Pastor Returns To See Evangelical Church Thriving In Cuba

[Osolomia]

By JOHN RICE
Published on 11/21/2003

Camp Canaan, Cuba — Paul Northrup raised his hands and shouted “Alelujah!” A congregation of more than 1,000 Cubans echoed back.

The small church that Northrup planted in central Cuba 50 years ago has grown and thrived since he left in 1959, becoming a small part of a broad movement that Cuban evangelicals have built across their socialist nation.

“They told us when we left, the work would fail,” Northrup said. “There were seven churches then. Now there are 53.”

Northrup, now 71, and his family came down from Southern California to join with Cuban church members for a 50th anniversary celebration this month at a borrowed Methodist center called Camp Canaan, some 170 miles east of Havana.

For hour upon hour, they sang, clapped, prayed and preached in a big brick church whose wide-open sides let breezes cut the tropical heat.

… But the wall was starting to crack by 1984, when Castro attended a Protestant service with Jesse Jackson. The collapse of the Soviet Bloc later led the government to abandon official atheism and to openly, if warily, accept religious faith.

More….
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=416ACF06-7262-44F5-8E1C-9E049BC20972


News to supposed Democrats who obviously prefer to swallow the cold war propaganda and remain travel banned and ignorant to this day than face the facts of reality even in their own North American hemisphere.

Time’s up kids. If the Dems don’t smarten up real fast and join the majority in opposing the Bush Doctrine for Cuba and other issues then you may as well as forget it. Spinelessness and ignorance and hypocrisy to the core just aint gonna sell in this neck of the woods for one.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This article is appearing in papers all over the country

I think they are running it because a lot of people don't know that there are actually a lot of churches in Cuba. Must be a conversation piece to many!

I found this window to the past to be very interesting. A lot of people apparently don't believe it when they hear that U.S. puppet Fulgencio Batista tortured and murdered dissenters, but hearing it from a church fella should make a dent in their grey matter somewhere, one would hope:

(snip) Northrup recalled seeing rebels that Batista's men had hung from streetlights. Another day, “Batista sent his planes in at night. One had a searchlight and the other planes would strafe where they thought the rebels were.” (snip)

If people would take the time to check on history of the last 50 years, they'd discover the U.S. was backing a completely evil, nasty, murderous little dictator in Fulgencio Batista, who closed elections altogether and suspended the constitution, and at one point, muted the press, as well as censoring all magazines coming in, from outside the country. These items were actually sold with black lines through undesirable information. It goes on and on and on. We also sold them jets and tanks with which he shot up "his own people." Phooey!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's an article on Cuba's VERY successful medical research and treatment, which is slightly more accurate than _Bush's State Department goons blowing off poisonous propaganda periodically about their scientific goals:

(snip) Cuban scientists say they are proud of their accomplishments, rooted in a decades-old commitment to develop biotechnology. Texas scientists from M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston played a role, according to the U.S.-based Cuba Biotechnology Co.

The scientists visited the island in the 1980s and told the Cubans that biotechnology held great promise. By 1996, the Cuban government had pumped more than $1 billion into the field.

10,000 WORKERS

Today, about 10,000 Cuban scientists and other specialists work in the industry. One of their crown jewels is the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a 753,474-square-foot complex in western Havana. It employs 1,245 people and researches how to use molecular biology -- including recombinant DNA techniques -- to devise new drugs and treatments.

Cuban drugs are now sold in 50 countries around the world but aren't available in the United States. (snip)

(snip) For starters, Cuba has difficulty obtaining American medical equipment, he said. ``In general we buy from suppliers in Europe and Japan, and that means the transportation costs are enormous, sometimes more than the product.'' (snip)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/7315672.htm

[leesa]

2. I feel sorry for Cuba to have to put up with Evangelical christian trash.

[Judi Lynn]

3. You betcha.

In many cases, they represent the uneducated, overfocused, reactionary element in this country for sure: certainly not the most mature, clear-headed ones among us!

[DemVet]

4. What is the difference between......

....Evangelical Christians as opposed to regular Christians that Democrats might be apart of?