The "Spirituality" of Communist Oppression
By: Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, May 30, 2008
Much of the Religious Left has abandoned its old
infatuation with Marxism, having long since moved on to radical
environmentalism or performing apologetics for radical Islam. But
quaintly, some relics still hang on to the old causes, chief of which is the 50
year love affair with Fidel Castro and his Cuban despotism.
During May 15-20, the Religious Left hosted an interfaith symposium in Cuba called
"Spirituality of Resistance, Liberation and Transformation" (http://warc.jalb.de/)."
Tragically, the event originally was to have convened in Lebanon.
But the "continuing illegal occupation of Palestine
by the forces of empire" in the Middle East
cut short that possibility, the organizers fretted. Is not Lebanon's
strife owing to the Iranian "empire's interference through its Hezbollah
surrogates? Of course, the Religious Left is not concerned about that
kind of "empire."
Instead, in Cuba's intoxicatingly supportive atmosphere, the Religious Left
chatted about how to resist the true evil "empire," i.e. America, and
that empire's supportive "destructive spiritualities" on the
Religious Right. The event, hosted by the Geneva-based World Council of
Churches, the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the
London-based Council for World Mission, apparently thought Cuba, as
"liberated" territory, was the best vantage point from which to
organize against the "empire."
"The (Cuban) people's suffering is acute because of the United
States-imposed blockade and the general forces of empire," explained the
communiqué
of the religious liberationists. "By 'empire' we mean the complex
and dynamic international regime of power anchored by the United States, with
its military power, neoliberal globalization, racist and patriarchal ideologies
and policies of environmental degradation."
Hopefully Fidel was still sufficiently coherent in his hospital bed to read
what must have been glowing Cuban media reports about all the solidarity that
the WCC et al were offering his sagging regime. "In spite of these
forces of empire and Cubans' relentless suffering, isolation and
impoverization, we have been inspired by the ways Cubans persevere in struggle,
embodying joy and resistance, dignity and self-esteem," gushed the church
bureaucrats from Geneva
and elsewhere.
Until 16 years ago, Cuba's
communist rulers were themselves an outpost of the Soviet empire, happily
performing as surrogates for their masters in Moscow
in Africa, Central America and elsewhere where
the cause of revolution was ripening. Since that empire's collapse, the
isolated Cuban regime has fossilized while its once revolutionary allies
quickly chose "neoliberal globalization" over the static theories of
Marx and Lenin.
Wonderfully oblivious, the Religious Left confab pretended that the last 20
years of history never happened, and instead focused on the threats posed by
the only modern "empire" that ever distressed it: the United States.
"We affirm that the problems of empire, amid which justice movements
struggle, are not only political problems but spiritual challenges," the
communiqué decreed. "Empire spawns its own destructive spiritualities,
such as the 'religious right,' and thus it seeks always to co-opt the powers of
religion for imperial aims."
Apparently trying to conclude on an upbeat note, the convo of theologians and
pastor-activists from the around the world celebrated that "new
spiritualities are coming forth to oppose imperial spiritualities." How
these "new spiritualities" substantively differ from the old
Liberation Theology of 30 and 40 years ago, which conflated the Gospel with
Marxist revolution, was not explained by the Religious Left enthusiasts.
"All organized religions have a special challenge of resisting the tactics
of division, such as forms of denominationalism and fundamentalism, which often
fuel ethnic, racial, nationalist and regional strife, and so strengthen the
powers of empire," the WCC et al fretted in Cuba. They were obliquely
referring to the reality that Pentecostalism and conservative Roman Catholicism
are sweeping the Global South, including Cuba, much to the consternation of
the Religious Left, which struggles to find support outside declining Western
seminaries or left-wing church bureaucracies.
The WCC et al incorporated some token Hindus and Muslims in their Cuban get
together, to showcase the cause's supposedly universal appeal.
"Justice movements require a new solidarity among religious groups
and all peoples of conscience (secular and religious) and thus we affirm and
honour the full multiplicity of spiritualities that enliven such
movements," the communiqué enthused. There was a strong focus on
"indigenous" peoples," who of course are among the "empire's"
chief victims.
An official with the hosting World Alliance of Reformed Churches sagely
observed: "Connecting with the struggle, resilience and vision of
the Cuban people and the spiritualities of aboriginal peoples and various faith
traditions brings fresh impetus in our struggle for justice." Meeting in Cuba was
probably a catharsis for many Western ecclesiastics and seminary professors, so
otherwise oppressed. Such freedom to speak their minds without fear!
"We are in Cuba,
a country that approaches the celebration of 50 years of its revolution,"
was how the Western prelates opened their communiqué. "Cubans
describe the present period as a 'Kairotic' passage, a time of crisis and
opportunity." For the Religious Left over the last 40 years,
"Kairos" moments are historic tipping points when the revolution
appears to be on the cusp of consummation. So there is hope that true
Marxism will prevail yet in Cuba!
But there are struggles ahead. The religious communiqué bemoaned
that Cuba's
"earlier revolutionary successes in agrarian reform have been set back by
the empire's brutal blockade." But gloriously, the undefeated Cuban
proletariat is still pressing forward.
Of course, the Religious Left communiqué denounced the American "empire's
worldwide 'war on terror,'" which has "created a virulent form of
Islamophobia that compounds other related racisms." The WCC et al
insisted that "emergent spiritualities must stand with our Muslim sisters
and brothers and work with them for a more just world for all peoples."
The Religious Left communiqué urged "positive values that can energize and
focus revolutionary change" and invited leaders of the arts around the
world to join in "strengthening the spiritualities that can resist regimes
of injustice." Naturally, such oppressive regimes do not include
Fidel Castro's communist dictatorship. The targeted regimes that the
Religious Left has in mind are the ones that were actually elected by their
populations. Apparently such democratic governments are merely tools of
"colonization, racism and patriarchy," and puppets of the
"empire."
That remnants of the Religious Left are still spouting such anachronisms in
even in the year 2008 should not be altogether surprising. That they should do
so in Fidel Castro's Cuba,
which has become the ossified Disneyworld for
unreconstructed Marxists, is perfectly appropriate.
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