American activists, from left, Cindy Sheehan, Tiffany Burns, Adele Welty and Ann Wright attend a mass at the Ebenezer Baptist church in Havana, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007.
Posted on 01/07/2007 8:34:13 PM PST by Sam Hill
Did Cindy Sheehan and her CodePink partners make their trip to Cuba under the cover of religion?
A group of US Baptists churches, the Alliance of Baptists, have been using their license to sponsor at least 15 trips to Cuba, thereby circumventing US law which prohibits travel there by US citizens.
American activists, from left, Cindy Sheehan, Tiffany Burns, Adele Welty and Ann Wright attend a mass at the Ebenezer Baptist church in Havana, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007.
Now read this article from last August from the Savannah Morning News:
Baptist group accused of violating Cuba embargo
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Dana Clark Felty
A former affiliate of The Alliance of Baptists, the First Baptist Church of Savannah is among five churches questioned regarding mission trips to Cuba.
U.S. Treasury officials have threatened a national Baptist organization with a $34,000 fine, citing the First Baptist Church of Savannah and four other churches for participating in banned tourist activities during mission trips in Cuba.
Leaders of The Alliance of Baptists said the Birmingham, Ala., group plans to appeal the fine, which would constitute about 10 percent of its budget for operating expenses.
The Rev. John Finley, senior minister at First Baptist Church of Savannah, said church leaders don't know what they did to draw the criticism of the federal government.
Since 1995, the church has sponsored 15 trips to sister congregations in Havana and Sancti Spiritus.
"From our point of view, all of our mission trips to Cuba have been in full compliance with the regulations," Finley said. "We're ... providing to the Treasury Department proof of that."
A July 5 Treasury letter notified leaders of The Alliance of Baptists of the fine and mentioned five affiliate churches guilty of violations through 2003 and 2005. Other churches mentioned in the letter are the Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Ala.; Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn.; and the First Baptist churches in Greenville, S.C. and in Washington.
The five churches were issued blanket permission to travel to Cuba through a license obtained by the Alliance of Baptists.
The letter claims the churches "provided itineraries that did not reflect a program of full-time religious activity" while in Cuba.
During a March 2005 trip, a church member from Baptist Church of the Covenant purchased Cuban cigars that were confiscated by U.S. Customs. Associate Pastor John Duke said that prompted extra scrutiny of the itinerary.
"It was our very first trip. We didn't know," said the Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton, pastor of the Birmingham church. "Part of that was to help the economy. It was all done in conjunction with the pastor of the Cuban church and director of the Baptist convention in Cuba."
Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise declined to comment, saying the department does not discuss individual cases.
But she said churches are permitted to conduct religious trips to Cuba if they receive a license from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), she said.
"Lying on beaches or visiting well-known tourist sites run by the Cuban government would undermine the point of the sanction, which is to starve the Castro regime of hard currency," Millerwise said. "One of the biggest boons for the Castro regime is the tourism industry."
To Finley, the issue is bigger than cigars. U.S. policies create confusion within churches because they do not define "a full-time program of religious activities," he said.
"We assume that means you don't have to be in church 24 hours a day, but that you can do other things (as long as) your larger purpose is mission-related."
The church has sponsored 15 trips, each including up to 15 members, to visit sister congregations in Cuba. Savannah Baptists usually stay in "a moderately priced Havana hotel" because Cuban church members are too poor to host them, Finley said.
Trips have included Savannah members visiting the homes of Cuban Baptists who led walking tours of downtown Havana.
"If we had guests to come to Savannah, we would show them Savannah with great pride in our city and our culture," Finley said. "Cuban Baptists wanted to do the same thing."
About two years ago, the Savannah Baptists visited a tourist site to distribute Christian literature written in Spanish, Finley said.
Stan Hastey, executive director of The Alliance of Baptists, said he believes the Bush administration singled out the alliance because of its opposition to the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba.
The Alliance of Baptists is one of a number of semi-denominations formed about 15 years ago after liberal and moderate Baptists left the Southern Baptist Convention.
Last October, the First Baptist Church of Savannah left the Alliance of Baptist churches, citing policy differences. The church is now affiliated solely with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
In March, the church received its own license, effective through 2008, to travel to Cuba.
