'Soft Atheism' Leads to Soft-Headed Christianity

THE DIFFERENT COLORS IN RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY EXPLAINED
from: Russia Between the Headlines

(24 May) Domes, church walls, bishop’s robes – all of these have different colors and they are not incidental.

The color of eternal life in Russian Orthodoxy, green, is also associated with the Holy Spirit. When the holiday of Pentecost (in Russian Orthodox tradition, the Holy Trinity holiday) is celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, priests wear green robes and the churches are decorated with green branches and leaves. Also, the Patriarch’s mantle is traditionally green.

Red is the color of fire – and symbolizes the burning bush, from which God spoke to Moses on Mount Horeb. So, red is also associated with God the Father. Red is also the color of Christ’s blood and is associated with Easter – the Resurrection of Christ. But also, the Bible says, the Romans dressed Christ in red robes before commencing the execution, to show that he was the King of the Judeans. So, red, being the royal color, is also attributed to the events of Christ’s execution and resurrection in general.

Blue symbolizes Heaven and the combination of blue and white are the colors of the Mother of God. Jesus Christ and the saints are often depicted in blue robes, as they are habitants of Heaven.

In the Old Testament, white is the color of God himself: “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.” White meant luminosity, a kinship with the divine light. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The many vivid colors in Orthodoxy are intended to engage our senses, along with the smell of incense, the sounds of the censor, the chanting and the singing. Too often in the West, the Christian faith is depicted as merely an intellectual exercise, but it should engage the whole person.

LUHANSK, DONBAS: "THE LAST MASS WAS IN APRIL 2020"
by Felix Corley: Forum 18 News Service

(3 June) Catholics in the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic have been denied a priest and the possibility to receive communion since April 2020, officials giving contradictory reasons for banning the return of Fr. Grzegorz Rapa. An Orthodox Church of Ukraine chapel has also been ordered closed, and its bishop denied entry. Among religious texts banned as "extremist" are John's Gospel in the Russian Synodal Translation and the Jehovah's Witness New World Bible. Officials refuse to explain why. Despite a Protestant worship ban, small meetings continue under threat of criminal prosecution.

The rulers of the unrecognised self-declared Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly refused applications by the local Roman Catholic community for their priest, Fr. Grzegorz Rapa, to be allowed to return to serve the Parish. Fr Rapa, a Polish citizen who has served in Luhansk since 1993, was last able to celebrate Mass there in February 2020. Fr Rapa left the region on 1 March 2020, intending to return for the remainder of his permitted three-month period. However, the border between the LPR and Ukrainian-controlled Ukraine was then closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The border did not reopen until November 2020, but the entity's rulers did not allow Fr Rapa to return claiming he did not have permanent residence – even though he has lived in Luhansk for 21 years before the LPR was itself proclaimed.

LPR officials have given Forum 18 contradictory explanations for the ban, either claiming that it is due to the coronavius, that there is no ban, or that he is banned as a "foreigner."

The last time Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated in the LPR was on 12 April 2020 by a Greek Catholic priest. During 2020 and 2021, Catholics in Luhansk and Stakhanov have gathered on Sundays for prayer services led by laypeople or for online Masses, including by Fr Rapa. However, this means that local Catholics are deprived of the opportunity to receive Communion – for Catholics an essential part of their faith. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: My wife and I are well-acquinted with the permitting of only three-month visas for foreigners in Russia, then refusing to issue visas altogether. Now the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic is behaving as if it were a part of Russia. How long before Russia officially annexes it?

MINISTER TKACHENKO COMMENTS ON THE SITUATION WITH THE RENAMING OF THE UOC-MP
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(8 June) Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko says that for him peace and religious harmony are more important than what can happen as a result of court decisions on the renaming of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

"As far as I know, the issue is in the courts. Even if I wanted to influence the court's decision, I shouldn't do it. For me, it is especially important when we conduct a dialogue with the heads of churches to maintain the tolerant situation that has developed today," Tkachenko said at a press conference on the results of his work as a minister in Kyiv on Tuesday, answering a question about the situation with the renaming of the UOC-MP.

