Hispanic evangelical leaders urge Latinos to prioritize voting for life, religious liberty
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A group of Hispanic evangelical leaders are encouraging voters to prioritize pro-life and religious liberty issues in the 2020 election.
With now one day left before the election, leaders behind El Voto Hispano advise citizens to vote “porque el voto latino cuenta” (“because the Latino vote counts").
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El Voto Hispano creator the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez said this election will be the most important in a generation. It’s not an exaggeration, he told The Christian Post.
“We’ve never had this massive divide in ideology before. Democrats and Republicans agreed on about 90% of the same things. But after 2012, we disagreed massively. We’ve never been down this road before. Not since the 1860s,” he said.
El Voto Hispano says that in 2020, saving unborn babies and religious freedom should come first.
“Every issue matters, but some issues matter more than others,” the site says. “It is impossible, illogical, and biblically incoherent to prioritize education, the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and racial reconciliation without first protecting Life at conception and religious expression from persecution.”
This year, eligible Hispanic voter numbers will reach 32 million; yet in the last presidential election, the majority of Hispanic citizens did not vote. Hispanic voter turnout was 47.6% in 2016.
Some believe Hispanics could swing the election for President Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. In key swing states, Trump’s Hispanic support is growing compared to 2016, according to a survey published by Claremont McKenna College. But Biden still leads among Hispanics even though they "demonstrate lower enthusiasm" for his candidacy compared to past Democratic presidential candidates and his "support with the group has fallen," Newsweek reported.
As voters, Hispanics tend to be independent, Rodriguez said. They want to protect unborn babies, safeguard religious liberty, reform immigration, and end racism. But Democratic indifference to protecting the unborn and upholding religious liberty means they’ll vote Republican.
“Latinos will inevitably vote for Trump if the Democratic Party keeps doing what it’s doing,” he said. “When Democratic governors issue orders that you can’t gather at home for a Bible study due to COVID, we’ve never been there before. They’re restricting my God-given religious right to worship.”
When Latino Christians protect the right to life and religious liberty, they will be free to pursue other good causes without fear, the website adds. If they don’t have these rights, whatever rights they win can be taken away.
“You can’t sacrifice life on the altar of immigration reform,” Rodriguez said.
Although immigration reform didn't get through Congress during Trump's first term, Rodriguez said he's confident that it will happen on the president's second term.
Fighting racism also begins with fighting abortion, he said. Only from a Christian worldview that values human life from conception to death can people find a foundation to stand against evil, he stressed.
“The social justice warriors now lack moral authority. They’re missing Dr. King. This is the first attempt in American history when a large attempt to change stems from something other than Christianity. They have no God, grace, redemption or love,” Rodriguez said.
El Voto Hispano includes videos by Christian leaders including Rodriguez, Rev. Gilberto Ramos Granell, Rev. William Hernandez, and Evan Craft and Jaci Velásquez.
“When you vote, you’re not just voting for a person, you’re voting for the values a person represents,” Velásquez said.
