NBC Casts Spotlight on Rock Church

Rock Church properties next to State Theatre

About this time last year, I posted a series of stories about Northampton County Prison Padre Chris Santos, whose Rock Church was getting paid $1,000 per month for his spiritual counseling to guests of the jail. Those payments stopped when it was discovered that Santos was not paying real estate taxes. Now Santos is a volunteer, and why not? His Jesus gig supplies a steady stream of tenants and workers for a string of flophouses that he and his Church own. Never mind that the homes are health hazards. Nobody cares about the lower rungs of society. If an inmate asks too many questions or complains, Santos can just pull a few strings and have the inmate sent back to the slammer.

Now NBC10 has cast a public spotlight on the Santos operation. Easton is apparently concerned that one of the buildings might collapse, and is waiting for yet another repair plan.

David Lea can tell you what things are like with Santos. An Air Force veteran, his real battle has been with alcohol, and his habitual offenses earned him a stint in our hoosegaw. He was recruited as a tenant by Santos. But he deeply resented the religious indoctrination, the two a day Bible studies, the 10% tithe on top of rent, the refusal to allow attendance at alternative religious services and the physical labor demanded at buildings nearing condemnation.

When Lea made those concerns known, Santos tried to get his probation violated. That's the hammer. What Santos did not know is that some other County officials, who learned of Lea's situation, found him housing somewhere else.

Even more troubling is that, despite his claims, Santos offers no real recovery plan for inmates. As Lea tells me, The leverage Santos has found is that you can take a man out of jail and put him in Cuba and they would call it community service as long as the city does not have to help the men reintegrate. There is no recovery operation there. If you want support for that claim just look into the overdose last year of Daniel Houser who almost died at Easton hospital. From there look into the explosion and fire of the meth lab in Bethlehem, courtesy of Jeff Caufield and Danial Houser a few months back. After that you can go to Express Times 2/25/2011 and read about the robberies committed by Elias Amaro and Phillip Trout. All products of the "recovery program" provided by Santos.

In the meantime, Northampton County Council unanimously re-appointed Santos to the Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board last week.

More tenants!

I did not speak out against this because it caught me by surprise, and I suspect most Council members had forgotten about him.

Blogger's Note: My previous Rock Church stories

There's Money in Jesus at Northampton County Jail

A Santos Success Story

A Real Journalist's Take on Santos' Sinners Program

NorCo Suspends Payments to Jail's Chaplain