The minister noted that any "dramatic movements" on this issue, as well as on the issue of language, can outrage society and cause waves of support or protests from one side or another. "Today it is important for me that the process of dialogue between churches is taking place. It is sometimes difficult, especially when it comes to the UOC, but we maintain calm and religious harmony. For me, this is more important than what can happen as a result of court decisions," Tkachenko said.

As reported, on December 20, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law obliging the UOC-MP to indicate the affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church in its name. On December 22, 2018, the then president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the relevant law. The document stipulates that a religious organization that is part of the structure of a religious organization with a center in the state that committed military aggression against Ukraine and temporarily occupied its territory must reflect in its name belonging to such a center outside the country. But the UOC-MP has contested this law in the courts. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The very name of the UOC-MP indicates its connection to the Moscow Patriarchate, which is firmly loyal to the Russian state. Yet the UOC-MP has appealed the above law, agruing that it only has a "spritual connection" to Moscow.

PEDIATRICIANS URGED TO AVOID CERTAIN TESTS FOR KIDS WITH AUTISM
from: Disability Scoop

(11 June) Pediatricians and families are being urged to think twice before going forward with a handful of clinical tests for kids with autism and other disabilities. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the tests have the potential to do more harm than good.

Specifically, the association for pediatricians across the nation says there is no need to test urine in children with autistic behaviors for metals and minerals or to analyze hair for “environmental toxins” in kids with behavioral or developmental disorders including autism.

The advice comes as part of a broader initiative called "Choosing Wisely" that promotes evidence-based health care that’s truly necessary and that is free of duplication and harm. The current recommendations related to children and environmental health were put together by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Environmental Health.

In addition to the suggestions related to those with autism and other developmental disorders, the pediatrics group said that "chelation challenge" urinary analyses should not be used for children with suspected lead poisoning and mold sensitivity testing should only be for kids with clear allergy or asthma symptoms. And, the recommendations indicate that in most cases pediatricians should not use measurements of environmental chemicals in blood or urine to make clinical decisions.

"Every day, we come into contact with chemicals that are in our food, air, water, soil, dust or the products we use. Not all of these are bad or cause for concern, and ultimately, it's stronger regulatory practices that are most important for minimizing our exposure to harmful chemicals," said Dr. Aparna Bole, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The reasoning of this article sounds very strange to me, as if they're using technical jargon to say: "We don't want to investigate this because we're afraid that we might uncover some connection between autism and environmental contaminants." Or it might be the social environment, drug use, etc. – we don't know, but it is worth making the effort to find out.

MONTENEGRIN GOVERNMENT'S ROW WITH SERBIAN CHURCH ERUPTS AGAIN
from: Balkan Insight

(31 May) The Serbian Orthodox Church and pro-Serbian Democratic Front party accused Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic of avoiding signing an agreement with the church, the largest religious body in the country.

Andrija Mandic, one of the leaders of the pro-Serbian Democratic Front, which is part of the country's ruling coalition, called on Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic on Monday to hold talks as a row between the government and the Serbian Orthodox Church flared up again. "This government and its prime minister didn’t fulfill promises given to the Serbian Orthodox Church or our expectations, and they don’t have our trust. We have to talk within the ruling majority," Mandic told media.

The government and the Serbian Orthodox Church failed to sign an agreement on May 28 about the church's position and rights in Montenegro, because Krivokapic called for it to be postponed to October 30, the anniversary of the day when the church's top bishop in Montenegro, Metropolitan Amfilohije, died from COVID-19 complications.

