What is the primary justice issue facing Hispanics in America?
Immigration reform. It begins with immigration reform because we’re in the midst of a Latino Reformation. The Latino church never experienced Wittenberg. We never experienced Martin Luther. The 1500s never impacted Latin America till the 1970s and ‘80s and ‘90s. After 400 years, the Reformation finally hit Latin America.
That Reformation impacts the immigration narrative currently in the United States as a political debate. But we don’t see it politically first and foremost. The number one justice issue for Hispanic Christians is immigration because it’s not a political issue. The fastest growing segment of the Southern Baptists, of the Assemblies of God, of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), of the Church of God of Prophecy, and of the Foursquare Church—I’ve just listed five of the largest denominations in America, if not the five largest—in those denominations, the fastest growing demographic is the Latino community. Over 30 percent of the Latino worshipers in churches west of the Mississippi happen to be undocumented. When we speak about immigration, to Latino Christians it’s not a political issue. It’s a matter of, one, the moral imperative. It’s the right thing to do. Second, survivability.
If we deport 11 million people, we will be deporting Latino evangelicalism. We may very well be deporting the future of the American Christian church. Hispanic evangelicals represent the fastest growing segment of the American evangelical experience. In the next 30 years the majority of evangelicals in America will be of Hispanic descent. If we deport them, there goes the American evangelical church. So to us it’s not a political issue, it’s a prophetic issue. It’s a Christian issue.
And yes, we want people to come here legally. No, we are not in favor of amnesty. Three, we would love a process where these individuals recognize they came in here illegally, that they pay fines, that they learn the English vernacular, that they go to the very back of the line, and that they go through a process before they become citizens. And that’s a process of integration that will take some time. A significant amount of time.
We think our solution is a very viable solution. A reconciliatory solution in the spirit of Leviticus 19, Romans 13 and Matthew 25 (NHCLC.org/immigration_reform).
As the Hispanic church continues to grow, it will naturally exert increasing influence over the American church. How would a surging Hispanic church reshape the American religious landscape?
Number one, the American church will be more holistic. It will reconcile the vertical and the horizontal. It will reconcile the Way with the Dream. As a result of the Hispanic church, this generation of American Christians and the next generation will sing “There Is Room at the Cross” and “We Shall Overcome.”
The second way the Hispanic church will impact the American church is multiethnicity. Little by little over the next 20 years, Sunday morning’s segregation will become something more of an anomaly.
Latinos are not a race. We are an ethnicity, a conglomeration. We are the convergence of the African experience, if you’re a Latino from the Caribbean. Or the Spaniard/European experience, the white. Or the Asian Indian—the native from the Incas, the Aztecs, the Mayans.
Hispanics are the walking United Nations. And because of that, we want our churches to look like us. We want our churches to be black, brown, white and yellow. Which means we’re going to see an explosion of multiethnic churches in America pastored by English speaking Latinos. We repudiate the idea of cultural or ethnic myopia. We’re pushing back on that. So the church will become more diverse in its expression. We will look like the kingdom of God, his mosaic, God’s tapestry.
Number three, Latinos are known for la familia. If you look at our families, you will see Grandma and Grandpa living with Mom and Dad. You will see two or three generations living in a house. We’re known for that. La familia. It’s the ethos of the community. We transfer that to the church. So the churches are not just Abraham churches; you’re going to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph attending our churches, three or four generations in one church worshipping Christ together.
