The State of Religion in Cuba: A Battle for Dominion

“Socialismo o muerte!!” Or in English words, socialism or death!

So says graffiti propaganda on an antiquated wall lining a Havana barrio. Competing sounds of Afro-Cuban jazz and Salsa music stream from sidewalk cafes as barefoot children play “futbol” with dreams of one day escaping an economic system in which there is never enough..

Much of Cuba appears as if time stopped in 1959 – and in many ways it has. Art deco architecture that characterizes the capital city is deteriorating. Classic, yet dilapidated Chevys and Fords populate the roadways. The scent of oppression pollutes the air as military police, armed with rifles and grimacing looks, stand post on street corners. And the monumental Cathedral in “la Plaza de la Catedral” sits idly by as if waiting for another revolution.

A multicultural society, Cuba’s population has Spanish and African roots. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest organized religion, but Afro-Cuban religions, like Santeria, are widely practiced. Claiming that Catholic schools fostered dangerous beliefs, Cuba President Fidel Castro shut them down in 1962 and declared the nation atheist. Priests and nuns were persecuted as civil rights rapidly eroded under the communist regime.

A ray of light penetrated the island nation in 1991, when the Communist Party lifted its prohibition against religious believers seeking membership. By 1992, Cuba’s constitution was amended to classify the state as secular instead of atheist. But religious freedom is still more of an ideal than a reality.

“When it comes to the exercise of religion, as one Catholic bishop put it to me, ‘We have freedom of worship, but not freedom of religion,” says Philip Peters over the cacophony of loud Chevy motors and Cuban nationals with whom he shares the streets of Havana. Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, is stationed in Cuba to research a book on the communist nation.

Cuba has been largely isolated from the Western World for decades, but policy experts and religious figures have kept a finger on the pulse of this strategically located Caribbean nation. In order to comprehend complicated religious issues in Cuba, one must examine the separation of Church and state, the then-and-now persecution of Cuban Christians, the unity tribulation has bred, and the hope for the future of the Cuban Protestant Church.

Separating Church and State: The Catholic Church, though the largest independent institution in the country, still operates under significant pressure, with no authority to publish materials, gain full access to the media, train adequate numbers of clergy to serve the people – or open Catholic schools, universities, hospitals and nursing homes.

“The Catholic Church was hostile to Castro during the first couple of months he was in power and the government has returned that attitude,” says William Leogrande, a Cuba expert at American University in Washington. “There has been an easing of the tension between church and state, but that was part of the government’s parcel to set the stage for the pope’s visit. The government has not reneged on certain concessions that were made, but they haven’t really opened things up further, either.”

It is important to demark Pope John Paul II’s historic five-day visit in January 1998 because it made what some call a significant impact on the nation. It was the first time a pope had visited the nation; the first time Castro had welcomed a pope. The papal visit followed the country’s first government-sanctioned celebration of Christmas in nearly 30 years. It was indeed a time of great change that many hoped would spark similar results to the pope’s visit to Poland in 1979, which ignited a solidarity movement that ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“If you look at freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and other types of civic freedoms, they are not any greater in Cuba today than they were in 1998,” says Daniel P. Erikson, a Cuba expert at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C.-based center for policy analysis. “Religious freedom has been a double-edged sword since the pope’s visit in particular. On one hand individuals have more opportunity for religious expression, but at the same time pro-democracy groups that are linked with religious organizations continue to suffer oppression.”

Indeed, in what experts say is an overall effort to tighten the economic embargo, the U.S. government is restricting licenses for religious and humanitarian trips to Cuba. Recently, the U.S. Homeland Security and Department of Commerce agents detained the New York City-based Pastors for Peace 2005 Cuba Caravan at the U.S. border and confiscated some of the donated aid. “The Bible teaches us to practice social holiness. Justice, in all its dimensions, is the biggest expression of this holiness,” says Pastors for Peace board member Reverend Luis Barrios. “Our work in support of the Cuban people is our way of responding to God’s command and of demonstrating the social and political dimensions of our spirituality.” Pastors for Peace is continuing its campaign to win the release of the supplies.

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Not Without Persecution: The Protestant church in Cuba faces the same oppressive rules as its Catholic counterpart, but is nonetheless growing thanks to small groups that meet in home churches. There are approximately 10,000 to 15,000 house churches in Cuba, according to Joshua De Quesada, a Cuban native whose father, Reverend Bernado De Quesada, is the pastor of the 3,500-member Assemblies of God church in Camagüey, Cuba’s third largest city.

During a one-on-one interview in Masachapa, Nicaragua, Joshua explained that the house churches, often satellite locations for mainline denominations, host up to 200 people for regular services. However, a government directive issued in April 2005 has the potential to severely curtail religious freedom in Cuba by imposing repressive restrictions on those meetings, such as disallowing two churches from the same denomination to be located within 1.24 miles. Directive 43 and Resolution 46 were announced in April in the wake of Pope John Paul II’s funeral.

Under the new legislation, house churches would require government authorization. The government wants to know the number of worshippers, days and times services are held, and names and ages of the home’s occupants. Cuban authorities would supervise the meetings and carry the right to suspend the meetings. Foreigners would be prohibited from attending the gatherings, which cuts off financial and spiritual support from Christian groups outside Cuba.

“Spiritually speaking, we could say that the church in Cuba is experiencing one of its best moments,” De Quesada says. “When the church is under oppression, persecution and much economic need, it is a motivating factor for revival. We are not permitted to have public meetings, but witchcraft is allowed everywhere. You see it on the television, hear it on the radio, and read about it in the newspaper. When Satanic oppression comes to the nation, the church has to get itself together and united in prayer. It has to take authority over that diabolical oppression.”

De Quesada is talking about Santeria, Cuba’s “other” religion. “I have a friend who is fairly high up in the Catholic church in Cuba, and he says that when it comes to religion Cubans check all the boxes,” says Inter-American Dialogue’s Erikson. “Many Cubans practice Christian beliefs, but there is still a lot of Santeria as well. Cuba is not a society that practices one view to the exclusion of others. It would be very Cuban for someone to say they accepted Jesus but still practice amorist religions.”

United They Stand: Article 55 of the Cuban Constitution may indeed “guarantee the freedom of conscience and religion,” but it also clearly states that that freedom to worship must fall “within the confines of the law.” It is what many Cuban Christians call “legalism” and it threatens to strangle future growth of the Cuban Protestant Church.

Interestingly enough, Protestant and Catholic churches were never completely outlawed, even when Castro declared Cuba an atheist nation. Legalistic restrictions include the government-sanctioned Ecumenical Council of Cuba (ECC). Denominations and churches are encouraged to join the ECC in order to receive official recognition and special privileges. But the largest Protestant denominations in Cuba – Baptist and Assemblies of God – have declined ECC membership on principle.

These non-ECC churches face additional challenges in Cuba, such as building and maintaining churches. The Cuban government only allows officially recognized denominations and church groups to hold church services in buildings constructed prior to the 1959 Revolution. Building a new church requires government authorization, which non-ECC churches cannot obtain.

De Quesada says the ongoing tribulation in Cuba has caused a unity uncommon in the American Church. The Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes and Pentecostals are united in the Spirit, despite the denominational differences. If one church suffers, he says, the others are there to stand with and defend the leadership.

“If the pastors are united, then God can do anything He desires, and that is what we are seeing,” De Quesada says. “House churches are critical because God has used it as a multiplication strategy. The communists thought if they were able to divide the churches into smaller groups they would die out. Their strategy is divide and conquer. But it has had the opposite effect.”

Perhaps that’s why the Cuban government seems bent on passing legislation to curb the growth of these Protestant house churches. Any violation of the proposed legislation would result in the church being closed and the leader and the any foreign visitors being fined US$1,000. With rules limiting sound equipment, specific restrictions on which rooms in the house can be used by the church, and a ban on meeting on the roof, which is a common practice, it may not be difficult to find violations, especially with government informers acting as neighborhood watchdogs.

Christianity’s Impact: For now, the house churches continue to grow, according to De Quesada. While evangelism is frowned upon on the streets of Cuba, he says people are attracted to the sounds of singing and preaching in the neighborhood. “You can do a crusade in the church, but nowhere else. Not even in front of the church,” De Quesada says. But, he notes, the Lord is blessing the hunger of the people. One house church he started had only a handful of believers a year ago. Today it has more than 60 believers. While there are no Bible institutes in which to equip believers, they are trained in the central church facility and sent out to start new churches nonetheless.

While the pope’s visit in 1998 did not change much in the way of Catholicism, De Quesada says it did open new doors for the Protestant Church in Cuba. The government allowed the church to hold celebrations on the street after 40 years of suppressing such activities. Those celebrations were even aired on television, something that De Quesada calls “impossible, completely unthinkable. Up to that point the nation would see the Protestant Church as something forbidden. In the early years of the Revolution there was so much persecution that a Christian could not even study at the university. They could not have a career because they were Christians. That caused people not to want to know anything about the church.”

Now, after decades, things are beginning to change in Cuba. Like many Cubans, De Quesada is passionate to see the country open up to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But he believes that when the window of opportunity does come for the Gospel, false religions will flood in to deceive. He urges the Body of Christ to be ready. “There have been prophetic words of revival in Cuba,” De Quesada says. “We have been able to enjoy that hope even with the oppression of the government. The best is yet to come.”

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