Cuban church leader arrested on questionable charges.

A respected church leader in Cuba was unexpectedly arrested on Monday and taken to a town in Central Cuba where he is expected to stand trial. CSW believes the charges of “offensive behaviour” and “threats” against Reverend Roberto Rodriguez to be false. Those close to Reverend Rodriguez, who is in his late 60s and in poor health, say he became a government target after the organization he led publicly withdrew from a government sanctioned religious umbrella group in the second half of 2008, and that the criminal charges against him are an attempt to discredit and silence him. His arrest was so sudden that Reverend Rodriguez was unable to take important medication with him. It is feared that without it, his health will continue to deteriorate.

According to his family, state security officials arrived at the home without warning on 30 August and forced Reverend Rodriguez to go with them. The family understands that he will be taken to the town of Placetas where he will be put on trial sometime over the next few days. Prosecutors are asking that he be given a one-year prison sentence.

Charges were first brought against Reverend Rodriguez in late 2008 and he was given three trial dates over the course of 2009 but no trial ever took place. He and his family were forced to move after being subjected to constant verbal and physical abuse from their neighbors, apparently acting with the support of the government. He has spent the last 21 months under house arrest.

CSW is calling on the Cuban authorities to release Reverend Rodriguez immediately and drop all charges against him.

CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor said, “The treatment of Reverend Rodriguez and his family over the past 21 months has been disgraceful. The European Union will be looking at the human rights situation and reviewing its Common Position on Cuba this month. While some heralded the release of some Cuban prisoners of conscience this summer as an improvement in the human rights situation, the arrest of Reverend Rodriguez this week demonstrates that the Cuban government is not interested in real human rights reform. We call on the EU to make urgent representations on behalf of Reverend Rodriguez to the Cuban government.”

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 , +44 (0)20 8329 0045 , +44 (0) 78 2332 9663 , +44 (0) 78 2332 9663 , email: kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

Notes to Editors:

1. Reverend Rodriguez is a pastor in the Los Pinos Nuevos denomination and was the national president of CIMPEC, the Interdenominational Fellowship of Evangelical Pastors and Ministers. CIMPEC formally withdrew from the Cuban Council of Churches, citing constant government interference in their internal affairs.

2. The behaviour of Reverend Rodriguez's neighbors is consistent with a government strategy of encouraging “acts of repudiation” - where civilians are encouraged to harass and sometimes attack Cubans who have fallen foul of the authorities, usually human rights or democracy activists. The harassment of the Rodriguez family culminated in a physical attack against Reverend Rodriguez's daughter-in-law, who suffered a miscarriage and was hospitalized.

3. Photographs are available from the CSW press office. When using the photographs, please credit CSW.–

Photo: Rev. Roberto Rodríguez. (CSW Photo)

Read complete information about: Religious freedom in Cuba 01/08/2010, in English and Spanish.

