Coping in Cuba

NEWS

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

After nearly three decades under communism, the church enters a new age of tolerance.

The taxi driver looks at the address scribbled on the back of a business card, nods, and slips the Russian-built Lod into gear. Traffic is never heavy in Cuba, and on this Sunday morning the Malecón—Hemingway’s fabled seaside avenue—is nearly deserted as the driver heads east toward Old Havana’s pastel-shaded villas. Women are already queuing up for the day’s milk ration, barely noticing the gringos bouncing by in the taxi. Soon it is obvious the driver is lost, and when he asks directions, the pedestrian looks at the card and shrugs.

Undaunted, he eases the taxi through an alley, peers up the street, then turns to smile at his passengers. He points across the intersection, accepts his fare, then speeds off. A brass plate announces the destination: Iglesia Bautista.

Welcome to First Baptist of Havana.

Cuba Today

When Fidel Castro and his revolutionary army toppled Cuba’s Batista regime in 1959, many Christians there initially cheered the end of the corrupt government. But within two years it was obvious the young commander was turning the nation into a Marxist state. Thousands of Cubans, including hundreds of pastors, fled to Miami, and the remaining church population entered an era of unprecedented difficulty.

Today, many Christians in Cuba feel their decision to stay is being rewarded. By most accounts, relations between Christians and the government have significantly improved. And while observers disagree over why churches have been given more freedom, evangelical reaction in Cuba might best be represented by the words of Reinaldo Sanchez, pastor of a large Baptist church in central Havana: “Rather than discuss the problems of the past, we are trying to learn how we can best be the church in the setting God has placed us.”

That setting is a fairly typical Marxist-Communist state with all the totalitarian trappings. On the one hand, government officials speak of complete freedom of expression, religious or otherwise. When pressed about restrictions against peaceful protests or door-to-door evangelizing, those same officials quote Castro: “Anything within the revolution, nothing against the revolution.” In other words, the government reserves the right to decide if the expression of certain ideas is counterrevolutionary. And given the zeal of the ever-present Neighborhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, Cuban citizens are careful about the manner in which they discuss their government.

Yet in terms of social welfare, education, and health care, many Cubans are fans of the revolution. Illiteracy has been virtually eliminated, and nearly 95 percent of 6-to 16-year-olds attend school. Infant mortality in 1969 was 46.7 deaths per 1,000 births. In 1987 it was 13.5 (compared to 12 deaths per 1,000 births in the U.S.). Before the revolution, life expectancy was 58 years; today it is 74. The medical-care system provides one doctor for every 500 citizens, and a comprehensive system of neighborhood “polyclinics” and state-of-the-art hospitals. And it’s all free.

Every Cuban is guaranteed a job, though it is not unusual to see middle-aged men operating automatic elevators. And it is clear the socialist economy is not working. Despite an annual $5 billion Soviet subsidy, food is rationed, buildings and roads are crumbling, and opportunities for job advancement are limited. Still, many Cubans believe life is better under Castro than Batista. “I have three children,” said the driver of a Soviet-made taxi. “One is a doctor and two are engineers. Where else could that happen to a poor taxi driver?”

Good Citizens

Christians in Cuba also recognize the social improvements that came with the revolution, but they are less eager to talk about politics. “Our church has been open throughout the revolution,” said one Baptist layman. “We have always been free to gather for worship.”

While the degree of freedom could be questioned, random visits to three Havana churches indicate near-normal conditions for most Christians. At one church, a full range of Sunday school classes preceded a morning worship service that began with the congregation singing “The Church’s One Foundation” in Spanish. An estimated 200 worshipers attended, and, in an interview after the service, the pastor said relations between churches and the government are improving.

“Every day it gets better,” he said. “We could use more Bibles, but President Castro says we will be able to receive more Bibles in the future.” Approximately 4,000 Bibles are distributed in Cuba each year to serve the 100,000 Protestants and 100,000 Catholics who attend church regularly (Cuba’s population is 11 million). The pastor says ten young men from his church attend one of the six seminaries or Bible institutes in Cuba, and that he is free to make pastoral visits to hospitals and members’ homes. He believes the government has become more tolerant because “when a man is converted, he becomes a better citizen.”

