Christian Heritage News

 By Al Baker - Posted at Forget None of His Benefits: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28 In the fall of 1960 a representative from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and General Reid Doster of the Alabama Air National Guard, 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing located at the airport in Birmingham, met with Alabama Governor John Patterson on a very important mission. The CIA was planning to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro who had come to power in January, 1959. Doster and the CIA were asking for Patterson’s permission to recruit pilots and service personnel from the 117th to train Cuban exile pilots for the invasion. Patterson agreed as long as the Alabama airmen were not required to engage the enemy. They could serve as advisors but nothing more. Doster and the CIA agreed. Why the Alabama Air National Guard? Because they flew B-26 bombers, leftovers from World

By David Roach - Posted at Baptist Press: Baptist World Alliance leaders visit with Cuban President Fidel Castro during a July 8, 2000, meeting in Havana. Participants included (left to right) BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz, immediate past BWA President Nilson Fanini of Brazil, Castro and then-BWA President Billy Kim of Korea. Photo by Jim Veneman HAVANA (BP) -- Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who died Nov. 25 at age 90, is being remembered as both an unwitting catalyst of revival and an opponent of religious liberty. Castro's death, said Southern Baptists with ties to Cuba, is unlikely to yield significant increases in religious liberty for the island nation until the fall of the communist government he inaugurated 57 years ago. When Castro led a revolt that overthrew then-Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, he instituted a communist regime that viewed Christians as "anti-revolutionaries." And he barred them from attending universities or entering certain