Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

U.S. Baptists welcome thaw in relations with Cuba

NewsBob Allen  |  December 19, 2014

By Bob Allen

Most Baptists in the United States with personal connections to Baptist communities in Cuba applauded President Obama’s surprise announcement Dec. 17 of plans to normalize relations between two nations separated by only 90 miles of water but five decades of political tension.

The new policy eases restrictions on travel for specific reasons including religious exchange, something of particular interest to Baptists in the two countries who have fostered friendships since Cuba relaxed restrictions on religious freedom in 1992.

ruben ortiz“We never expected this Christmas gift,” said Rubén Ortiz, pastor at La Primera Iglesia Bautista in Deltona, Fla., and current moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida.

Ray Johnson, coordinator of the statewide CBF affiliate based in Lakeland, Fla., said he was still waiting to hear response from most of his friends in Miami, a city with a large Cuban-American population described in secular media as having a mixed opinion about the policy change.

“Personally, I am overwhelmed with joy for the Cuban people and the people of Florida who will have more opportunity now to discover the beauties of the island and of its people,” said Johnson, who first visited Cuba in 2008 and returned in 2012. “Yesterday was a very good day for our world.”

In 2008, CBF Florida began a relationship with the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention, offering services including leadership training, Bibles and study resources, spiritual support and humanitarian aid.

Recently Ortiz, who was born in Cuba in 1972, returned to help lead a first-ever five-day spiritual academy offered through the Upper Room with sponsors including both national CBF and CBF Florida.

“This year has been a wonderful year for missions for Cuba,” Ortiz said. “I think this is part of what we were expecting, but not for Christmas.”

Cuba TrainingContributing to ‘human flourishing’

Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam also said he welcomed the diplomatic initiative.

“The people of Cuba, including the large Christian community there, stand to benefit from this development that represents a contribution to human flourishing,” said Callam.

Over the past 20 years, the Baptist World Alliance has passed two resolutions — including one in 2000 adopted during a meeting in Cuba of the BWA General Council — urging the United States to ease economic sanctions placed on the country.

A 1992 resolution noted “heavy burdens placed on the poor of … Cuba by the present trade embargo” and called for the “speedy removal of economic sanctions which impact leaders, while devastating the population at large.”

In 2000, the BWA affirmed “the urgency of the need for all nations and peoples to respect and support the human rights of all,” but also expressed its belief “that access to food and medicines is a basic human right and the denial of such access should not be used by nations as a tool of geopolitics.” It urged “governments to reconsider the appropriateness of the use of economic sanctions in the effort to encourage changes in political situations.”

“On behalf of the Baptist World Alliance, and in light of the position consistently taken by the BWA on the Cuban embargo throughout the years, I enthusiastically welcome the decision to begin to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations,” Callam said.

Cuba WorshipAmerican Baptist Churches USA leader Roy Medley said the U.S. decision will ease the suffering of Cubans.

“American Baptist Churches USA has long advocated for the normalization of relationships between our two countries, believing that the economic sanctions were creating undue hardship upon the poor while contributing nothing to our national security,” said Medley, ABCUSA general secretary. “We welcome the increased opportunities this will permit for relationships with the Baptists of Cuba.”

The ABCUSA has historic ties to Baptist conventions in Cuba, and has frequently urged the U.S. government both to lift sanctions and re-open diplomatic relations with the country.

Showing what democracy can accomplish

The Alliance of Baptists also has a close relationship with the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba, a group started by socially progressive churches expelled from the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba in 1989.

For years the Alliance has issued statements urging a thawing of U.S./Cuban relations, and especially the lifting of the embargo on Cuba put in place shortly after Fidel Castro and his communist rebels ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

The president’s announcement does not affect the embargo, but it includes other concessions the Alliance has urged in the past, such as review of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and release of the last three members of the Cuban Five, an alleged spy ring freed Wednesday in a prisoner exchange described as a major factor in the diplomatic breakthrough.

