RELIGIOUS BELIEFS DO NOT DETERMINE POLITICAL OPTIONS
Caridad Diego Bello
Head of the Bureau in Charge of Religious Affairs of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee. 

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

“[…] our Revolution is in no way at odds with [peoples’] religious feelings […]”
[1]

What does the word “religion” mean? Although there have been numerous attempts to define this concept, no final consensus has been reached. Nevertheless, certain elements frequently appear, such as the acceptance of the notion that supernatural, transcendental, supra-natural forces exist, accompanied by the belief there are also sacred things, and the fulfilment of certain practical actions derived from those beliefs, as well as the creation of groups or human associations of a religious nature.

Religion is one of the forms that social consciousness adopts, and it has diverse –gnoseological, social and psychological— causes. It is one of the ways in which the material conditions of existence reflect on peoples’ (and also, collectively, in society’s) thinking. Its changes occur slower than those that intervene in the material base of society.

When speaking about the religious phenomenon, we can say that it manifests itself in peoples’ faith in the existence of things supernatural, and this can be conceived in a wide variety of ways. The use of the word has in no way a derogative intent, but rather it merely makes reference to the belief in a God, in a certain type of being, a spirit, that the believer assumes as something that objectively exists beyond any natural object, process or phenomenon.

Within this phenomenon, the following elements are generally present: a religious awareness and activity, besides the various organizational forms, all of them recognized as elements of the system. Some authors also include the relations that are established among the individual elements of a group of people.

Religious consciousness –considered the central element— is characterized by faith, by credence attached to supernatural elements that is expressed through various degrees or levels of development.

Through these types of activities –that might be individually or collectively expressed— believers aspire to establish a relationship with their object of worship (from individually or commonly praying or invoking, gaining new followers, disseminating the gospel, reading religious texts, training in the religious doctrine, conservation of objects or sites that have a religious meaning, to the performance of ceremonies that conform the religious cult).

In accordance with the level of development, different expressions are established. The fundamental function that its institutions and organizations have is the elaboration and observation of the religious dogma (doctrine).

Sociological studies and working experience with this segment of the population prove that a significant portion of our people has some type of belief in the supernatural, something that –as we mentioned earlier— many experts believe is its fundamental essence.

The great majority of our compatriots express this in a diffused, spontaneous, scantly elaborated way, through a practice that lacks systematization, having little impact on their socio-political behaviour.
A minority conceives it –and, less still, practices it— in an organized and structured way.

A particular feature of the panorama that has to do with believers in Cuba is that only a small fraction of them belong to established churches and other religious institutions. The percentage of those who attend formal cults and define themselves as members of given ecclesiastical institutions is still more reduced. In that sense, it is more pertinent to speak of believers than of religious individuals.

A wide and diverse religious universe exists in Cuba. This country is characterized by the fact that no one religion exists that might typify our society. Within it, (Catholic, Evangelical and Protestant, Orthodox) Christians, those who practice Cuban religions of African origin (santeros, abakuás, paleros, ararás among others), Hebreus, Muslims, Buddhists, Spritualists coexist. Every belief and religion enjoys equal respect and consideration, and no pre-eminence of any one of them over the others is acknowledged.

This real equality was only attained after the triumph of the Revolution, because previously, several religious beliefs and their practitioners suffered diverse degrees of discrimination that went as far –in the case of those of African origin— as having to suffer legal penalties.

The most widespread beliefs are those that compose what has come to be known as popular religiousness, as a result of the cultural mixting and synthesis that originated Cuban nationality. Many of those that are practiced by the people have melded. Most of them are spontaneous, emotion-rich and their practice is utilitarian and (comparatively) removed from religious institutions and organizations.

Religious beliefs and practices belong to the realm of personal, private matters; of citizens’ individual tastes and preferences, and are therefore detached (together with the diversity of institutions and structures in which they group and organize) from the state, which is a lay entity. Their goals and functions are equally so, even if –due to their impact on the social sphere– they require duly regulated links and relations with the realm of the State.

Throughout all these years in which the policy vis-à-vis religious beliefs, believers, institutions and organizations has been consistently applied, there have been comrades who, referring to Karl Marx’ (1818-1883) well-known phrase –most frequently quoted out of context– “religion is the opium of the people,” have expressed an interest in knowing the reasons why we maintain a constructive, respectful policy of dialogue and systematic exchange with the variety of religions conceptions present in the country.

