“Evangelical and evangélico are not the same thing,” said Rodríguez, explaining the word in Spanish has a strong theological component. “The word evangelical in the U.S. has evolved, especially in the past 10 years, into more of a political ethno-national concept.”
But the National Latino Evangelical Coalition’s Salguero said he prefers to make the term bend to what he believes it should represent. “Why should I give up a perfectly good historical definition?” he asked.
“Some of us in the evangelical world have compromised truth for proximity to power, and that’s idolatry. That’s sin,” Salguero said. “One of the tragic temptations of evangelicalism in America is that we have become captive to partisan talking points and instead of going to our primary source, which is Scripture.”
“Our hope is in the Gospel, not in politicians,” Salguero said.
This article has been updated to clarify that Salguero was referencing surveys when describing Latino evangelical priorities.
This article originally appeared here.
