Cuba's Religion Minister Calls Gospel Printing Operation 'Dangerous'

Regime's Religious Freedom Rhetoric Rings Hollow as Atheist Official Issues Menacing Critique

By Allie Martin
October 24, 2005

(AgapePress) - Cuba's Minister of Religion claims a Christian pastor in that country was engaged in subversive and dangerous actions. The church leader's alleged crime, apparently, was printing the Gospel of John.

Earlier this month, five plain-clothes police officers raided the home of Pastor Eliseo Rodriguez Matos in the Cuban city of Colon. The officers confiscated a printing press and printed Gospels of John, and the Assembly of God church pastor was taken to the local police station for interrogation.

Todd Nettleton is with Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry to persecuted Christians worldwide. He says the Minister of Religion had harsh words for Matos. The Havana-based official, an atheist named Caridad Diego, said the printing press was "very dangerous," a characterization the VOM representative sees as very ironic.

"It's just a small [device], almost like a mimeograph machine," Nettleton points out, "and yet the minister of religion for the whole country of Cuba considers it to be very dangerous." Of course, he notes, the Cuban government has recently stepped up its campaign against unregistered house churches. In that environment, printing and disseminating the gospel is an activity that would prove dangerous indeed -- dangerous for the believer involved.

And yet, the VOM spokesman points out, government officials in the communist nation have actually promoted greater religious freedom in the past few years. "They've even held some widespread gospel crusades in the country of Cuba," he says. "In one case, even Fidel Castro was present at one of those gospel meetings."

For that reason, among many observers "it was kind of thought that this is a place where things are getting better for the Church," Nettleton says. "But I think this case shows that they are still watching these churches. They're still keeping an eye on what's going on, and they are still coming against the Church."

Nettleton says it is time for Cuban officials to keep their promises to expand religious freedom in that country.