Cuba: Pastor's wife faces court after losing baby in attack

A Cuban pastor’s wife who miscarried after a neighbor attacked her went on trial on Monday, accused by the authorities of ‘disturbing the public order’ during the incident.
Gilianys Meneses Rodriguez, wife of Pastor Eric Gabriel Rodriguez, was attacked on the street by the wife of a neighbor in December 2008.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide said the attack was the latest in a campaign of harassment against the Rodriguez family, carried out with the tacit support of the authorities, due to the families’ involvement in the Interdenominational Fellowship of Evangelical Pastors and Ministers in Cuba's (CIMPEC) decision to leave the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC).
The neighbors first contaminated the families’ drinking water well, and broke the water pipes and septic tank, before accusing Gilianys’ husband of aggressive behaviour.
CSW said Gilianys miscarried after eight weeks pregnancy as a result of the attack. The entire family has been forced to move away from their home in Placetas due to concerns for their safety.
Gilianys, a mother of two girls, is now the third member of the Rodriguez family to be summoned to appear before the Placetas Tribunal.
Her father-in-law, Rev Roberto Rodriguez, was national president of CIMPEC until October 2008 when the Cuban authorities removed him, following the decision of CIMPEC to withdraw from the CCC. CIMPEC cited illegal government interference in their internal affairs as the reason for their withdrawal.
The harassment and legal proceedings against the family began after the difficulties between CIMPEC and the CCC. Rev Roberto Rodriguez has since been summoned to appear in court four times on charges of "threatening behaviour".
Gilianys’ husband, Pastor Eric Gabriel Rodriguez, was tried on the same charges as his father in December 2008 and has been sentenced to one year probation.
There has been an increase in reported violations of religious liberty since Raul Castro took power in early 2008.
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said: “We strongly condemn the legal persecution of the Rodriguez family and in particular the latest charges against Gilianys Meneses who has already suffered terrible personal injustice.
"We call on members of the international community to raise the case with the Cuban government as a matter of urgent concern and ensure the harassment of this family ceases.”
Source: Christian Today
Additional Information:
Cuban pastor’s trial suspended for a third time. Take action
Photo: Pastor Rodriguez and Family.

The "Spirituality" of Communist Oppression.

