Cal Thomas. Published Tuesday, April 11, 2000, in the Miami Herald
In Cuba, the Rev. Campbell is free to speak against the United States, but she could never speak against Cuba there.
A double standard has existed for some time over the participation of religious people in politics. Religious lefties who favor policies promoted by the pagan left are applauded by secular society. But religious righties are judged guilty of trespassing on private property when they engage the
world in efforts to achieve objectives they consider just as worthy as the lefties consider theirs.
In the morality play surrounding little Elian Gonzalez, the tensions between right and left (to say nothing of right and wrong) and between religions and states have become focused. The National Council of Churches, which consistently runs a financial and theological deficit, and its former
general secretary and Fidel Castro apologist, the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, for years have pushed a flawed hermeneutics that goes something like this: You shall never know the truth, so you can't be set free. It was Campbell who traveled to Cuba aboard a private jet to bring Elian's father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, dressed in new clothes, to Washington.
It seems Campbell and the NCC have never met a communist dictator they did not view in messianic terms. When she became head of the organization, she gave indications she might take it in a different direction. In 1993 Campbell confessed: ``We did not understand the depth of the suffering of
Christians under communism. And we failed to really cry out against the communist oppression.'' Now, given an opportunity to cry out against the communist oppression of Christians in Cuba and Castro's numerous other human-rights violations, Campbell has aligned herself with the oppressors and
directed her invective toward her own country.
Last year in Havana, with Castro looking on, Campbell apologized for U.S. policies toward Cuba before a crowd of 100,000: ``We ask you to forgive the suffering that has come to you by the actions of the United States,'' the reverend implored. ``It's on behalf of Jesus the liberator that we work
against this embargo.''
Campbell and her fellow travelers refuse to see a liberating Jesus when it comes to Cuba's anti-religion policies. According to Open Doors International, an advocacy group for persecuted Christians, the Cuban government routinely denies permits for new church construction or repair; church
property remains vulnerable to government seizure; public evangelism is prohibited; church leaders are monitored, interrogated and threatened with arrest; house churches and parochial schools are forbidden (Elian, if he follows his peers' path, will board five days a week in a state school and be
taught anti-Americanism, how to use violence in the cause of the Cuban state and other things no child should learn).
Did I mention that Bible distribution is forbidden in Cuba? Not that the NCC should be shocked because it long ago stopped believing what that book says and simply reinterprets it to conform to NCC political objectives.
In Cuba, Campbell is free to speak against her own country. She can speak against it in America, where she could, if she wished, criticize Cuba. But she could never speak against Cuba in Cuba, and neither can any Cuban. So which is the oppressive state?
The NCC's behavior ought to be a warning to religious righties. You might end up with an anemic and powerless faith if you increasingly align yourself with secular politics. Faith always loses in such an alliance. The goals of the world become the goals of the church.
The church's primary message of redemption from God, not the Democratic or Republican parties, is inevitably subordinated to an ideology and a lesser kingdom that, Scripture assures us and history proves, is passing away. One need look no further for an example than the NCC.
©2000 Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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