“The Alliance thanks President Obama for moving to normalize relations with Cuba, and it encourages our congressional leadership to do even more,” leaders of the group said in a statement. “Let’s end the embargo and stop punishing average Cubans for something that happened before most of them were born. If we truly want to spread democracy, let’s show the Cuban people, and the world, what a democracy is capable of accomplishing.”

Two staff members at ChurchNet, also known as the Baptist General Convention of Missouri, reacted to the news with fresh memories of a recent visit to Cuba as part of a delegation of U.S. Baptists to the 40th anniversary celebration of the Coordination of Baptist Workers and Students in Cuba.

“Because of the Churchnet delegation to Cuba, I understand — and celebrate — the news more than I would have otherwise,” said Brian Kaylor, Churchnet communications and engagement team leader. “My visit also increases my surprise. Although President Obama campaigned in 2008 on normalizing relations with Cuba, I found in my discussions with Cubans that they feared meaningful changes still remained years or decades away.”

gary snowdenGary Snowden, leader of Churchnet’s missions mobilization team, said his short visit to the island doesn’t qualify him as an expert on Cuba, but he came away convinced that the economic embargo and sanctions against Cuba have done little or nothing to effect a regime change.

“Those who have suffered most from the restrictions imposed by the embargo have been the Cuban people themselves,” said Snowden, who also serves as associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Lee’s Summit, Mo. “We heard many references during our visit to the ‘Special Period’ following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tremendous hardships that the people suffered in that time when Russian economic support basically disappeared.”

A boon to religious exchange

Both Kaylor and Snowden welcomed opportunities for increased travel for religious exchange.

“I suspect that this measure will facilitate more groups being able to engage in short-term missions and humanitarian projects on the island,” Snowden said. “I was impressed in our meetings with Baptists both at the COEBAC gathering and in other settings by their firm commitment to not only share the gospel with their fellow citizens, but also to strive to improve the quality of life for all Cubans.”

Cuba BibleKaylor, who until recently taught at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., and has written books on political communications, said he believes easing travel restrictions is a positive development because: “I believe we need to get to know each other. As Americans visit Cuba and Cubans visit the U.S., we build relationships built on people not propaganda.”

Ken Sehested, former executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America who first visited Cuba in 1991, called the president’s announcement “stunning” but long overdue.

“The U.S. has normalized diplomatic and economic relations with a host of other countries with whom we have significant political disagreements,” he said. He attributed the long exception for Cuba to domestic political pressure from significant populations of Cuban expatriates in Florida and New Jersey, two large and important swing states in national elections.

According to reports in secular media, the White House tested political waters in South Florida before announcing the change, finding that younger-Cuban Americans are less committed to U.S. policy viewed as a vestige of the Cold War past and increasingly irrelevant to national security today.

“U.S./Cuba relations are effectively gentrifying,” Sehested said. “The older members of that fight are dying off, on both sides, so that the sheer irrationality of existing political policies are coming to the surface. Our history of relations with Cuba is beginning to crumble under the weight of its own incoherence.”

Sehested, now co-pastor of Circle of Mercy in Asheville, N.C., said what is tipping the balance is not the work of those who have been pushing for decades for normalization of U.S./Cuba relations in the political sphere, but rather economic interests.

“There are 11 million consumers in Cuba which U.S. businesses want to connect with,” Sehested said. He recalled a poignant anecdote from years ago about a lay leader in a Cuban church asked if he thought the U.S. economic embargo would ever end. His Cuban friend answered that it probably will, and perhaps soon, but added, “When that happens, my fear is that your country will simply buy my country.”

Not all Baptists agreed with the U.S. action. Southern Baptist Convention ethicist Russell Moore told Baptist Press, “I disagree with President Obama‘s decision to normalize relations with Cuba. I tend to think engagement and trade is better than disengagement, but Cuba is a special case, a terrorist-sponsoring, human rights-violating dictatorship located just miles away from our border. I don‘t trust the Castro regime to keep the promises they are making.”

