogs and the legs of bar patrons or to maintain their rights as ‘sidewalk pedestrians’ and walk straight through the tangle of humans and furry beasts. If you choose the latter, be prepared for a large dog to growl or jump up alongside you and be ready to see the annoyed looks of the diners who seem to think that you are infringing on their sidewalk rights.

Neighbors here have complained about Green Rock Tavern. The main complaints come from the owners of homes along Lehigh Avenue where Green Rock is located. One neighbor told me that drunken Green Rock weed and crack smoking revelers can sometimes be seen making love in their parked cars late at night as crack fumes "incense” the sidewalk.

My neighborhood, as you can see, is an interesting mix of old school Philly, gentrified Fishtown-style (pretentious) glitz, and a dash of oh-no-not-another-nail-salon predictability.

And then there’s Stock’s Bakery.

Stock’s Bakery is on the street where I live. It’s a quality German bakery famous for its pound cake. People flock here from the suburbs, from New Jersey, Delaware and elsewhere to store up on cakes, pies and cookies. Intense sweet bakery smells from Stock’s sometimes inundates my entire street so that it smells like a storybook lane in Hansel and Gretel. Whenever a holiday approaches, the lines outside Stock’s assume legendary proportions. Regular Stock’s customers tend to be big people: big thighs and hips. I have seen new employees there, male and female both, begin their tenure as thin, lean people but then over time morph into body bakery super sizes. Even the skinny guys who work in the back of the store soon mushroom into pound cake dough boys with 38 inch waists.

The quality of Stock’s measures up to the quality of a slice of pizza I had in pizza shop not far from the Frankford Market Huntingdon station.

I visited this pizza shop near the Huntingdon station during the height of the virus. It was a clean, large store that allowed only one person inside at a time to order take out. This particular shop offered large slices and the price was right so I decided to give it a try, very much aware that people who don’t know how to make pizza always make it with too much cheese. The cheese on these slices was nearly half an inch thick. If there was tomato sauce it was buried somewhere underneath all the layers of cheese. All you tasted was cheese. I might as well have been eating a block of Velveeta on doughy Dollar Store white Wonder bread. Most of the people buying slices and whole pies were people from the street or slick looking hustlers driving up in cars with black tinted windows. I ate the slice because I was hungry, but vowed I would never return to the place, having dubbed it "Addict’s pizza, or food for people with no taste. What can you expect from a pizza place so close to the Huntingdon El station?

A few months later I found myself in the same neighborhood, and experiencing another desire for pizza, I decided to give this place another slice. My experience this time was radically different. The woman-girl at the counter, I noticed, seemed to be of Irish descent, so as I ordered my slice, I felt quite comfortable chatting with her and telling her how I wished that this corner shop sold thin slice pizza with not too much cheese. At this her eyes perked up and she said, "Oh….I know just what you’re talking about,” never thinking that she’d actually concoct the kind of slice I had in mind. But that’s what she did. The woman behind the counter had worked a miracle.

That’s not the way things usually are near Kensington Avenue. The area is quite depressing and the food choices awful.

The Kensington area has taken a downturn since covid-19. There seem to be more strung out people on the streets, more panhandlers and more people stretched out on the sidewalk in various stages of disarray. Drug-induced mental illness seems to be at an all time high.

The area is so bad that The Juniata Newsreported on July 31, that Four Sons Pizzeria in Kensington is moving from its present location at 3145 Kensington Avenue to a new location at 186 W. Lehigh Avenue.

Four Sons Pizzeria is not the pizza parlor where I had that specially made gourmet slice, but Hector Fuentes, owner of Four Sons Pizzeria in Kensington, announced that he is moving his business from its location at 3145 Kensington Avenue.

The Juniata Newsreported Fuentes’ Facebook post about the dangerous environment on Kensington Avenue as the reason for making the move.
"So, after 50 years of serving the community in Kensington, 4 Son’s Pizzeria is moving. We could no longer stay in a place where the drug dealers, drug addicts and prostitutes outnumber hard working citizens. The city through its lack of services and inept leadership allowed this problem to get out of control. Business is great but allowing my family and coworkers as well as our loyal clientele to continue being in this dangerous environment is not only unjust but immoral on my part. To all our clients we will now be at 186 W. Lehigh Avenue starting August 1. We will still be offering the same great pizza and steaks that you have come to love and will continue delivering …”
"Fuentes,” the article continues, "Acknowledged problems with staffing employees because of the dangerous environment on Kensington Avenue.”

Fuentes apologized to customers for the delays in delivering food and blamed that on the unwillingness of people wanting to work for him because of all the drug infestation and crime in the area.