According to Lt. Col. Franklyn Thompson, chief secretary of the Salvation Army’s Caribbean Territory, there are 11 Salvation Army churches in Cuba and each reports numerical growth. “It was very difficult for our ministers in the early years of the revolution,” said Thompson. “But now things are much better. Where you have a controlled society, people have to adjust to it. In Jamaica we are free, but we have a serious problem with drugs and alcohol. They don’t have that here because it’s a very disciplined, society.”

The current official party line regarding the church is that Christianity and Marxism are both working toward the same goals. “If Jesus was a Christian, then I am a Christian,” said José Felipe Carneado, chief of the office of religious affairs of the Communist party, momentarily ignoring the fact that Christians cannot belong to the party, thus have no voice in the government. He admits Christians had problems early in the revolution, but blames the church—primarily the Roman Catholic church—for working against the revolution. “Our philosophical differences should not stand in the way of our similar practical goals of helping people,” said Carneado. His view echoes Castro’s words in the landmark book Fidel and Religion, written by Frei Betto, a Catholic priest. Noting that Christ sided with the poor and oppressed, he told Betto, “… the most natural course of action to follow is to form a strategic—not merely a tactical—alliance between Christian and Marxist revolutionaries.”

Subtle Pressure

However, it would be wrong to imply Cuban Christians have successfully won the battle against their government. Most church leaders asked not to be quoted on the issue of religious liberty. One pastor, when asked about the government’s response to Christians, looked around nervously, then beckoned his visitor to a small attic office where he could talk more freely.

“There is strong persecution of the church, but it is subtle,” he said. “For example, in our denomination there is an evangelist who is also a medical doctor, but he cannot obtain a certificate to practice medicine because he is a Christian.” During recent special meetings, he said, police allowed a noisy street dance to take place outside the church. At night, someone vandalized the church. “We called the police five times to complain, but they refused to do anything,” he said.

Monsignor Carlos Manuel Céspedes, vicar general of Havana’s Roman Catholic church, characterizes progress toward religious freedom as “very slow.” He said the Cuban government thought one generation of atheistic education would eliminate religious belief. “In 1961, the government closed our publishing house, something we are still struggling to get back,” Céspedes said. “They also made it difficult for people to attend church. But now they have seen they cannot stop the church. So they are finding ways to work with us.”

Céspedes says that whenever U.S. Cuban relations are good, things improve for the church. “If relations between Cuba and the U.S. are normalized, human rights will improve.” But according to a spokesman from the U.S. Interest Section in Havana, relations cannot be normalized until Cuba improves its human-relations record and tethers its involvement in Nicaragua and Angola.

Marx And The Church

“What most American Christians don’t understand is that there are conservative, born-again Cuban Christians who view the Castro regime sympathetically,” says Tom Willey, Miami Coordinator of World Relief and a former missionary to Cuba. Willey, the first conservative evangelical allowed to speak publicly in Cuba after the revolution, says it is unwise to judge Cuba “on the basis of opinions expressed by people committed to a given position. At times, both are capable of distorting reality for their own ends. It is my view that in the last ten years, the government has made gradual progress in accepting the church.”

Miami-based Cuban historian Marcos Antonio Ramos believes some conditions for Christians in Cuba might continue to improve. “Cuba needs people who are hard-working, honest, and moral, and this is what the church offers any government,” says Ramos.

Other observers say the government has been forced by human-rights watchdogs to showcase a better image, thus greater freedom of religion. “Pressure from groups like Amnesty International has had a positive effect on our country,” said one Cuban journalist.

Regardless of the reasons, evangelicals in Cuba see the current thaw as an opportunity. Says Baptist pastor Raúl Súarez, “Our churches are beginning to grow, and we are seeing more young people coming to church. It is a good time to be a Christian in Cuba.”

By Lyn Cryderman in Havana.

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