By Mark D. Tooley.
Much of the Religious Left has abandoned its old infatuation with Marxism, having long since moved on to radical environmentalism or performing apologetics for radical Islam. But quaintly, some relics still hang on to the old causes, chief of which is the 50 year love affair with Fidel Castro and his Cuban despotism.
During May 15-20, the Religious Left hosted an interfaith symposium in Cuba called "Spirituality of Resistance, Liberation and Transformation" (http://warc.jalb.de/)." Tragically, the event originally was to have convened in Lebanon. But the "continuing illegal occupation of Palestine by the forces of empire" in the Middle East cut short that possibility, the organizers fretted. Is not Lebanon's strife owing to the Iranian "empire's interference through its Hezbollah surrogates? Of course, the Religious Left is not concerned about that kind of "empire."
Instead, in Cuba's intoxicatingly supportive atmosphere, the Religious Left chatted about how to resist the true evil "empire," i.e. America, and that empire's supportive "destructive spiritualities" on the Religious Right. The event, hosted by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the London-based Council for World Mission, apparently thought Cuba, as "liberated" territory, was the best vantage point from which to organize against the "empire."
"The (Cuban) people's suffering is acute because of the United States-imposed blockade and the general forces of empire," explained the communiqué of the religious liberationists. "By 'empire' we mean the complex and dynamic international regime of power anchored by the United States, with its military power, neoliberal globalization, racist and patriarchal ideologies and policies of environmental degradation."
Hopefully Fidel was still sufficiently coherent in his hospital bed to read what must have been glowing Cuban media reports about all the solidarity that the WCC et al were offering his sagging regime. "In spite of these forces of empire and Cubans' relentless suffering, isolation and impoverization, we have been inspired by the ways Cubans persevere in struggle, embodying joy and resistance, dignity and self-esteem," gushed the church bureaucrats from Geneva and elsewhere.
Until 16 years ago, Cuba's communist rulers were themselves an outpost of the Soviet empire, happily performing as surrogates for their masters in Moscow in Africa, Central America and elsewhere where the cause of revolution was ripening. Since that empire's collapse, the isolated Cuban regime has fossilized while its once revolutionary allies quickly chose "neoliberal globalization" over the static theories of Marx and Lenin.
Wonderfully oblivious, the Religious Left confab pretended that the last 20 years of history never happened, and instead focused on the threats posed by the only modern "empire" that ever distressed it: the United States. "We affirm that the problems of empire, amid which justice movements struggle, are not only political problems but spiritual challenges," the communiqué decreed. "Empire spawns its own destructive spiritualities, such as the 'religious right,' and thus it seeks always to co-opt the powers of religion for imperial aims."
Apparently trying to conclude on an upbeat note, the convo of theologians and pastor-activists from the around the world celebrated that "new spiritualities are coming forth to oppose imperial spiritualities." How these "new spiritualities" substantively differ from the old Liberation Theology of 30 and 40 years ago, which conflated the Gospel with Marxist revolution, was not explained by the Religious Left enthusiasts.
"All organized religions have a special challenge of resisting the tactics of division, such as forms of denominationalism and fundamentalism, which often fuel ethnic, racial, nationalist and regional strife, and so strengthen the powers of empire," the WCC et al fretted in Cuba. They were obliquely referring to the reality that Pentecostalism and conservative Roman Catholicism are sweeping the Global South, including Cuba, much to the consternation of the Religious Left, which struggles to find support outside declining Western seminaries or left-wing church bureaucracies.
The WCC et al incorporated some token Hindus and Muslims in their Cuban get together, to showcase the cause's supposedly universal appeal. "Justice movements require a new solidarity among religious groups and all peoples of conscience (secular and religious) and thus we affirm and honour the full multiplicity of spiritualities that enliven such movements," the communiqué enthused. There was a strong focus on "indigenous" peoples," who of course are among the "empire's" chief victims.
An official with the hosting World Alliance of Reformed Churches sagely observed: "Connecting with the struggle, resilience and vision of the Cuban people and the spiritualities of aboriginal peoples and various faith traditions brings fresh impetus in our struggle for justice." Meeting in Cuba was probably a catharsis for many Western ecclesiastics and seminary professors, so otherwise oppressed. Such freedom to speak their minds without fear!
"We are in Cuba, a country that approaches the celebration of 50 years of its revolution," was how the Western prelates opened their communiqué. "Cubans describe the present period as a 'Kairotic' passage, a time of crisis and opportunity." For the Religious Left over the last 40 years, "Kairos" moments are historic tipping points when the revolution appears to be on the cusp of consummation. So there is hope that true Marxism will prevail yet in Cuba! But there are struggles ahead. The religious communiqué bemoaned that Cuba's "earlier revolutionary successes in agrarian reform have been set back by the empire's brutal blockade." But gloriously, the undefeated Cuban proletariat is still pressing forward.
Of course, the Religious Left communiqué denounced the American "empire's worldwide 'war on terror,'" which has "created a virulent form of Islamophobia that compounds other related racisms." The WCC et al insisted that "emergent spiritualities must stand with our Muslim sisters and brothers and work with them for a more just world for all peoples."
The Religious Left communiqué urged "positive values that can energize and focus revolutionary change" and invited leaders of the arts around the world to join in "strengthening the spiritualities that can resist regimes of injustice." Naturally, such oppressive regimes do not include Fidel Castro's communist dictatorship. The targeted regimes that the Religious Left has in mind are the ones that were actually elected by their populations. Apparently such democratic governments are merely tools of "colonization, racism and patriarchy," and puppets of the "empire."
That remnants of the Religious Left are still spouting such anachronisms in even in the year 2008 should not be altogether surprising. That they should do so in Fidel Castro's Cuba, which has become the ossified Disneyworld for unreconstructed Marxists, is perfectly appropriate.
Photo: “T-shirt for participants in the event.”

Jeremiah Wright‘s Cuban Friends and the Cuban Council of Churches.