This well-known phrase was actually written by Karl Marx in 1843. It is included in the last part of the Contribution to Criticism of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law, the manuscript pages of which were mostly lost, except those that were published under the title Criticism of Hegel’s Political Law,
[2] in the general introduction to which he wrote: “Religious suffering is, on the one hand, the expression of real suffering, and, on the other, a protest against real suffering. Religion is the suffering experienced by the oppressed being, the heart of a heartless world, as well as the spirit of a situation that is deprived of a spirit. It is the opium of the people.”

In this thought, Marx not only speaks of opium when referring to religion, but also of protest against the total suffering of the exploited beings. This phrase, as Fidel expressed it to Frei Betto
* in the interview he agreed to in 1985 (well-known among all of our people by its publication in the book Fidel and religion, “has a historical value and is absolutely fair at a given moment,”[3] [] “it is a truth that is adjusted to given historical-concrete conditions.”[4]

In the course of that interview of our Commander in Chief, undertaken by the Brazilian Dominican Friar on this controversial topic, the person interviewed says:  In my opinion, religion –from a political viewpoint– is not in itself opium, nor a miraculous remedy. It can be opium or a marvellous remedy depending on the way in which it is used or applied to the defence of the oppressors and exploiters, the oppressed and exploited, depending on the way in which the political, social or material problems of the human being are approached, because, irrespective of theology or of religious beliefs, that human being is born and has to live in this world
[]”.[5]

And he added: “From a strictly political perspective –and I believe I know some politics–, I even think that you can be a Marxist without ceasing to be a Christian, and to work together with the Marxist Communists to transform the world. The important thing is that, in both cases, they be sincere revolutionaries, ready to suppress the exploitation of man by man and to struggle for a fair distribution of social wealth, equality, fraternity and dignity for every human being, that is, that they be conveyors of the most advanced political and social consciousness although, in the case of Christians, the starting point is a religious conception.”
[6]

For the classics of Marxism-Leninism, from Marx and Engels to Lenin, religious faith in itself did not constitute an impediment to becoming a member of the revolutionary political party. As Fidel himself has expressed, in the Program of the Bolshevik Party not one word can be found that might exclude Christians from the party.

In 1918, Lenin argued that: “If a priest comes to cooperate with us in our work –if he conscientiously fulfils the work of the party and does not oppose its work–, we can admit him to the ranks of social-democracy.” And he added: “Not only can we admit him, but we should also work and attract to the Social-Democratic Party all those workers who still maintain their faith in God. We are decidedly against the slightest affront vis-à-vis those workers’ religious convictions
[][7]

Fidel understands the fact that, regardless of the differences that might exist in the spiritual field, unity is not only necessary, but also possible. This political approach to the religious issue is what facilitated the passing, by the IV Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, held in 1991, of a resolution the text of which reads: “To suppress from the present Rules any interpretation that would entail the denial of the right, for a vanguard revolutionary, to aspire to be admitted to the party as a consequence of his religious beliefs.”.
[8]

In the first Cuban Marxist party, not only was this prohibition absent, but also in its Rules the right of believers to become members was enshrined in 1938, as long as they accepted the program and fulfilled their duties as militants.

Furthermore, the other revolutionary organizations which struggled against Batista’s dictatorship and came together to constitute our present party, did not exclude believers either.

At the Fourth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, its First Secretary explained that this situation emerged at a phase of the Cuban revolutionary process, within the framework of a specific juncture.

At present, many believers have declared the fact that they belong to a religious organization or that they honor a given religious faith when they are in the process of being considered as future militants of the Cuban Communist Party or of the Union of Communist Youth, or have declared it after having joined those organizations.

One does not become a party member being a believer or not. We are not a confessional sect, but rather vanguard revolutionaries, and when a vanguard revolutionary joins the political organization as a worker, peasant, student, combatant, professional from whatever sector, he/she acquires rights and duties vis-à-vis politics and society. That is why being a believer does not make a person a second-class militant; he/she is no different from the one that professes no religious belief.

He/she is a militant as any other and furthermore has the responsibility of equally being an exemplary individual, not only at his/her workplace or the place where he/she studies and in the neighbourhood where he/she lives, but also among the religious community that he/she belongs to, because he/she must manifest, always and anywhere, a contrary attitude vis-à-vis whatever violation of the law, criminal actions or actions politically opposed to his/her principles, including the attempt to manipulate people with those goals in mind.

