since 1994 the Catholic Left in Haiti has destroyed what little remained after two centuries of savagery in the name of social justice and heretical liberation theology This is about the only phrase in the whole otherwise excellent article I would agree with. Aristedes was, unfortunately, a Catholic priest, but he did indeed go in, wholeheartedly, for "heretical liberation theology" (read Communist). This movement, led by Leonardo Boff, has always been opposed by the Pope and has fortunately receded in most of Latin America. Aristedes was, in fact, defrocked from the priesthood and condemned by the Church before the clinton Putsch, which no doubt made him ore attractive to clinton. The first thing Aristedes did on gaining power was tear down the Catholic cathedral and attempt to murder the bishop for defrocking him. So I think it's fair to say that Aristedes is a CINO--Catholic in Name Only.
"Besides this ongoing democratic charade, since 1994 the Catholic Left in Haiti has destroyed what little remained after two centuries of savagery in the name of social justice and heretical liberation theology."
Paging WCC/NCC/UCC.
As I remember, when I returned from Haiti, having lived in Gonaives and Port-au-Prince for a few months each, I was not very optimistic about Haiti's future. Not that the Haitians were not worth it, but the liberal/internationalist approach was self-defeating (and there was a good reason we set up camp across the street from the Catholic church in Gonaives when we arrived, control). The liberal church harms more than helps in these countries. Venezuela and Brazil (
http://www.ncccusa.org/braziltrip.html) are now on the same path lead by corrupt communist "populists" with the ever present influence of Castro (
http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04cubadelegationwrapup.html - note how NCC handles the 78 prisoners sentence by Castro and the DoD not letting the NCC "visit" the detainees at GITMO).
Not much has changed from when "Who The Real Ogres Are" was written [
http://www.nocastro.com/archives/elian24.htm]: "Perhaps surprisingly, part of the extensive pro-Castro support network in the U.S. is the National Council of Churches (NCC). This "religious" group has a long history of pro-Castro activities. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, the editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco and author of From Mainline to Sidelines: The Social Witness of the National Council of Churches, says about the NCC for wanting to send Elián back to Cuba, "This should come as no surprise since the NCC does not represent American Protestants and has long served as a lobby for the Marxist dictatorship of Fidel Castro."
"Billingsley, explains that the NCC remained silent about Castro's crimes from its beginning in 1959. In 1968 the NCC issued their first statement about Cuba urging the U. S. to recognize the Castro regime. This despite the fact that one of the first casualties of Castro's revolution was organized religion. Billingsley says that in 1977, a year before his election as NCC president, Methodist bishop James Armstrong "led a delegation of American church officials to Cuba, where they supported the regime's repression." After this first NCC official delegation visit to Cuba, they declared to be "challenged and inspired by Cuba and flatly denied that the Cuban regime persecuted Christians."
"However, in 1977 Amnesty International stated that Cuba had "the longest-term political prisoners to be found anywhere in the world." He points out that "In 1980, the NCC published a book claiming that "Cubans are the only Latin Americans who have broken with dependent capitalism and its accompanying dehumanization of the common people." According to former imprisoned poet Armando Valladares, "Cuban officials used pro-Castro statements of American clergy to torment prisoners. That was worse for the Christian political prisoners than the beatings or the hunger. Incomprehensibly to us, while we waited for the embrace of solidarity from our brothers in Christ, those who were embraced were our tormentors."
The liberal church leaders vilified Reagan as they now vilify Bush. Hmmmm. Compare Nicaragua (
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nu.html) and El Salvador (
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/es.html) and Honduras (
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ho.html) today. Should we mourn the collapse of the USSR?
The liberal church loved Clinton (
http://www.layman.org/layman/news/news-around-church/ird-finds-ironies.htm, http://ncccusa2.org/news/news72.html) and Carter. Iran, Somalia, North Korea, Haiti, Bosnia/Kosovo (
http://www.unmikonline.org/news.htm), ... , bin Laden.
/rant