MIAMI, Florida.- During his Sunday sermon in mid-February, Pastor Dionny Báez shared an omen with his congregation.
“I believe that God is going to do something very great with the Latino people in the United States,” he said.
They responded with applause and remained attentive to the rest of the morning evangelical service they hold weekly in an old nightclub in Miami.
The message with which evangelical leaders guide their churches this election year
is key to understanding where the Latin Christian vote is headed.
“We are heads of communities, right?
There are literally thousands of people who are influenced by our word,” says Báez, founder of the H2o church network.
His priority when supporting a candidate is that he is aligned with his values, he says.
He advises other faithful the same when they ask him for guidance on the November contests.
[More and more Latinos join the criticized Christian nationalism, an important conservative vote]
Evangelicals are a conservative bloc of the Hispanic electorate that is “more involved than ever,” says Pastor Samuel Rodríguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), “the largest Hispanic Christian organization in the world” with more than 40,000 churches in the United States alone.
For him, “evangelical Latinos this year are going to vote like no other year.”
The security of the country and the economy, as well as parental rights, the free expression of religion, and the rights of Christians are the issues that most mobilize them in these elections.
In the United States, around 10 million Hispanics identified as evangelical or Protestant and “approximately three in ten Hispanic Republicans (28%) consider themselves evangelical Protestants,” according to the most recent figures from the Pew Research Center.
For decades, evangelicals in the United States have been a solid electoral base of the Republican Party that defends its conservative positions, particularly regarding abortion.
As more conservative Republicans court these voters, the promise to align their political agenda with the values of the Christian faith has become increasingly frequent and explicit.
A man carries a cross during the anti-immigrant convoy in Eagle Pass, Texas.The Washington Post / Via Getty Images
During the National Convention of Religious Broadcasters at the end of February in Nashville, Tennessee, the packed auditorium burst into applause with a phrase from former President Donald Trump: “We have to get our religion back, we have to get Christianity back in this country,” said the candidate , now without a rival, for the Republican Party nomination in the presidential election.
“No one will touch the cross of Christ under the Trump Administration, I swear,” said the former president, after falsely claiming that there is religious persecution against Christianity in the United States.
White and red MAGA-style caps with the message Make America Pray Again
were visible among the convention attendees
: Trump has become an evangelical model, despite being divorced, accused of rape and known for doing misogynistic comments.
Trump's rhetoric is linked to the ideology of Christian nationalism, a movement that mixes American identity with Christianity and promotes its religious values to prevail in American public policy.
This system of religious and identity beliefs has been permeated among Hispanics who belong to evangelical and Protestant churches.
Evangelical Latinos this year are going to vote like no other year.”
Samuel Rodríguez PASTOR
Although Christian nationalism is rejected or caused skepticism by the majority of Americans (67%), according to the national American Values Atlas survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), it resonates strongly with two religious groups: 66% of White evangelicals and 55% of Hispanic Protestants are supporters or sympathizers of this movement.
Levels of acceptance among other religious groups are significantly lower: 75% of Hispanic Catholics and 92% of American Jews do not identify with these ideas.
The 2023 survey consulted more than 22,000 adults in 50 states, with
five statements that measure their affinity for these beliefs
and their intersection with religious, partisan, educational, racial and ethnic factors:
The Government should declare that the United States is a Christian nation.
Laws would have to be based on Christian values.
If the United States moves away from its Christian foundations we will no longer have a country.
Being a Christian is an important part of being truly American.
God has called Christians to exercise dominion in all areas of American society.
Hispanic Protestants are the only religious group in the United States that has recorded an increase in supporters of Christian nationalism since the survey was first conducted in late 2022. In a matter of a year, support for this ideology among Christian Latinos – primarily evangelicals – grew 12 percentage points.
They embrace rhetoric that attacks them
“The lack of education about Christian nationalism and its political connotations has allowed many Hispanics to be indoctrinated with these ideas,” explains the concerned Reverend Carlos Malavé, president of the Latino Christian National Network.
For him, Latinos embrace this rhetoric without realizing that it attacks their community.
There is no reason for us to support a movement that does not respect us, only uses us."
Carlos Malavé reverend
“When you generally ask the public, in churches, what Christian nationalism is, people cannot give an answer,” he laments.
Malavé belongs to a group of Christian religious leaders Against Christian Nationalism that denounces this ideology as a threat to American democracy and a distortion of the Christian faith itself.
Malavé assures that this belief system, which erases the separation of church and state, is based on the supremacy of white culture and the supremacy of Christianity over other religions.
The reverend, born in Puerto Rico, warned that the undercurrent of racism and patriarchalism in this ideology facilitates the marginalization of vulnerable groups or minorities, including immigrants.
“A magnificent job has been done by groups that are extremists to convince even the immigrants themselves that the new immigrants are a threat,” he says.
