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SUMMARY:Change Cubans Can Believe In?
DESCRIPTION:Following Cuba’s first leadership change in almost five decades\, the world’s media speculated on what the future holds for the island’s 11 million people.\nTo many observers\, Cuba has changed little since 1959 when Fidel Castro’s rebels overthrew U.S. backed President Fulgencio Batista\, marched triumphantly into Havana\, set up headquarters in the Havana Libre Hotel—formerly the Havana Hilton—and proclaimed the country a Socialist state.\nToday\, pre-revolution automobiles remain the primary mode of motorized transportation. The same infrastructure of aging roads\, buildings\, and water pipes\, struggles to keep up with a growing population. There is still a Castro in charge\, and the country’s leadership continues to promote socialism as the most ethical\, just\, and moral of all the systems of governance. Has anything changed?\nYes. Let’s look at one change that has affected the lives of thousands of Cuban Christians.\nDaylins Ruf&iacute\;n is a 34-year-old Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the University of Havana. With her class work completed\, she is now researching and writing her dissertation. In addition to being a student\, Ruf&iacute\;n works for the National Council of Churches in Cuba and is pastor of a Baptist church in Alamar\, a Havana suburb with more than 100\,000 residents. Ruf&iacute\;n’s role as pastor\, employee of a religious organization\, and student would have been difficult\, if not impossible\, during the first decades in post-revolution Cuba.\nShortly after assuming power\, Fidel Castro\, who was educated in a Jesuit school\, proclaimed the country an “estado ateo” (atheist state). Students hoping to attend a university kept quiet about their religious affiliations. Gays and Cubans who professed any religious beliefs were prohibited from being members of the Communist Party and were not allowed to study for careers in medicine\, law\, and psychology. The Cuban churches that remained open immediately after the revolution soon lost contact with their counterparts in the United States.\nIn 1992\, Cuba removed the commitment to atheism from its constitution\, and the country became an “estado laico” (lay state). In 1997\, Christmas was reinstated as a national holiday. And since 2002\, the Alamar church that Ruf&iacute\;n serves along with her husband\, Luis Carlos Marrera\, has hosted visits from members of Oakhurst Baptist\, its sister church in Decatur\, Georgia. For seven consecutive years\, members of the two churches have worked with\, prayed with\, worshipped with\, and learned from each other—and have supported each other in a variety of ministries.\nOnce targeted for extinction\, Cuba’s churches are now filling with members who are exploring what it means to follow Jesus\, and they are interested in developing partnerships with like-minded churches in the United States.\nAccording to Maria de Los Angeles\, the Communist Party’s Liaison for Protestant Churches in Cuba\, more than 8\,000 U.S. citizens entered Cuba in 2008 with religious visas in order to participate in sister church relationships.\nWhy the change? What was behind the seeming rapprochement between the Cuban government and the country’s many believers?\nTo make sense of it all\, many Cubans point to two seminal events. The first was the fall of the Soviet Union\, which had supported its sister state in the Caribbean with highly subsidized food\, petroleum\, automobiles\, building materials\, and more. As the subsidies slowed\, then stopped altogether\, Cuba transitioned into what was euphemistically called the “Special Period\,” during which the standard of living for most Cubans dropped precipitously. As a result\, many Cubans began looking to the church as a source of strength and encouragement in difficult times.\nThe second event was the visit of Pope John Paul II—the only pope in history to visit the island. During a speech in Havana on January 25\, 1998\, the pope turned his attention to his host country\, then to its closest neighbor\, asserting that\, "A modern state cannot make atheism or religion one of its political ordinances." He then condemned the "resurgence of a certain capitalist neo-liberalism which subordinates the human person to blind market forces" and "often places unbearable burdens upon less favored countries.”\nThe influence of “El Papa” is said to have further influenced the leadership of the Cuban government to relax its restrictions impeding the free practice of religion. Cuba now facilitates relationships between the churches on the island and churches in other countries.\nThe Alliance of Baptists is a partner with the Fraternity of Baptists in Cuba\, and 23 Alliance churches have relationships with churches in Cuba. For years the Alliance has supported an end to the U.S. sponsored embargo\, as well as to the travel restrictions that prevent U.S. citizens from freely visiting Cuba. It also works with the Latin American Working Group on issues related to Cuba. With recent regime changes in Cuba and in the United States\, the two countries seem open to a dialogue that many Cuban and U.S. citizens hope will be the beginning of the end to 50 years of hostilities.\nThe Alamar Baptist Church is one of the young and vibrant Cuban congregations that has taught its U.S. sister congregations much about how to be church in a changing world. Several of Alamar’s lay leaders are enrolled in degree programs at ISEBIT (Instituto Superior de Estudios B&iacute\;blicos y Teol&oacute\;gicos)\, which holds weekend classes on the campus of Havana’s Episcopal Cathedral.\nThe Alliance of Baptists appreciates and supports the changes in Cuba that have allowed its citizens more opportunities to worship\, study\, and minister in the name of their God. The Alliance urges our government to respond to those changes with changes of its own. It was Pope John II’s assertion that Cuba “needs to open herself to the world\, and the world needs to draw close to Cuba". Alliance churches\, through their partnerships with Baptist churches in Cuba\, are pleased to be a small part of this process.\n
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DTSTART;TZID=US-Central:20090713T111500
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