Via Chris Johnson over at MCJ:

While the rest of world was reacting to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez calling President Bush 'the devil,' the Cuban delegation to the United Nations found a warm reception inside a northern Manhattan Episcopal church last week....

Felipe Perez Roqué, foreign minister of the Republic of Cuba, announced that Cuban President Fidel Castro is "getting stronger every day." Speaking through an interpreter, Roqué said Cubans live everyday with the fear that the Bush administration has preemptive war plans against their country, but he predicted "one day there will be normal relations between our two countries."

Who do ordinary Cubans fear? Arrest and imprisonment by Castro? No, of course not: Bush. (Who is, I am sure, at this very moment plotting to invade Cuba to steal all their ... ummm ... something valuable, I'm sure: perhaps water and uh, plastic bags.)

And, in a truly telling move:

"Since we are in an Episcopal Church," said the Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., executive director of IFCO, "we're going to do something they call Prayers of the People." For several minutes Walker made statements and invited the audience to respond, "We give you thanks, Cuba."

The call and answer style was picked up by Esteban Lazo Hernandez, vice president of the Cuban Council of State and leader of his country's delegation to the U.N. Also speaking through an interpreter, Hernandez asked members of a youth group, who had presented him with flowers, several questions about Cuban history and accomplishments. The answer to each was, "Fidel," which eventually captured the voices of all in the historic gothic church.

"Prayers of the People": "We give you thanks, Cuba." For those who are unfamilliar with this, this is usually a liturgical device where the leader says something nice and the audience responds, "We give you thanks, O Lord", or "Almighty God, we give you thanks." (See this example.) To substitute "Cuba" in for God's slot -- in a church, mind you -- indicates whatever they've got over there is clearly NOT "Christianity" in any historical sense. It always says something that those present joined in, rather than walking out.

(Not to mention the lovely focus on giving glory to Fidel Castro. Some folks really have a fondness for brutal thugs who trample and kill the poor, don't they?)

This reminds me of what the Apostle Paul lamented, in his time, about the pagan worship of Greek and Roman gods, who were also rather reprehensible examples of behavior:

Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man.... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. (Rom 1:21-25)

Even among "created things" to serve and praise, Castro is a rather poor choice, IMO.