But on May 29, bishop Joanikije, who has since been elected as Amfilohije's replacement, called on the government to sign the agreement as soon as possible, saying that postponing to October is absurd. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Montenegro is a new state, formerly part of Yugoslavia. A large portion of its population remain loyal to the Serbian Orthodox Church but many Orthodox have moved over to the new Montenegrin Orthodox Church. We reported earlier that signs of an agreement between the churches had appeared, but now it has broken down.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH SUPPORTS BAN ON FOREIGNERS USING SURROGACY SERVICES
from: Interfax-Religion

(11 June) The Russian Orthodox Church has welcomed parliamentarians' initiative to ban foreigners from using the services of surrogate mothers in Russia, calling on the State Duma in its future convocation to support the bill.

"Such an initiative, aimed at saving children, cannot help but make us, Orthodox Christians, the entire family community, and citizens of Russia happy. We are sincerely thankful, and we fully support the authors, experts, the people who drafted this bill, all political and public figures who raised this issue, covered it in the media and on social networks, and who support the speedy introduction of a ban on taking children out of Russia under the guise of surrogate motherhood," priest Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of the patriarch's commission on family issues, said in a statement obtained by Interfax.

A bill on surrogate motherhood was submitted to the State Duma on Friday. The document provides that at least one of the future parents or a single woman using the surrogate program in the territory of Russia has to have Russian citizenship.

The head of the patriarch's commission called the new bill "a test for humanity" for Russian society and said its adoption will help stop "the disgraceful practice of selling children for export." The priest said he believes the deaths of children born to surrogate mothers and high-profile criminal cases have shown that surrogate motherhood in Russia has turned into "an immoral, inhumane, and sometimes bloody business, closely intertwined with trafficking in children." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Russian orphanages in the past had no qualms about putting up Russian babies for foreign adoption, claiming that they are fully normal when in fact it turns out these babies are already psychologically damaged by the neglect they suffer in those orphanages. We have seen such orphanages and also are aquainted with several adoptees from Russia who have psychological problems. But now, if a foreign couple wants to "rent a Russian womb," it's not allowed.

AS NEED ESCALATES, CHARITABLE FUND OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH HELPS IMPOVERISHED IN UKRAINE
from Ukrainian Weekly

DOCUMENTARY: THE POWER OF THE PERSECUTED CHURCH (VIDEO)
from Christian Persecution

EU DISABILITY STRATEGY: TRANSLATING WORDS TO ACTION
from Disabled World

UOC-MP SAYS THAT PRIME MINISTER OF UKRAINE AT MEETING WITH PATRIARCH ILIA II "LOBBIED FOR INTERESTS OF OCU"
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

CHINESE CHRISTIANS ADAPT TO EVER-CHANGING RESTRICTIONS
from Mission Network News

ALMOST 5,000 RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CLERGYMEN IN RUSSIA HAVE HAD COVID-19, AND 167 HAVE DIED
from Interfax-Religion

PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE SITUATION OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

HOW I HARVESTED POTATOES WITH VLADYKA LAURUS
from Orthodox Christianity

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT REFUSES TO CONDEMN SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTION
from BioEdge

COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN CHURCH LEADS TO PUBLIC OUTRAGE IN VIETNAM
from New York Times

(This photo is satire, folks, don't take it seriously!) How many people have you seen driving alone and wearing a mask? With the constant breathless, fearmongering news reports of the Covid-19 pandemic (or dempanic) finally receding into the background, it's past time to begin thinking logically about it, not reacting out of fear. A few articles will help give us insight into the situation. First, COVID WAS THE THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AMONG AMERICANS IN 2020, BEHIND HEART DISEASE AND CANCER, CDC SAYS, published over two months ago, states that about 700,000 Americans died of cancer and over 600,000 Americans died of heart disease in 2020, compared to 345,323 deaths attributed to Covid-19 as a major factor by the end of March 2021. In comparison: about 675,000 Americans died from the N1H1 Spanish Flu 100 years ago, when U.S. population was about 100,000,000.