"That seems to suggest that the issue has more to do with the Alliance than with the First Baptist Church of Savannah," Finley said.
"We assume we're still in their good graces."
Perhaps it is just a coincidence.
CodePink's flipside, Global Exchange, had previously run trips to Cuba for ten years. Although their most recent tours have been cancelled after a "cease and desist" order from the US government.
Here is the announcement of CodePink’s erstwhile plans to visit Castro’s paradise last New Year’s:
Join CODEPINK for New Year’s in Cuba December 27-January 2, 2006Cuba is one of the most beautiful and fascinating countries on Earth—and George Bush says you can’t go there. Well, we’re going anyway, and we invite you to join us!
This New Year’s CODEPINK will be organizing a large group of fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans to break George Bush’s ban on travel to Cuba. Join co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Academy Award winning producer Paul Haggis, as we visit with farmers at their co-ops, doctors at their family clinics, dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark. Don’t miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches—all while defending our constitutional rights!!!
The federal restrictions barring travel to Cuba are not only counterproductive and outmoded in this post-Cold War context, but also a violation of our constitutional freedom to travel. The Bush administration says we can only travel to Cuba if we have immediate family there. Well, we do. Cubans ARE family—Somos Familia. And while we’re there, we’ll be holding a mutual adoption ceremony in order to demonstrate that family transcends political boundaries. In the ceremony, each participant will be paired with a Cuban brother or sister. After all, we are all part of one human family and there should be no artificial barriers dividing us. This historic opportunity to visit Cuba will cost approximately $1,500 (to Cancun) or $1,800 (to Mexico City). Participants will fly out of three points of entry: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. We will all meet in Mexico City, where we will then take a chartered flight to Havana. Our trip this New Years will truly be a family affair. Feel free to bring children, parents, partners, neighbors, and friends. It is a trip designed for all ages, interests, and backgrounds (family rates available).
After seven action-packed days on this wonderful island, we will re-enter the United States through these same three points of entry. This re-entry will be a powerful challenge to Bush’s restrictive policies that deny us our fundamental liberty to travel where we please. Though past high-profile “travel challenge” groups have experienced no adverse legal consequences to date, we will have our lawyers ready at each airport of entry to provide legal aid, if necessary.
Because we will be traveling to Cuba without government permission (i.e. a license from the US treasury), CODEPINK participants will be breaking the embargo and therefore subject to civil penalties. (For further questions on the legal implications of unauthorized travel to Cuba, check out www.nlg.org/cuba). With these risks in mind, your participation in our trip is a crucial protest in the growing movement to end the travel ban.
We expect a huge response to this trip, so get your applications in early. Also year–end travel gets booked up VERY early (especially the return flights after New Years), so make your plans early! We look forward to spending some marvelous days together, while pushing to overturn a policy that keeps us from building bonds of friendship with our neighbors.
If you are interested in participating in this trip, please contact Dana (at) codepinkalert.org. You can also reach Dana by calling the CODEPINK office at (310) 827-4320.
Alas, however, this trip hit a snag:
Dear Friends,
We have some bad news to relay about the Cuba trip. We knew that this trip was a challenge to the Bush administration’s restrictions on travel to the island.
However, we had anticipated that, as in the past, the government would either let us come and go without incident, or would send us a letter after we returned. Instead, we—CODEPINK, Global Exchange, and some of the participants—have already received ominous letters from the Treasury Department, calling on us to “cease and desist” our plans for the trip, demanding the names of all the people who had signed up, and threatening us with a million dollar fine and ten years in jail.
When some individual participants received these letters, they canceled their plans—leaving us without the “safety in numbers.” And while our organizations are willing to fight the government on this (Global Exchange has been fighting the travel restrictions for 15 years!), we feel that right we are too overloaded with other efforts, such as stopping the war in Iraq, to take on a prolonged legal battle right now.
In the interim, however, they seem to have hit upon a new tactic.
From CodePink/Global Exchange's own site:
Is it Legal to Travel to Cuba?
Global Exchange is a licensed Travel Service Provider by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department. Global Exchange facilitates legal travel to Cuba for groups with their own specific license, for individuals who fall under the general licensing categories of OFAC and for individuals traveling under a humanitarian/religious license.
