The Rev. Arturo Laguna leads a largely immigrant church with about 100 followers in Phoenix. He says his job as a pastor becomes complicated during the election campaign.
Laguna’s church, Casa de Adoracion, is in Arizona – one of seven closely watched swing states that could potentially decide the next president. It is also a microcosm of the larger Latin American evangelical Christian community in the United States
The soft-spoken Laguna says that for members of his community, voting is “not an intellectual matter.”
“It’s a question of faith and spirituality,” he said. “We are in a difficult situation because on the one hand we are against abortion and on the other hand we are concerned about the harsh rhetoric around immigration and the lack of abortion.” Reform. It’s a hard decision.”
This is not a fresh dilemma for Latino evangelicals, whose numbers are increasing even as major white Protestant denominations have steadily declined. Latino evangelicals are an influential voting bloc. According to faith and community leaders, both parties have tried to appeal to them in the last two election cycles — neither with notable success.
A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that 15% of Latinos in the U.S. identify as evangelical Protestants. They are the fastest growing group of all American evangelicals. About half of Latino evangelicals identified as Republicans or right-leaning independents, while 44% identified as Democrats or left-leaning independents.
While U.S. Latinos generally favor Democratic candidates, a majority of Latino evangelicals supported Donald Trump in 2020. About six in 10 Latino evangelicals supported Trump in 2020, while four in 10 supported Biden, according to AP Votecast.
A Pew poll released last month found that about two-thirds of Latino Protestants planned to support Trump this year, while about two-thirds of Hispanic Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Hispanics said they would support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Agustin Quiles, president and founder of Mission Talk, a Florida-based Latino Christian social justice organization, says conflicting priorities are leaving some Latino evangelicals feeling politically homeless. Some are torn between their conservative views on social issues like abortion and their desire for immigration and criminal justice reform, he said.
While many are offended by Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, Democrats still haven’t figured out how to have community conversations about issues like abortion, Quiles added.
“So there’s a lot of silence among Latino evangelicals right now,” he said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t vote. There’s just a lot of dissatisfaction.”
To understand Latino evangelicals, it’s critical to understand their origins, said Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, a scholar at the Association of Hispanic Theological Association. The word “Evangelico” refers to Protestant or non-Catholic, which includes a wide range of churches, cultures and traditions, she said.
“As immigrants come here and need to re-establish themselves, the Protestant, Pentecostal and mainstream churches become places where people create a new sense of community and family,” Conde-Frazier said. “People are trying to understand what life should be like in this country.”
As white Protestantism has declined and various mainline denominations have vied for the loyalty of those communities, second-generation Latino Christians have become more part of the dominant culture and have often embraced the fervor of the white evangelical church, she said.
“Latino churches began to ally themselves with the (white conservative) evangelical churches in the US to gain a sense of power and acceptance, moving away from their ‘Evangelico’ roots,” Conde-Frazier said. Now, she added, some Latino evangelicals are increasingly at odds with their white colleagues over their pro-immigration stance.
Quiles says that in white evangelical churches, where the number of Latinos, including undocumented immigrants, is increasing, there is a noticeable disconnect between what is said in the pulpit and the way people in the pews speak perceive it.
“Just because a pastor pushes an anti-immigrant agenda doesn’t mean members will embrace it,” he said. “They selectively take what they want from the teaching.”
The Rev. Juan Garcia, who leads a 100-member Hispanic congregation at First Baptist Church in Newport News, Virginia, said the word “evangelico” represents the gospel to him. He says the label “evangelical” feels tainted by political party affiliation.
“Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican,” he said. “Some see their Christian values represented in the Republican Party, others see some of their values represented in the Democrats. But no party is essentially Christian.”
Garcia also feels this feeling of political homelessness.
“I have a candidate I could vote for, but no political party I would like to be a part of,” he said. “The most important value by which we must live as Christians is love – love for our neighbors, for the poor, for those fleeing persecution.”
Garcia said he has his “opinions and biases” but doesn’t think his preferred candidate is flawless. He warns his flock, “If one is the Antichrist, the other is not Christ.”
The Rev. Jacqueline Tavarez, pastor of the Pentecostal Church of God in Raleigh, North Carolina, says her diverse congregation cares more about the values a political party represents than the face or voice of the party.
“Our community doesn’t care about politics,” she said. “They care about laws that affect our communities when it comes to jobs, opportunities and education. And they view abortion and transgender laws as an attack on family values. When they see.” When they vote, they don’t see Trump or (Harris). They see what the party supports and how the community will fare under a candidate.
Rev. Lori Tapia, the Arizona-based national pastor and president of Obra Hispana, Disciples of Christ, said politics is not typically integrated into the life of the Latin American evangelical church. Unlike white evangelical communities, political engagement happens more organically, she said.
“There is a growing sense of compassion here and a desire to see leaders who will put compassionate policies at the forefront,” Tapia said. “There is also frustration at how slow progress is being made on critical issues. Anyone can present a story or a political campaign. But where does it manifest itself in the lives of people who are struggling?”
Bishop Angel Marcial, who leads the Church of God, which serves more than 15,000 churches, says some of his parishioners’ top concerns are health education, public safety and housing.
“Voting earns respect in this country and provides opportunities for marginalized communities,” he said. “As pastors, we don’t tell people who to vote for, but we inform them about the platforms that best align with the church’s values and the needs of our communities.”
John P. Tuman, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, notes that in Las Vegas, Latino evangelicals who join larger evangelical churches with services in English and Spanish tend to be conservative. However, in congregations that form their own congregations and hold services in Spanish and Otomi, an indigenous language in Mexico, political views are likely to be more diverse.
“Historically, they tend to favor immigration reform with a path to citizenship, along with other elements of a social justice message that resonates more with Democratic candidates,” he said.
Nevada is also an critical swing state.
Pastor Willie Pagan, who leads the 700-member Iglesia de Dios in North Las Vegas, part of the Church of God, said the economy is a top issue for his parishioners.
“Yes, people are worried about immigration, but those who are already here want the economy to be stable,” he said. “You see homelessness and crime increasing in Las Vegas. Our church was in a rough area that has gotten even rougher lately.”
Pagan says some in his community believe they were better off financially and more secure during the Trump administration and want to vote Republican to uphold their conservative religious values. But there are also people who fear that they or their relatives could be deported, he said.
“The struggle is real.”
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Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