Other SBC leaders, including some from the denomination‘s International Mission Board, expressed cautious support.

Previous stories:

CBF helps sponsor first 5-day spiritual academy in Cuba

U.S. Baptists engage in goodwill visit to Cuba

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
Tags:CubaSocial IssuesAmerican Baptist Churches USABaptist World AllianceCBF FloridaChurchnetSouthern Baptist ConventionAlliance of Baptists
More by
Bob Allen
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

      News

    • del Toro’s Pinocchio is a tale of faith that is not wooden

      Analysis

    • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

      Opinion

    • What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers

      News


    Curated

    • How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps

      How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps

    • N. Carolina church says it lost nearly $800K in email scam

      N. Carolina church says it lost nearly $800K in email scam

    • On A Mission To Fill Empty Pulpits: A Couple Addressing The Preacher Shortage

      On A Mission To Fill Empty Pulpits: A Couple Addressing The Preacher Shortage

    • Second gentleman Emhoff visits Auschwitz, part of a push against antisemitism

      Second gentleman Emhoff visits Auschwitz, part of a push against antisemitism

    Read Next:

    Reverend Roboto: Artificial intelligence and pastoral care

    AnalysisKristen Thomason

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Pope Francis arrives in Africa on a two-nation tour seeking peace amid decades of conflict

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Museum of the Bible to host Wednesday morning event to pray for God’s judgment on America, and breakfast is not included

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • del Toro’s Pinocchio is a tale of faith that is not wooden

      AnalysisRick Pidcock

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Zimbabwe Theological Seminary names new principal

      NewsBNG staff

    • What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Church historian Richard Hughes reflects on a lifetime of ‘Troublesome Questions’

      OpinionTed Parks

    • Reverend Roboto: Artificial intelligence and pastoral care

      AnalysisKristen Thomason

    • What churches could learn from the Pub Choir phenomenon

      OpinionMike Frost

    • Southwestern Seminary student arrested for alleged ‘felony sexual assault’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Trial date set for Patterson and Southwestern versus Jane Roe

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Living into lament: A white response to the killing of Tyre Nichols by police

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

      OpinionBert Montgomery

    • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      OpinionBill Thurman

    • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • On the baptism of our firstborn

      OpinionEmily Hull McGee

    • Members of Florida church required to sign ‘biblical sexuality’ statement or be removed from membership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Life post-Roe: Is there middle ground between religious liberty and medical freedom?

      AnalysisMallory Challis

    • Pope Francis arrives in Africa on a two-nation tour seeking peace amid decades of conflict

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Museum of the Bible to host Wednesday morning event to pray for God’s judgment on America, and breakfast is not included

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • National Prayer Breakfast gets new sponsorship but still looks like government-sponsored religion, BJC leaders say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Zimbabwe Theological Seminary names new principal

      NewsBNG staff

    • What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Southwestern Seminary student arrested for alleged ‘felony sexual assault’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Trial date set for Patterson and Southwestern versus Jane Roe

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Faith groups must fight online hate, Interfaith Alliance urges

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Colorado cake maker back in court, this time for refusing service to a transgender woman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Members of Florida church required to sign ‘biblical sexuality’ statement or be removed from membership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Eight months later, there’s renewed interest in Adam Hamilton’s video on why he’ll remain a United Methodist

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • 165 religious leaders plead with White House to abandon immigrant travel ban

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Knowing a church’s history on slavery can be a nudge toward redemption, historians say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Sandra and Andy Stanley: ‘We’re not perfect parents, but we’ve learned some things along the way’

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • United Methodists on alert for dissidents ‘poaching’ members and pastors

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • The other speech Martin Luther King gave at Southern Seminary in 1961