A man wears a hat that says: 'Make America Pray Again' as Donald Trump speaks before the National Convention of Religious Broadcasters. George Walker IV / AP
For Christian nationalism, the United States has been and always should be Christian, from the top to the people, according to the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
In addition, it carries “assumptions about nativism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, patriarchy and militarism,” he says.
This ideology prevails among the followers of former President Donald Trump, argue academics such as Andrew Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry in their book
Taking Back America for God
, which analyzes this ideology that is increasingly trying to win over conservative Latinos.
[
“It’s been pretty popular”: why Latino Protestants are embracing ideas of white Christian nationalism]
“American Christian nationalism is a worldview based on the belief that the United States is superior to other countries and that that superiority was divinely established,” writes Samuel Perry, associate professor at Baylor University (a private Christian academic institution in Texas). , in an article on the specialized site The Conversation.
“In their minds, only Christians are true Americans,” he notes.
According to Perry, although most Christian nationalists do not commit acts of violence, the ideology “suggests that unless Christians control the state, the state will suppress Christianity.”
Efforts to raise awareness in the Latino community about the implications of this rhetoric are underway, but face major challenges.
“Most of this misinformation and lies that are being perpetuated come from radical republican groups,” says Reverend Malavé.
Traces of this rhetoric among evangelical Latinos
Noticias Telemundo attended an evangelical service in Miami led by Pastor Dionny Báez, a few weeks before the results of the national American Values Atlas survey were published.
We spoke with members of his congregation about his concerns and priorities in these elections, without specifically talking about Christian nationalism.
However, we asked in general terms about your stances on the separation of church and state.
For Osmani Martínez, a Cuban Christian who plans to vote for Trump, if he is named the Republican presidential candidate for the third time, “it would be very good if the state and the church became one and the two of us fought together.”
Elizabeth Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican who has worked for many years with the Democratic Party.
In addition to her Christian faith, she says, choosing on the ballot will also influence what the parties propose for the community: “How am I going to execute a vote?
Definitely with the options that are most favorable for what, for the well-being of my community, for the well-being of the family.”
[Anti-immigrant convoy demonstrates at the southern border of Texas and attracts Trump supporters]
He advocates freedom and democracy, he also says that there should be a system where God is included.
"There are literally thousands of people who are influenced by our word."
Dionny Báez PASTOR
For four months, Félix Córdova has been attending the H2o church: there is “the presence of God” here, says this Mexican who hopes to be able to participate in the next November elections after passing his citizenship exam.
If he votes, it will be for Trump, “because he has made a difference, he continues to make it, he is a man who bends the knee and asks the Father for direction.”
Córdova considers himself spiritual, is not in favor of abortion and believes that the Republican Party maintains Christian values in a world that, he considers, is out of control.
For him, American laws should be supported by spiritual education.
When asking his pastor if the laws of this country should be based on his Christian values, he says: “That would be an ideal world, an ideal world because they are my values, it is my way of thinking, it would be beautiful because I believe that the integral Christian foundation helps to the development of the human being.”
Báez has been preaching since he was 8 years old, following in the footsteps of his Dominican parents, who were also evangelical pastors.
and he believes that it is important to respect the way of thinking of others and their values.
Postures against immigrants
Báez says he initially admired Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' proposals, especially those aimed at restricting the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation with younger children in public schools, but became disenchanted with this presidential hopeful. presidential when he displayed an anti-immigrant position.
He sees Christian Latinos at a crossroads when it comes to going to the polls, since the party that defends its religious principles also promotes the most anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric.
“What do I say to my congregation?
I really tell our people that more than immigration reform or help for people who are entering illegally (…) we must focus on the values that reflect who we are as a Christian community.”
[Trump confirms his popularity among the most conservative sector of the Republican community]
In California, Pastor Samuel Rodríguez confesses that he is also concerned about the anti-immigrant positions of the most conservative Republicans: “I don't like it because sometimes the rhetoric is nativist and racist and I don't deny it.”
However, he is convinced that without Christianity there is only anarchy, chaos and darkness.
That is why he believes that many Christian Latinos no longer support the Democratic Party, particularly for defending abortion.
“Let them continue with that strategy to see if it works for them,” he indicated.
The baptisms were part of the anti-immigrant convoy that reached Texas.
SERGIO FLORES / AFP via Getty Images
He says that the United States was founded under a Judeo-Christian platform, but when asked if it should legislate with those values as a guide, he responds that “we are not a theocracy.”
For some far-right politicians such as the Republican representative for Colorado, Lauren Boebert, the separation of State and Church “is garbage.”
“The Church is supposed to lead the Government, not the Government is supposed to lead the Church,” he assured in July 2022.
“We should be Christian nationalists,” said Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who insisted that Christian nationalism should not be feared because it could solve school shootings and “sexual immorality” in the country.
In early February, an anti-immigrant convoy demonstrated at the southern Texas border, attracting Trump supporters and Christian nationalists who carried crosses and were baptized while arguing that they were peacefully gathering to oppose lawlessness.