MIAMI — According to a public opinion poll by Rasmussen Research, 55 percent of Americans believe Elián González should be returned to Cuba; 29 percent say he should stay in the United States. Many members of the Florida United Methodist Conference are also divided on the issue and struggling over the boy’s fate.

That debate was made more emotional by the General Board of Church and Society’s (GBCS) recent decision to collect funds to provide legal services for the boy’s father.

"The fund is established specifically to receive voluntary contributions from those who wish to support the legal representation of Juan Miguel González," said the Rev. Thomas White Wolf Fassett, GBCS general secretary, adding no United Methodist Church dollars are being used.

Called the Humanitarian Advocacy Fund, its purpose is to funnel donations that will provide "fair and equal treatment for the father of Elián González" in the United States courts, Fassett said.

Although the fund has sparked protests and debate among United Methodists throughout the country, the impact of the decision has been felt more keenly in the Miami District because of the area’s large Cuban-American population.

The Rev. Daniel Pelay, pastor of Miami’s Coral Way United Methodist Church, said members of his church are "very upset" over the decision and object to people using the United Methodist Church’s name to address controversial and political situations. They are angered because no one "asked our Hispanic-American community in Miami what they, especially the Cubans, are feeling about this."

Miami District Superintendent, Clarke Campbell-Evans, said most people are upset that there was no prior conversation between GBCS and the community. "The consensus feeling is tremendous anger over our Board of Church and Society ignoring their voice about an issue that has affected them for more than 40 years."

Pelay said he is afraid the controversy will cause his and other United Methodist churches to lose members. Citing membership declines and the conference’s 1999 $1 million budget deficit, Pelay said the church should focus on its purpose "to proclaim the evangelistic message of Jesus Christ."

In a statement released April 7, Florida Conference Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson expressed concern over the events surrounding the boy and the pain felt by the Miami community.

Calling the situation a "time of trial," Henderson invited conference pastors and laity to join him in prayer for the clergy and laity of the Miami District and the Florida Conference, the González family in Miami and Cuba, and "those in positions of decision-making regarding this case."

Nelida Morales, a native Cuban and lay leader of the Miami District, disagrees with the GBCS’s actions, but said she believes Fassett was acting in good faith and is probably not familiar with "the depth of the sad drama and the suffering of the Cuban people."

Campbell-Evans has spoken to Fassett "to share the pain and anger being experienced in the Miami community," and to invite him to Miami for a face-to-face dialogue with the area’s pastors who are "on the front line, defending the church with no previous consultation before they were placed there."

In a written statement, Morales said she believes the boy should be with his father in the absence of his mother. However, citing the "miraculous rescue of this new Moses," the sacrifice of his mother and the realities of his life in "Communist Cuba," she said United Methodists should pray and hope for the miracle of González living permanently in the "free territory of the United States."

Although others in Florida’s Cuban community are reluctant to comment publicly for fear of reprisals against family still in Cuba, several Cuban-American United Methodist pastors have expressed their desire to see González remain in the United States.

"I believe it would be better for him to stay, even though I know his father has the right to have him back," said the Rev. Antonio Fernandez, pastor of Hispanic American United Methodist Church in Hialeah.

The lack of freedom González would have growing up would make him a prisoner in Cuba, Fernandez said, adding that it all "depends on what you call a prison." He said a person could feel imprisoned "if you’re in a country where you’re not able to make your own decisions…to say, ‘I want to be a doctor, mathematician, engineer,’ and you’re not allowed to go to the university and have a career if you’re not a member of the communist group…"

Fernandez says Cuban President Fidel Castro’s stand on family values is inconsistent. Although Castro wants the 6-year-old returned to his father, Castro’s government did not allow Rafael del Pino’s son to leave Cuba after the Cuban air force general defected to the United States. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, the Cuban baseball pitcher who now plays for the New York Yankees, is in the same situation, Fernandez said.

The Rev. Reinaldo Toledo, a retired Cuban-American clergyman, says the attention on González is becoming "ridiculous."