For the Rev. Nino Gonzalez, last year’s contentious debate over immigration reform was a rude awakening — one that has propelled him into the political arena.
Mainstream white and black evangelical leaders initially denounced the bipartisan effort to create a path to legalization for undocumented workers. Some even argued for the roundup and deportation of millions of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., the very people to whom Gonzalez ministers every day at Iglesia el Calvario just south of Orlando.
“I was stunned, shocked and surprised,” Gonzalez said of the initial reaction of those he thought of as his spiritual allies. “They turned their backs on the Hispanics.”
Gonzalez and other Hispanic pastors across the country seized on the debate to come together as a political force gaining momentum. Hispanic Pentecostals, some experts say, can become an important swing vote in the 2008 elections in key demographic battlegrounds such as Florida, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and North Carolina.
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Hispanic evangelicals hold potent votes, experts say
For the Rev. Nino Gonzalez, last year’s contentious debate over immigration reform was a rude awakening — one that has propelled him into the political arena.
Mainstream white and black evangelical leaders initially denounced the bipartisan effort to create a path to legalization for undocumented workers. Some even argued for the roundup and deportation of millions of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., the very people to whom Gonzalez ministers every day at Iglesia el Calvario just south of Orlando.
“I was stunned, shocked and surprised,” Gonzalez said of the initial reaction of those he thought of as his spiritual allies. “They turned their backs on the Hispanics.”
Gonzalez and other Hispanic pastors across the country seized on the debate to come together as a political force gaining momentum. Hispanic Pentecostals, some experts say, can become an important swing vote in the 2008 elections in key demographic battlegrounds such as Florida, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and North Carolina.
Read the whole article.