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Faith-based leaders discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Biden’s proposed border policies

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • U.S. churches more likely to have adult and youth education programs than interfaith or ecumenical work

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Here’s Johnny! Embattled SBC pastor back in the pulpit and will headline a men’s conference

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Dan Hobbs, early leader of ABP and CBF, dies at 95

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • ‘Public safety ecosystems’ could help replace nation’s broken criminal justice system, evangelical leaders say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The church must show the world a more excellent way of nonviolence

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Church historian Richard Hughes reflects on a lifetime of ‘Troublesome Questions’

      OpinionTed Parks

    • What churches could learn from the Pub Choir phenomenon

      OpinionMike Frost

    • Living into lament: A white response to the killing of Tyre Nichols by police

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • Of church cemeteries, pulpit committees, crafts and sweet potato casserole

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • Of Margie, mountains and ‘El Shaddai’

      OpinionBert Montgomery

    • What I learned from meeting Martin Luther King in Louisville and Josie in Hopkinsville

      OpinionBill Thurman

    • On the baptism of our firstborn

      OpinionEmily Hull McGee

    • Has virtual worship actually harmed Christianity?

      OpinionSara Robb-Scott

    • ‘What can we forgive?’: An interview with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on Forgiveness

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • My father’s faith

      OpinionBrett Younger

    • The apology that never came at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • Trump and his allegedly disloyal white evangelical supporters

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • Doom-scrolling, sourdough starter and three kinds of kin

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Putin needs to be taken down

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • How my eyes were opened to America’s broken immigration system

      OpinionChristian Vaughn

    • Meditating with Buddhists and other Asian lessons

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • The Black resistance tradition and its fight for U.S. democracy

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Five book recommendations on creation stewardship for 2023

      OpinionDon Gordon

    • Queen Elizabeth was a role model for women in faith and leadership

      OpinionChrystal Cowan

    • Two football coaches went up to pray …

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • ‘Grief brain’: The three big deficits of grief

      OpinionLaurie Taylor

    • Prayer might not be enough

      OpinionTerry Austin

    • Mending broken pieces and broken lives with kintsugi

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • When my church and I let Jesus down: Jesus in the distressing disguise of the homeless

      OpinionChris Ayers

    • How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • N. Carolina church says it lost nearly $800K in email scam

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • On A Mission To Fill Empty Pulpits: A Couple Addressing The Preacher Shortage

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Second gentleman Emhoff visits Auschwitz, part of a push against antisemitism

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A Buddhist disaster relief organization offers key support after Monterey Park shooting

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • It shouldn’t seem so surprising when the pope says being gay ‘isn’t a crime’ – a Catholic theologian explains

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • USCCB official: The church must admit its role in destroying Native American culture

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • House bill would limit government authority over religious events

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘He Gets Us’ organizers hope to spend $1 billion to promote Jesus. Will anyone care?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Twitter reinstated white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He lasted 24 hours.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • In Rare Rebuke, Elaine Chao Calls Out Trump’s Anti-Asian Attacks

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Southern California helped birth white Christian nationalism

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Review: Decolonizing Christianity

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Two Leaders Of The New US House Could Put Baptist Diversity In The News Spotlight

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Making Sweat Feel Spiritual Didn’t Start With SoulCycle

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • White Christian nationalism isn’t pro-life. It’s pro-order.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Stop Using the Bible to Dehumanize Transgender People | Opinion

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Martin Luther King Jr. Was A Saint, But Also Just A Man — That’s The Glory Of It

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A Houston synagogue is tightening security after a woman broke in twice, damaged a Torah and harassed children

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Islamic paintings of the Prophet Muhammad are an important piece of history – here’s why art historians teach them

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Lutherans ordain first Palestinian woman pastor in Holy Land

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • 2 States Introduce Radical Bills To Prosecute Pregnant People For Abortions

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Flyers coach Tortorella defends Provorov’s Pride boycott

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS