While the Catholic Church in the Castro Kingdom revels in its special status as a branch of government, other Christian churches on the island are being repressed.
Good luck finding this information on religious persecution in the major news outlets.
And good luck finding reports on how the Castro regime’s Office of Religious Affairs operates.
That branch of the totalitarian state has authority over all religious groups and activities, and it constantly restricts the activity of churches they don’t approve of.
If you rock the boat and refuse to give God’s share to Caesar, the Office of Religious Affairs will refuse to register you as a “real” church. And this refusal leads to only one outcome: persecution.
Most of these congregations and their pastors are “Afro-Latins.”
Here is the latest example of this kind of flagrant religious persecution, which has profoundly racist undertones.
It involves a brave imprisoned Protestant pastor who has received scant attention during the normalization circus.
The story can be found in a relatively obscure publication, Christian Today (not to be confused with the better-known Christianity Today).
It can also be found in the Christian Solidarity Worldwide website.
Imagine the coverage a story such as this one would get if black churches and black pastors were being persecuted by a white oligarchy anywhere else but Cuba. Or imagine the coverage the persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq would receive if that tragic story had racial overtones similar to those of the Cuban story.
No doubt about it. The Lords of the News don’t care that the white racist oligarchy of the Castro regime includes the leaders of the Catholic Church in Cuba.
The botttom line is this: apparently, black lives don’t matter if those lives happen to be Cuban.
Cuban pastor released after 6 months behind bars
A Cuban pastor has been released after six months in prison without trial.
Rev Jesús Noel Carballeda, 45, from Havana was being held in Valle Grande prison in San Antonio de los Baños for holding unauthorised religious services. He was released on 31 August.
Carballeda’s church is linked to the Apostolic Movement, a fast growing network of protestant churches which the Cuban government has refused to register. Because of this status, all of the movement’s activities are technically illegal and they can’t apply for permits for a designated place of worship.“We do not want to bother anyone,” Carballeda’s wife said in March. “We just need a place to worship. We are forced to meet in the open air, in parks or rented rooms as [the authorities] will not give us legal recognition.”
Carballeda was previously imprisoned in 2000 for four months after militant communist neighbours filed legal complaints about church services he held in his family home.
He was then put on probation and made to regularly check in with the authorities. While he was barred from holding any religious activity in his house he continued to lead the church, holding services elsewhere.
Carballeda’s detention is part of a larger crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba over the past few years, according to religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
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