Jeremiah Wright’s Cuban Friends.
Was it remotely conceivable that someone with the Rev. Jeremiah's Wright's worldview and connections had somehow avoided a pilgrimage to the world capitol of Yankee-hatred, to worship and commiserate with its high priests?
Not a chance. Wright was part of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 300 person entourage to Havana in 1984. “Viva Fidel!” bellowed Jackson while concluding his speech at the University of Havana. “Viva Che Guevara! . . . Long live our cry of freedom!”
Jackson and Wright's Cuban pilgrimage was arranged by the Cuban Council of Churches, who sprang for the full $300,000 tab. “ I have been affiliated with the Cuba Council of Churches since the 1980s,” boasted remiah Wright in a sermon just last year. “I have several close Cuban friends who work with the Cuba Council of Churches and you have heard me preach about our affiliation and the Black Theology Project’s trips to Cuba.” And naturally the kicker: “Our denomination’s Global Ministries is committed to calling for an end to the U.S. sanctions against Cuba.”
This same denomination, needless to add, clamored for sanctions against South Africa.
The Cuban Council of Churches, according to Cuban intelligence defector, Juan Vives, is an arm of Cuba's ICAP (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos) itself an arm of Cuba's DGI, Cuba's secret police, founded and mentored by the KGB and East German STASI.
Read this article‘s Humberto Fontana made CLICK HERE

New law forces closure of at least three Cuban House Churches.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide. For immediate release. January 9 2006

CSW has learned that at least three Protestant churches have been forcibly closed down in Cuba after harsh legislation on house churches was announced in 2005.

Two of the churches, in the western provinces of Guantanamo and Holguin, were forcibly closed. The first was confiscated by local authorities in August and the other threatened with demolition at the end of last year.

A third church, in a suburb of Havana, was demolished while church members looked on at the end of the year. All were accused of being 'illegal constructions' by the authorities to justify the closures.

The new legislation, Directive 43 and Resolution 46, was announced in April in the wake of Pope John Paul It’s funeral, and required all house churches to register with the authorities.

Church leaders expressed their concern at the time that the registration process was so complicated as to be practically impossible. Many believed that this was actually an attempt to shut down the house church movement across the island.

Foto fue tomada momentos despues
 de ser destruida la Igleisa en Alamar, Cuba.

CSW is disturbed that the three church closures seem to suggest that a new wave of repression of religious freedom could be on the horizon. It is possible that additional churches have also met with a similar fate but because of security concerns regarding communication in Cuba, this has been impossible to verify.

Stuart Windsor, National Director of CSW, said, "We learned of these church closures, confiscation and demolition with deep concern. We are calling on the international community to strongly discourage the Cuban government from taking any more measures that would restrict the rights of the Cuban people to meet and worship together. In addition, we call upon the Cuban government to return those buildings that have already been confiscated, allow for the re-opening of those that have been shut down, and authorize the reconstruction of the church that has already been demolished."

For more information, please contact Richard Chilvers, Communications Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0045 or email richard.chilvers@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk

CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Photos of the church demolition in Alamar, Cuba (a suburb of Havana) are available at http://www.noticiacristiana.com/news/newDetails.php?idnew=81709&country=0 click on "Ver Galeria de Fotos"

One of the major problems faced by Cuban churches is the difficulty of building, restoring and maintaining religious premises and places of worship where they can hold services. Current government policy allows only officially recognized church services in buildings that were constructed prior to the 1959 Revolution. The construction of a new church, as well as enlarging or renovating existing churches, requires government authorization, which is often given only arbitrarily - if at all. Churches belonging to the government- sanctioned, Cuban Council of Churches are an exception and are often readily granted permission to renovate and build.

Because many churches have grown in the last decade, most existing church buildings are too small to accommodate all their members. The logical alternative for many of these churches has been the establishment of house churches which explains, in part, the expansion of the house church movement across Cuba. There are now an estimated 10,000 - 15,000 house churches across the island, with between 30 - 200 worshipers meeting on a weekly basis.

Existing buildings (those built prior to the Revolution) are often over 100 years old and desperately in need of renovation and repair, but official permission is hard to get. Yet many churches have gone ahead without seeking permission, renovating and expanding the Church facilities as much as finances allow until they are explicitly prohibited from doing so by the government. Some churches have also built new structures, another practice that has been tolerated by the government until now. However, churches are in a constantly precarious legal position, and are vulnerable to the now very present threat of crippling fines, closure or even demolition.