That comes to death rates of about 0.7% for the N1H1 Spanish Flu, 0.4% for cancer, 0.35% for heart disease, and only 0.2% for Covid-19 "Wuhan Flu" compared to about 0.1% for the usual seasonal flu. With my a-fib heart condition, I'm more likely than the average person to die from it than from Covid-19, but I'm not panicked about either one, the probability is still quite low, so I simply follow the recommended measures. It's like a woman who marries at age 35 and is afraid to have a baby because "there is a 100% increase in the probability of defects" – jumping from 0.5% to 1% probability, still quite low probability: statistics can be very misleading. Oops! We also weren't supposed to say "Wuhan Flu" or "China Flu" although it's okay to say "Spanish Flu" and "Ebola" - both named for geographical locations, but the Wall Street Journal article THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS A WUHAN LAB LEAK finally admits this nasty bug is likely manmade and leaked from that Wuhan lab.

Another significant piece of research is COVID-19 INFECTIONS IN THE U.S. NEARLY THREE TIMES GREATER THAN REPORTED, MODEL ESTIMATES. The statistician Jungsik Noh, Ph.D. at UT Southwestern Medical Center showed that the number of people likely infected with Covid-19 as of February 2021 was about 71,000,000, so by now about 100,000,000, that is, about three times as many as the numbers reported and they got over it with few or no symptoms! This is because only a relatively small percentage of Americans have been tested, so we should extrapolate the percentage of positive tests to the entire population. Add that number to the count of those who have been vaccinated, about 170,000,000 = 270,000,000 Americans have either gotten immunity from prior infection by Covid-19 or by vaccination against this nasty virus.

This means that over 80% of the population are immune, well over the level needed for "herd immunity," and millions of us have been immune for months: my second Covid-19 shot was on Feb. 12, so I've been immune for about four months now. The pandemic has been fading away for several weeks now because this virus has very few hosts left that could be infected and spread it further. It's long past time to take off the masks and get our lives back, unless you have comorbidities like cancer, an autoimmune disease, and haven't been vaccinated. In fact, that should have been the practice all along, as Sweden and states like Arizona and Florida demonstrated by keeping their economies open. Think of how many millions of people's lives have been lost by suicides or ruined by the shutdown: their businesses being bankrupted, by jobs lost, by nervous breakdowns, divorces, a lost year of education – all very real public health issues.

 
The month of May's 5% inflation statistic should instruct us about how injection of fiat money into the economy affects all of us: Before the pandemic, the U.S. economy was about $21 Trillion and of course it decreased during the shutdown. So the government decided it must restart the economy by injecting cash, sending "Covid Relief" money to citizens, eventually adding up to about $7 Trillion when this is all over, so now the economy is now worth $28 Trillion, right? Those numbers are simply too huge to fathom, so let's use a simpler example: Back in history, Austrian money was called the "Taler" (which is where the word "dollar" came from). Imagine an Austrian village of 7 families with 21 working people: Franz's family raises chickens, Helmut's family raises wheat, Josef's family raises pigs, Helmut's family raises cows, etc. Rather than barter their production, it was easier to exchange Talers. Each family's production was equal to about 30 wooden Talers per year = 210 Talers for the whole village. The boob-o-nik plague comes along, so they stop working and stay inside, afraid they might catch it. But they run out of Talers, so the Buergermeister (mayor) comes up with the idea to chop down a tree, make 70 more wooden Talers, and give 10 Talers to each family. They're all delighted: money to spend and their village economy is now worth 280 Talers! But since the people haven't been working, goods are scarce so they now pay 33% more for everything. Finally they realize that those 10 "free" Talers have made everything cost more. That's how inflation works, folks.

Have you checked out my "Free and Secure Communications" web-page yet? I've updated it by adding the first paragraph on our Fourth Amendment rights and the last paragraph starting with "And finally" (before the "Addendum"), plus lots of other tidbits of valuable information to help you assert your God-given rights to the free exercise of your religion as well as being secure in your person and writings. We need to exercise our rights: use them or lose them! This is how to be free and secure.