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United Nations of the soul where the latest social justice cause must become Christianity’s latest cause regardless of out of date scriptural warnings or prohibitions.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.”