In the Presbyterian Church (USA), both the stated clerk of denomination and its Office of Public Witness are praising President Barrack Obama’s recent announcement about shifting the country’s policy toward Cuba.
On Wednesday (12/17/14) Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba, stating that the United States would end its “outdated approach” with the country. He has also asked Congress to have an “honest” and “serious” debate about lifting America’s long-standing trade embargo against Cuba.
In a show of good will, both countries released political prisoners — Alan Gross by the Cuban government and Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino, by the Obama administration.
Historic steps
PCUSA Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons released a statement welcoming the “historic steps taken by President Obama on normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba.”
Parsons cited the PCUSA’s efforts for more than 30 years to help “help ease the hardships caused by the United States’ economic embargo on Cuba and to end the embargo itself.”
The announcement, he said, “not only eases the suffering of the family members and friends of these prisoners, but also takes us closer to a day when our two peoples will have no impediments to full and flourishing relations. We rejoice along with the Cuban Council of Churches and the Presbyterian Church of Cuba for the good news that will further the cause of peace and human rights around the world.”
‘True neighbors as Jesus Christ has taught us’
The PCUSA’s Office of Public Witness (formerly called the Washington Office) also celebrated the news of the prisoner release and the “momentous changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba.”
“The release of Alan Gross and the three Cuban prisoners is an example of how nations can find common ground. When there is a will to live as true neighbors as Jesus Christ has taught us, we find a way towards justice and reconciliation,” Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, director of the Office of Public Witness stated in a press release.
Stating that the PCUSA has been advocating for changes in the U.S. policy toward Cuba for over 50 years, Nelson said, “The record will show that our work on building better relations between the United States and Cuba is faithful to the policies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Over the years, we have consistently called on our nation’s leaders to end the embargo and find common ground. …Our faith partners on the ground in Cuba have suffered significantly due to the failed policies of the past. The Obama administration has taken a major step to reunite families and open doors to broader opportunities and a new way forward.”
Visiting Cuba
Parsons was in Cuba this past November as part of a delegation of faith leaders visiting with church representatives, Cuban government officials and others.
The delegation was led by the Rev. John L. McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service (CWS). “CWS has long urged the U.S. government to lift the decades-old embargo on Cuba and to normalize relations with the island nation,” read a denominational press release. “Last year McCullough and other U.S. faith leaders praised President Obama for a 2011 directive that lifted restrictions for religious and academic travel to Cuba, in addition to unrestricted travel by Cuban Americans.”
Not the first visit
Parsons also visited Cuba in in the winter of 2012. In a Layman Online article, Alan F.H. Wisdom wrote about a Nov.28-Dec. 2 trip to Cuba by a delegation from the National Council of Churches that included Parsons. Wisdom wrote that the delegation “lamented the strained relations between that island nation and its neighbor to the north. U.S. church leaders in the NCC delegation late last year cast blame almost entirely on their own country, denouncing U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba and the U.S. imprisonment of five convicted Cuban spies. They levied no comparable criticisms against the Cuban communist regime of Raúl and Fidel Castro.”
The article quoted Parsons as characterizing the United States as “strong but fearful.” Parsons alleged, “We have become fearful of ‘the other’ … and it’s hard to make good decisions when you are afraid.” The Stated Clerk agreed with Cuban theologian Adolfo Ham’s assertion that “[w]hat the churches in both Cuba and the U.S. have to do is change the mentality in U.S. politics that punishment, not reconciliation, is the most effective foreign policy.” Parsons chimed in: “The heart of the Bible message is reconciliation, so when the actions of human beings run counter to reconciliation, we are working against God.”
Wisdom also pointed out in his article that “The PCUSA News Service gave exhaustive coverage to the NCC visit to Cuba: 11 articles spread over 5 weeks, most authored by news service director Jerry Van Marter. There was hardly an unfavorable word toward the Cuban government. On the contrary, the news service gave extensive space to a series of meetings the delegation held with top Cuban officials. The officials were quoted defending their communist regime and denouncing the United States. The PCUSA News Service stories provided no space for rebuttals from anti-Castro Cubans or Americans. Indeed, it appears from the delegation’s schedule that it did not meet with any Cuban dissidents.
Related article: 5 facts about Cuba, by Joe Carter of the ERLC
18 Comments. Leave new
I can’t believe I’m agreeing with parsons, but on this one the President got it right. We have been dealing with China for years, and they are hardly a democracy. Cuba is not a threat to us, and we just took Cuba out of Putins control, their traditional ally. So there’s not much downside I can see here. Canada and Mexico have been dealing with Cuba for years, so why not us. The castro brothers already have one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel, so change will come.