The policy of the party and of our State with respect to religious beliefs, institutions and believers stems from our nation’s history, in which, during the independence struggles, believers of various religions took part, and also from Fidel’s dialectical thought, from the practice carried out by Revolution, from agreements concerted at the Cuban Communist Party congresses –and particularly the IV Congress–, as well as the constitutional principles that have their roots deep in the Cuban tradition of independence ideas, including all the constitutions of the Republic in Arms, those that were elaborated, since 1901, with the beginning of the subservient republic and the Constitution passed in 1976 by the majority vote of the Cuban electorate, and modified in 1992 by the National Assembly of People’s Power.

This last document establishes, in several of its articles, the separation between Church and State, and therefore the lay character of the latter, including the area of education, which is public and free at all levels, and also the equality of all citizens of the country with respect to the right to profess the cult that they prefer, to uphold several of them simultaneously (a distinctive aspect of religious practice in the country) or to have none at all (this is one of the few constitutions that states this in its articles). The condition of a lay state is traditional in Cuba.

Article 8 has a particular importance, because it is the one that expresses that the Cuban state recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom, and that the different beliefs and religions enjoy equal consideration. Meanwhile, article 55 guarantees the freedom of each citizen to change his/her religious beliefs or to have none whatsoever, and to profess, within the framework of respect for the law, the religious cult that he/she prefers.
[9]

The fulfilment of these and other constitutional precepts (as reflected in articles 42 and 43 of our Magna Carta, in which the equality of rights and the subjection to equal rights for all Cuban citizens without distinction, nor any type of discrimination due to religious beliefs either), reflects the religious freedom that exists in the country and the guarantee that those rights be exercised in fulfilment of the law.
[10]

Revolutionaries and patriots are not divided because of their religious beliefs, but rather the ideals of liberty, solidarity and human promotion of the Revolution and the political and social action derived thereof is what unites all those that uphold them.

There are still many revolutionary individuals who maintain the opinion that whoever professes a religious belief is not politically reliable, and this is not in agreement with the real truth. Today, believers, in their capacity as part of the people that they indeed are, take active part in the most various activities organized by the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women, the institutions of People’s Power and other social organizations.

Religious institutions make decisions about the participation of their personnel in organs of government representation. Today, four of them are deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power, while others, coming from different religions, are present in the organs of state power at various levels.

The state does not subsidize any religious institution, nor does it intervene in their internal functioning. All of them develop, with total independence and autonomy vis-à-vis the state, their social activities; they name their hierarchies or leadership, train their personnel, freely move within the given territory, maintain relations with their counterparts abroad and with foreign personalities of their same milieu, welcome delegations and guests of that nature, organize events or attend them in other countries. Many of them even have some of their members filling posts in international religious structures.

Religious institutions own their movable goods and real estate, including their temples. They repair, enlarge and reconstruct them; they receive support from the Cuban state for the purchase of building materials.

They have centers where their personnel is trained (seminars, novitiates and biblical institutes). They undertake
with no restriction whatsoever the selection and incorporation of their personnel to various studies. Hundreds of young people achieve those studies in seminars and religious universities in different countries.

They receive literature from abroad and, at home, publish magazines and leaflets, a large number of which are duly inscribed in the register of periodical publications.

They also organize activities of a social nature, among others, management undertakings at hospitals and elderly peoples’ homes, an effort for which they count on state support. They receive and distribute donations through social and government entities and carry on collaboration projects.

Activities of a religious or cultural character also take place, some of them outside the premises dedicated to their cult and with an ecumenical character: pilgrimages, processions, united cults, drums, concerts, etc… are the most significant ones. In order to assist these efforts, authorities of the places where they are organised create favourable conditions and facilitate their realization.

During all these years, the office in charge of religious affairs and the corresponding state institutions have maintained a systematic, permanent and positive communication with every religious institution and manifestation as well as with fraternal associations.

We take part in formal periodic and other meetings, we attend the different celebrations to which we are invited. We exchange views with their leaders in order to enhance the favourable relations that already exist.

With all of them we develop links that allow us to reflect on national or international matters of interest, to assess the ways in which they might increasingly insert themselves in our reality and solve the day-to-day problems that arise when they pursue their activities, and that are the same ones that affect the people at large, basically resulting from the unfair and genocidal blockade imposed by the US for almost 50 years and the increasingly restrictive measures of that hostile policy of the North American government.

