PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. (ABP) — The Alliance of Baptists has applauded recent changes in relations between the United States and Cuba and urged Congress to end travel restrictions to the island nation for all Americans.
Meeting July 29-Aug. 1 in Pacific Grove, Calif., the progressive Baptist group that split from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1987 urged passage of H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.
The bill, which passed the House Agriculture Committee June 30 by a vote of 25-20, would remove obstacles to legal sales of American agricultural commodities to Cuba and end travel restrictions on all United States citizens to Cuba. It is awaiting action by the full House of Representatives.
The resolution also called on President Obama to "thoroughly review" U.S. policies on Cuba, including America's 50-year-old trade embargo against the communist nation and the embargo’s "destructive impact on both countries."
The Alliance, which claims membership of more than 2,000 individual members and 130 affiliate congregations, has 32 local and global mission partners. One is the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautista de Cuba (Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba). Several Alliance churches have sister-church relationships with Cuban congregations and have experienced first-hand frustrations with limits on travel. The Alliance has passed resolutions on Cuba every year except one since 2001.
Other statements adopted at the Alliance meeting called for "just, humane, equitable and comprehensive immigration reform" and international agreements on reduction of nuclear arms.
The disarmament statement specifically urged adoption of a new START treaty between the United States and Russia. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee planned to vote on the treaty Aug. 4 but decided to postpone it until after Congress' August recess.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.