It seems very likely that they are now using a religious license supplied by one of the Baptist churches.
Which might explain why they made a pilgrimage to a Baptist church as their first stop in Havana.
they should be arrested upon their return to the US."
Why waste the taxpayer's money.
You've got to know they would not be prosecuted for it.
"Why waste the taxpayer's money.
You've got to know they would not be prosecuted for it."
I would normally agree. And certainly Cindy and Medea have gotten away with a lot.
But if you look at the fines the Alliance Of Baptists have already gotten, the US Treasury seems to be serious about stopping this.
And they already have a file open on these guys.
At the absolute minimum it should be used to strip Cindy and Medea of all of their taxpayer supported charities.
Now I understand.
But if you look at the fines the Alliance Of Baptists have already gotten, the US Treasury seems to be serious about stopping this."
When the Treasury Dept. arrests and charges someone, then we'll know they're serious.Until then the "Alliance" can probably afford all the fines they get.
You can enter Cuba as an American citizen if you don't fly in from the US. Looks like the CodePink folks flew to Mexico first, and then to Cuba. We used to live in the Caymans and people would fly to Cayman first, then on to Cuba.
The Baptists and religious groups have permission from the government to go, but not help the economy.
Groups flying in from other countries, are clearly breaking the embargo, but CodePink doesn't care, and obviously their intention was to break the law.
Thought the amount is rather low, I think it is better to fine (or seize bank accounts/freeze assets) then it is to arrest someone. Arrests create photo ops for the MSM. Its hard to rally public support for a bank account seized by the government.
Liberals care more about money than anything else...except perhaps power.
The Fed should have let them travel to Cuba and then pulled their visas so they were stuck in Cuba
Since they think Cuba is so great ... let them stay there
I believe that these are the liberal Jimmy Carter supporters who broke away from the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1990s.
Great post. Many anti-freedom collectives get mileage from 1-cylinder Cindy.
"Since they think Cuba is so great ... let them stay there."
As you probably know, Medea has written numerous books about how wonderful Cuba is.
And yet even she was thrown out by Castro a few years ago for being a nuisance.
But she still loves him and considers Cuba a workers paradise.
Baptist mass?????????
A couple more details about Raul Suarez:
Suarez is well known throughout South America and the Caribbean as Cuba's foremost advocate of liberation theology.
And he was denied to visa to the US in 2004:
Welcome to the URI Multicultural Center | Lecture on Multiculturalism
http://www.uri.edu/mcc/LectureMulticulturalism/2004/index.html
Thanks for the ping.
Besides the fines and other investigations into who donates to this so called church, repeal their tax exempt status immediately until all investigations are over. Then if they are guilty of using tax exempt funds for political actions, cancel their tax exempt status for the good of the country.
You don't have to go to Cuba to buy Cuban cigars. Any tobacco shop north of the border sells them. Easy to smuggle back if you're driving. (Not that I've ever done it.)
It should also be pointed out that just last May Mother Sheehan wrote a screed in which she announced that she was leaving the Catholic church — because all of its priests were campaigning for Bush from the pulpit. (I’m not kidding.)
Cindy then went on to denounce all organized religions because they were not calling for Bush’s impeachment and trial as a war criminal. (Again, I’m not kidding.)
Make Me an Instrument of Peace
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0519-25.htm
Cindy was against all organized religion until it became convenient for her to pretend to be a Baptist so she could sneak (illegally) into Cuba.
Have you seen anyone as stiff and uncomfortable as those loonies in the front pew, particularly the Peace Mama herself?
Of course this is how Cindy's "gal pal" Tiffany Burns usually dresses:
Thanks Sam for the info and the ping.
You might want to send that to the group which is investigating her.
Liberal voters and the elite limo liberals never get upset when their ilk use the pulpits of churches to win elections or as in this case to by pass the law. They know that the miss users/abusers are not real Christians.
"Have you seen anyone as stiff and uncomfortable as those loonies in the front pew, particularly the Peace Mama herself?"
The real reason for their discomfort is that they realize if they don't convince the US Treasury that this triop was a "religious program" they might end up in jail.
"You might want to send that to the group which is investigating her."
I don't know who that is.
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