To publicise Cuban reality among religious organizations and institutions not only at home but also abroad is among our list of tasks nowadays.

Party policy with respect to its relations with believers and their institutions does not contemplate, as a goal, the elimination of religious beliefs, something that is not objectively viable, as history has repeatedly demonstrated, and runs counter to the principles of equality and freedom upheld by our Revolution.

The primary objective of this policy that is being implemented throughout the nation is to increase and to strengthen the unity of all of our people and to achieve the participation of everyone without any discrimination whatsoever.

Its fundamental aspects are the main weapon that has reduced the space for our enemies to operate on, winning many honest and valuable individuals to the tasks of building the society that we are developing. It has prevented the enemy from manipulating religious feelings as well as the diverse manifestations and institutions in which believers and members of fraternal societies are grouped.

Imperialism does not renounce the manipulation of faith against the Revolution. The fact that they resort to certain practices (having little to do with religious concepts themselves, aiming at winning over ephemeral supporters or those interested in obtaining material gains or chance policies) cannot be overlooked.

The goal of our policy is to establish and increase relations of mutual respect between the Cuban state and the religious milieu, between those who believe and those who do not, to prevent counter-revolutionary actions and to denounce not only elements which promote these, but also actions of a common criminal nature and to confront the attempts and actions of the enemy which aim at implementing the subversive purposes of the Bush Plan against our country in general as well as against Cuban religious individuals in particular.

In this shameful program through which the US government's attempts to dictate actions to produce a political and governmental transition in our country, religious institutions do not escape the careless policies of our enemies either, as these try to impose, through its content, certain tasks to be accomplished by those religious and fraternal organizations in Cuba, as if they were its subjects, as if churches and other institutions of a similar nature did not respond to their people, to serve and respect them.

Constructive relations among the different religious and fraternal denominations and manifestations or brotherhoods are being promoted. Differences are not exacerbated: it is on coincidences that we build. The Revolution is not at odds with religious feelings, but with their political use and manipulation against the interests of society.

“Religious practices and beliefs are not at odds with the Revolution, as long as any religious faith is honestly professed and its principles –not only formally upheld, but consequently observed in personal and social behaviour– promote love for fellow creatures, selflessness, protection of the weakest or helpless, family unity, social justice, moral and civic virtues, love and sacrifice with respect to the fatherland. Those who do not act accordingly, deny not only their people, but also their faith”.
[11]

 


 

[1] Fidel Castro: Comparecencia en el programa Ante la Prensa del 17 de diciembre de 1959 (Presentation at the program Meet the Press of 17 December 1959), Revolución y religión, Dirección Política del MINRAR, La Habana, p. 18

[2] Carlos Marx: Crítica del Derecho Político Hegeliano, Editorial de Ciencia Sociales, La Habana, 1976, p. 14.

* Brazilian author Frei Betto is a Dominican Friar of international renown as a liberation theologian. He has written 53 books of diverse literary genres –novels, essays, detective stories, childhood and youth memoirs and texts on religious topics. In 1986 he was elected as the Intellectual of the Year by the Brazilian Writers’ Union. He is an advisor on social movements such as the Grassroots Ecclesiastical Communities and the Movement of Landless Rural Workers and has actively taken part in Brazilian political life of the last 45 years. In the years 2003 and 2004 he was President Luis I. Lula da Silva’s special advisor and coordinator of Social Mobilization of the Zero Hunger Program.

[3] Frei Betto: Fidel y la religión, Oficina de Publicaciones del Consejo de Estado, 1985, p. 332.

[4] Id., p. 333.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Vladimir I. Lenin: Lenin sobre la religión (Lenin on religion), Imprenta Nacional de Cuba, La Habana, 1961, pp. 44 & 45.

[8] CC del PCC: Este es el Congreso más democrático (This is the most democratic Congreso), Resolución sobre los Estatutos del Partido Comunista de Cuba, Editora Política, La Habana, 1991.

[9] AN del PP: Constitución de la República de Cuba (Constitution of the Republic of Cuba), Ediciones Pontón Caribe S.A., La Habana, 1975, pp. 17, 34, 35 y 40.

[10] Id.

[11] CC del PCC: Documentos para el trabajo del partido, “El trabajo del partido en la actual coyuntura” (Documents for parety work, the work of the party in the present juncture), Editora Política, La Habana, 1996, p. 22.

Spanish original:
http://www.cubasocialista.cu/Revistas/Revista48/05CubaSocialista48.pdf