Fidel & Religion

“Why doesn't anybody question how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? That's unquestionable. Comandante, from the theological point of view, it doesn't mean that Jesus discriminated against the rich; it means that Jesus opted for the poor. That is, in a society characterized by social inequalities, God decided to assume the likeness of Jesus; he could have been born in Rome, to a family of emperors; he could have been born to a Jewish landowner's family; he could have been born to the middle strata of parishioners. Instead, he chose to be born among the poor, as the son of a carpenter — one who certainly worked on the construction of the Brasília of his time, the city of Tiberias, built as a tribute to Emperor Tiberius Caesar in whose reign Jesus lived. It's interesting that Tiberias is on the banks of the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus spent most of his life and carried out most of his activities. In the Gospels, he doesn't visit that city even once.

So, what do we say? We say that Jesus unconditionally opted for the poor. He spoke to everyone, both rich and poor, but from a specific social stand, from the social stand of the interests of the poor. He didn't speak in a neutral, universalist, abstract way; rather, he reflected the interests of the oppressed strata of the times.”


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“Our people were inspired by their hatred of torture and crime; how could we possibly have set an example of torture and crime for our soldiers? It would have had a demoralizing effect. Those who don't understand that morale is a fundamental factor in a revolution are lost, defeated. Values and morale are humanity's spiritual weapons. As you know, regardless of their beliefs, we don't inspire a revolutionary fighter with the idea that they'll be rewarded in the next world or will be eternally happy if they die. Those fighters were ready to die — even those who were nonbelievers — because there were values for which they believed it was worth giving their lives, even though their lives were all they had. How can you get a person to do this if not on the basis of specific values, and how could you possibly stain and destroy those values?”