In a forced-choice question, more than half of all Hispanic Christians (54 percent) said they primarily identify themselves as “Hispanic or Latino,” while one in four primarily identify themselves as “Christian or Catholic” (24 percent).
Just one week after the U.S. presidential election raised concerns about the Republican Party’s ability to appeal to minority voters, Christian organizations are expressing new and renewed interest in Hispanics.
The Barna Group announced Tuesday the launch of its new Hispanic research division, Barna: Hispanics, which coincides with the release of its first report, “Hispanic America: Faith, Values and Priorities.”
In addition, more than 150 evangelical leaders renewed their calls for comprehensive immigration reform. On Tuesday, the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) issued letters to President Obama and federal lawmakers demanding a meeting within the next 92 days—a reference to the number of times the Hebrew word for immigrant (ger) appears in the Bible.
The EIT, which launched in June, is calling for lawmakers to “create just and humane immigration laws” that adhere to six principles: respect for “God-given” human dignity; protection for families; respect for the rule of law; guaranteed border security; fairness for taxpayers; and a path toward legal status for qualified immigrants.
Original signatories of the EIT include the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Sojourners, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.
Such calls for immigration reform among evangelical leaders—as well as these particular principles—are not new. In 2010, the NAE ran a similar ad campaign, “An Evangelical Call for Bipartisan Immigration Reform,” advocating the same principles verbatim. Although new reform bills have been introduced in each Congress since 2008, comprehensive legislation has never cleared both chambers.
Nevertheless, Barna Group president David Kinnaman says the election raised interest in the effect of the U.S. Latino community on politics. And he says the results of their new study—conducted by Barna Group in partnership with the American Bible Society, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), and OneHope—illuminate how the religiosity of Hispanics influences how they vote.
[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]
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