06171
March 20, 2006

105 members of Congress question
restrictions on religious visits to Cuba

Letter argues that travel
fosters 'greater religious freedom’

by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — More than 100 members of Congress have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, questioning changes in his department’s rules that are preventing some religious organizations from traveling to Cuba.

        “We understand the complicated political reality that exists between the United States and Cuban governments,” the legislators said in their letter, dated March 3. “However, we believe it is inappropriate and unacceptable for politics and government to serve as a hurdle and now as a barrier to faith-based connections between individuals.”

        The letter, which originated with Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), went on: “If anything, these connections foster greater religious freedom in Cuba, and contribute to a severely lacking … exchange of ideas between the two countries.”

        The concerns enumerated in the three-page letter, signed by 105 members, will be addressed during a Capitol Hill meeting on March 15 involving politicians, administration officials and religious leaders. The groups affected by the Cuba travel restrictions include the National Council of Churches, the American Baptist Churches USA and the Alliance of Baptists, which no longer have travel licenses, and organizations such as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), whose Cuban travel has new limitations. Some of these groups have traveled to Cuba for more than a decade to meet with partner churches and attend conferences in the Communist island nation.

        The members of Congress and religious leaders say they are perplexed by the actions of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has given individual congregations less-restrictive licenses than those held by national religious organizations.

        “The issue of individual congregations still being able to get general licenses is particularly dismaying, because, for many denominations, the individual church is not a separate legal entity, and it’s viewed as the local level of the national church,” said Martin Shupack, associate director for public policy of Church World Service, which has a newly restricted license. “That seems to be making decisions … on religious matters that’s beyond the competence of the government.”

        The regulation changes were made in September 2004; some religious organizations received warnings about it in March 2005. Since then, some mainstream religious organizations have had license-renewal requests denied.

        “OFAC previously issued religious organizations broad licenses that allowed them to select who they wanted to travel, and placed no restriction on the number of travelers,” said Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise. “However, OFAC became aware that a number of large organizations were abusing their religious travel licenses by soliciting participation beyond their own organizations for trips to Cuba.”

        Millerwise noted that some congregations are permitted to have broader licenses “where leaders of the groups are more likely to know the individuals personally, and are able to more closely monitor the specific program of religious activities in Cuba.”

        She declined to comment on individual licenses.

        The Rev. Stan Hastey, executive director of the Washington-based Alliance of Baptists, said he got a warning letter last year and sent documentation on about 300 travelers who made more than 20 trips to Cuba over an 18-month period. He said he learned last June that his organization’s license had been suspended because one group's itinerary “did not demonstrate a program of full-time religious activities.”

        Hastey said that trip included an overnight stay at a beach resort that has ties to a religious group. “The purpose of the overnight there was to visit a church, not to go to the beach,” he said.

        Hastey now cannot travel to Cuba unless his own Washington congregation applies for a license — which it has not done.

        Some religious leaders say their contact with Cubans has been reduced from regular trips to email correspondence.

        “We no longer have personal contact with our global partners in Cuba, and we can no longer participate in mission trips between the two denominations and our partners in Cuba,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Carrasquillo, program associate for the Latin America and Caribbean office of Global Ministries, the mission arm for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

        Other religious groups are finding that their travel is more restricted than in the past.

        For example, the PC(USA) once had a two-year license that did not specify the number of trips that could be taken.

        “Now it’s a one-year license,” said the Rev. Tricia Lloyd-Sidle, regional liaison for the Caribbean for the denomination. “It’s limited to four trips during the year, one per calendar quarter.”

        Lee, one of the members of Congress who circulated the letter to Snow, recently questioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the issue. Rice said she wasn’t familiar with “specific cases of licensing,” and promised to look into it.

        “I will say that I don’t think that there is anything that passes for religious freedom in Cuba,” Rice told the House International Relations Committee last month. “And so the notion that somehow our churches going there are contributing to religious freedom, in a place where religious freedom is so clearly denied, I think I would question the premise.”

        In addition to the meeting scheduled for March 15, some leaders of mainline Protestant denominations plan to discuss the issue during Ecumenical Advocacy Days, a March 15 event in Washington involving advocates and theologians concerned about foreign policy.

        Cindy Buhl, the legislative director for McGovern’s office, said the license denials are part of a pattern of new restrictions on Cuban travel put in place by the Bush administration that have affected educational exchanges and visits between Cuban-Americans and their families in Cuba.