I am not the only one that has realized that the socialist left inside and outside this country are actively attacking every American institution… with Christian churches high on the list. They have infiltrated the PCUSA and are in the process of using Christian monies to support Anti-Christian causes. They have demoted the Bible’s ageless wisdom to “suggested” advice to live by. They disguise their takeover with a “Homosexual Hoax”.
The liberally left PCUSA routinely agrees with the Socialist Obama. So, why is anyone surprised by his stomach punch to Cubans in Cuba and America?
Wake up America!
**I am not the only one that has realized that the socialist left inside and outside this country are actively attacking every American institution… with Christian churches high on the list**
Look what Socialism/communism has left Cuba, a manure hole, and for the person in the White House to use excuses to lift sanctions to Cuba proves who runs this government. Corporate, crony capitalism, the greed is good boys/girls.
Pastors in this nation, need to wake up, and Men need to start acting like men rather than milk toast girlymen.
Communist China and Communist Cuba have one think in common, enslave their people, hating the USA, but have deceived enough of the ruling class in the USA thinking both Communist China and Communist Cuba are moderating. Rubbish, both nations are evil and wicked dragging the USA down to their level of evilness.
The Presbyterian church of Cuba has long been a toady and a useful fool for the Communist party of Cuba and the Castro brothers, as the PCUSA is a toady and useful idiots for the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic party now. If the Cuban Presbyterian church indeed would have stood for freedom of conscious, thought, religious freedom, Castro would have lined them up against the wall in 1959 as he did most of the Catholic church that did not buy into his revolution. The fact the church was in essence silent when Castro killed, exiled, imprisoned over 1 million of his own people and caused another 2 million onto rafts to Key West tells you all you need to know about the PCUSA-Cuban church binary.
As the PCUSA is no more of less than the religious arm of the Obama administration, I cannot wait the blizzard of opinions and pontifications from the Stated Clerk’s office starting in January when Congress changes hands and in 2016 when hope and change runs its course. Not to worry though, there is no shortage of terrorist and despots, from Hamas to Mugabi or Zimbabwe, which the PCUSA can hold in its all affirming and loving embrace.
The US has been sending hundreds of thousands of US jobs China for years, that has a human rights record equal to Cuba or worse, so what the problem there? Or is that Ok because the cheap labor make the dollar signs line up better in everyone bank accounts?
I’m no fan of parsons or of the direction of the PCUSA, but I’m somewhat well connected politically, most of my political friends who I have been seeing a lot of as of late at get togethers, socials etc , who are no fans of Obama, think he got this one right.
Of course the stated clerk and those in the office of GA are praising the actions of the current administration in Washington DC. Everything which the current administration does gets praised by the stated clerk and those in office of GA. They promulgate their liberal orthodoxy throughout the church and then give their stamp of approval to everything that happens in politics under the current administration. We never hear words of wisdom about the truth of the scriptures or the doctrines therein. No – it is always politics. We always hear, “We praise President Obama for this”, “We praise Obama for that.”, “We worship the president for doing this.”, “We worship the president for doing that.”, “We bow down to this idol, “We bow down to that idol.”. We never hear about the Bible anymore. We hear about how naïve those fundamentalists are for believing that Christ is Savior and by whom we are saved and only so. We hear about how stupid and foolish fundamentalists are for believing marriage is between only a man and a woman. We hear them tell us that sodomy is actually a moral good and proclaim it so – that sodomy praises God. What a bunch of foolishness we hear from Louisville! What a waste of money. No wonder everyone is leaving.
abortion
54 million murdered in this country 1973-2012, and what is the Presbyterian response? acceptance, excuses, forgiveness for the women who have made this ‘difficult choice’, silence. abortion is all about two things, greed and convenience. rarely does it have to do with health. the women who undergo this procedure are rarely victims of rape as well, this is a misconception.
everything else is noise compared to the mass murder of innocents in the womb. the wrath of God will destroy the United States if the people of the Presbyterian Church, and others, don’t wake up.
artificial contraception, viagra, a culture of hedonism, greed gone wild, all swept under the rug. when are we ever going to see someone here write about the real issues of the PCUSA; and no, they have absolutely nothing to do with real estate, trust funds, attorneys, legal battles or money.
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