Cubas new rules on churches seen as curb on religious freedom

Posted on Mon, Mar. 13, 2006

Cuba's new rules on churches seen as curb on religious freedom
BY ALEXANDRA ALTER AND FRANCES ROBLES
Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI - Responding to the growth of evangelical Christianity in Cuba,
Fidel Castro's government issued new measures regulating worship in home
churches or casas culto as the formerly illegal practice continues to
spread.

Some Cuban pastors say the measures are similar to U.S. zoning
regulations, designed to impose rules on fast-growing evangelical
congregations.

``If anything, it demonstrates the growth of churches in Cuba,'' said
Pastor Elmer Lavastida of the Segunda Iglesia Bautista El Salvador in
the eastern city of Santiago. ``It's simply a movement with large
proportions that has to be legalized.''

But the measures worry other pastors and church activists, who see them
as another way for the communist government - officially atheist until
1992 - to curb religious freedom.

Three casas culto in central and eastern Cuba were closed by the
government late last year for failing to meet the new regulations,
according to the Evangelical Christian Humanitarian Outreach (Echo
Cuba), a Miami organization that conducts humanitarian missions through
churches in Cuba.

The Cuban Council of Churches, a coalition of 25 Protestant
denominations, recently formed a committee to track the new rules' effects.

``The Cuban government is afraid the church can create a kind of social
movement,'' said Omar Lopez Montenegro, head of the Miami-based Cuban
American National Foundation's committee for human rights.

Home churches have been part of Cuba's religious landscape for more than
a decade. Many of them were established as the numbers of worshippers
outgrew sanctuaries and moved into apartments and houses.

The government requires all denominations to apply for permits to
renovate sanctuaries or build new church structures. But religious
leaders say the government rarely grants building permits.

The Cuban government has at times interfered with home church worship.
In 1995, officials announced a ban on religious meetings in private
homes and closed 60 Protestant churches throughout the country. The same
year, an Assemblies of God pastor in the eastern project of Camaguey was
sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing to close his casa culto.

For the most part, however, the government has tolerated Protestant and
Catholic casas culto, which were technically illegal until the
Ministries of Justice, Finance and Foreign Trade passed the new
regulations. The measures were announced in April and went into effect
in September. According to a Cuban government publication, Gaceta
Oficial - which was provided to The Miami Herald by Echo Cuba - new
restrictions require home churches to register with the government,
provide full financial audits, limit their number of services and
receive permission to host foreign visitors and missionaries.

Cuba, an island of 11 million, has between 500,000 and 2 million
Protestants, said Marcos Antonio Ramos, a professor at the Florida
Center for Theological Studies and a Baptist minister at Calvary Baptist
Church in Little Havana.

Pentecostals and other Protestant evangelicals make up the fastest
growing group, and Cuban churches have scarcely been able to keep up.
According to the evangelical publication Operation World, evangelical
Christianity in Cuba is growing by about 6.5 percent per year. Yet the
number of official Protestant church buildings has remained at around
1,000 - roughly the same number that existed when Castro came to power
in 1959.

As a result, the faithful have spilled over into an estimated 15,000 to
20,000 home churches. (The Catholic Church also has casas culto, which
they call missionary centers, but the vast majority of home churches are
Protestant, Ramos said.)

Igor Alonso, a pastor at the Flamingo Road Church in Doral, Fla., who
has been on 10 church missions to Cuba, said he once attended a Baptist
service in the port town of Mariel in which 40 people squeezed into a
one-bedroom apartment.

``It's typical for a church of 200 people to have 15 to 20 home
churches'' he said. ``That's what they know as their church.''

But the growth also has made the government nervous.

``The government is a bit thrown off by this phenomenon,'' said one
church expert in Cuba who asked that his name be withheld for fear of
government reprisals. ``It's growing, and they don't know what to do
with it.''

Last month, Havana Pastor Carlos Lamelas was jailed after he was accused
of helping people flee the island. Lamelas, a pastor with the
Pentecostal denomination The Church of God, had preached at several home
churches and openly criticized the Cuban government for curbing
religious freedom, according to the broadcast Christian World News.

Cuban pastors often turn to American church groups for funding, which
often adds to the government's suspicion. Some denominations, such as
the Jehovah's Witnesses, have been openly persecuted through expulsions
and church closings; others, including Catholics and most Protestants,
enjoyed an easing of restrictions for most of the 1990s.

U.S. evangelical aid workers say the Cuban government became even more
wary of religious activity after the 2004 U.S. State Department's
Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba report, which encouraged U.S.
churches to get involved in humanitarian relief work on the island to
encourage a transition to democracy.

``There's suspicion that the United States is trying to create a church
of transition to divide Cuba,'' said Teo Babun, a Miami Cuban-American
who is president of Echo Cuba. ``They think people will attack the
revolution through the churches.''

Some Cuban pastors favor regulation.

``It's like in all parts of the world where there are laws,'' Niubes
Georgina Pernes, a pastor in Holguin province, said by telephone. ``The
pastor has to have some level of prestige, not be some nut. As long as
they are not counter-revolutionary, there's no problem.''

Pernes said she can accommodate up to 100 people at her home church,
which has existed since 1992. She requested the necessary permit, she
said, and promptly got it.

But others fear new legislation requiring all home churches to register
with the government will cause many of them to shut down.

``It's a problem for churches, and especially for home churches, because
they may not be able to fulfill all the requirements,'' Ramos said.

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