Marx called religion the “opiate of the masses”. In Cuba, (c)astro set out replace the church with the communist party and the churches with the comites, the CDR. He kicked the religious out, took over the catholic schools and banned Christmas.
But the materialistic, egalitarian society that he set out to impose on the nation did not have any spiritual message for the masses other than hate and envy. The most inspiring message they could come up with was “Patria o Muerte”, Fatherland or Death, the revolution’s creed and nihilistic ultimatum.
According to this article, Castro Is Out, Christ Is In, the Cuban society, and youth in particular, have begun to turn to religion, to alleviate the deprivation and suffering that they are forced to endure. A respite, an opiate, if you will, to escape the regime’s oppression:
The resurgence of the Catholic Church in this officially atheist state has reverberated throughout Cuba: Cubans are proud to display images of the Virgin of Charity, Santa Barbara, Saint Lazarus, and the Virgin of Guadalupe in their homes. Young men openly sport tattoos of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. Masses offered at mid-morning on weekdays are standing-room only. A young man in his early twenties simply shrugs his shoulders when asked why he is at mass, and not at work, on a Monday morning. “Everyone needs hope and inner peace; coming to church gives me that,” he says. “Going to work is an empty gesture. After 49 years of failures, is my going to work going to make Fidel’s revolution succeed? Only a s–t-eater would believe that.”
The Church’s resurgence in Cuba is a hopeful and positive sign. The Church is the only remaining vestige of civil society in Cuba and its growth serves to empower people to begin to turn their backs on the state and start building their own future without Big Brother. It also serves as a source of positive and lasting societal values that are so lacking in communist societies.
In another excerpt from Castro Is Out, Christ Is In, we also learn that the fear of the Almighty is mightier than the fear of the alcagalitroso:
After the revolution, every neighborhood included a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, known as CDRs, usually comprised of “little old ladies” who snitched on the goings-on to the authorities. This month, however, one third of the CDRs in the Vedado and Habana Centro neighborhoods are empty. One woman in her 70s nonchalantly explains that at her age, “getting right with God is more important than being right with Fidel.” She explains that she simply reported that there was nothing suspicious on her block, and preferred to spend time praying at church.
Read Castro Is Out, Christ Is In HERE
CAMBIO
“Only if there is a God who created man is man worth anything beyond the chemicals of which he is composed.”
— Dennis Prager
“If Chance be the father of all flesh, then disaster is his rainbow in the sky. And when you hear the latest litany of horrors on the news each night — ‘youths go looting…bomb blast at embassy…rape victim clinging to life…grisly discovery…child pornography ring cracked’ — it is only the sound of man worshipping his Maker.”
— (My paraphrase of a quote from a British journalist whose name I can’t remember.)
The Cuban people are showing that the homing device built into everyone’s DNA can’t be silenced forever, or ultimately even for a second.