Power In The Pews

Obama has been aggressive in reaching out to Hispanic evangelicals, according to numerous pastors interviewed by NEWSWEEK. He has met with key religious figures, and attended a breakfast with 200 Latino pastors in Brownsville, Texas earlier this year. He and his surrogates participate in regular conference calls with church leaders. And his campaign has organized faith-focused town halls aimed at the Hispanic religious community. The McCain campaign hasn't been as active, according to the pastors. But Hessy Fernandez, a McCain spokeswoman, says that "in terms of reaching out to Hispanic evangelicals, we usually meet with the major organizations from time to time" and that evangelicals "know where John McCain stands" on issues like traditional marriage and immigration.

A month out from the election, many Latino evangelicals are still grappling with their presidential pick. "I've never been more conflicted in my life," says Alejandro Mandes, national director of Hispanic ministries for the Evangelical Free Church of America, which has roughly 350,000 members nationwide. "Social justice for me is number one," he says. "But if I can't guarantee justice for infants [by opposing abortion], what hope is there for anybody else?" That quandary has split some national organizations down the middle. Delegates of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, an evangelical advocacy organization, recently voted on whom to endorse for president. The outcome: 53 percent chose McCain, and 47 percent sided with Obama. Rodriguez's organization, the NHCLC, has its own divisions. While the Rev. Mark Gonzalez, the group's vice president for governmental affairs, backs McCain, De Jesus, the organization's vice president for social justice, supports Obama.

De Jesus's endorsement was a coup for the Illinois senator's campaign. The senior pastor of Chicago's 4,500-member New Life Covenant Ministries—one of the biggest Latino evangelical churches in the country—De Jesus says that in past presidential elections, he opted for Republicans because of the "two hot buttons" of abortion and marriage. Those issues "continue to be on the forefront," he says. "But the trends are changing. Not that the buttons are changing. But we've elevated other issues like poverty and immigration." When De Jesus met Obama in person at the Brownsville gathering this year, he laid hands on the senator, prayed with him and sat down to discuss a variety of topics. "That was the turning point right there, hearing his heartbeat on issues important to us," says De Jesus. "Although we don't see eye to eye on certain issues, we can break bread and tackle some other issues that are hot for us." These days, De Jesus is traveling the country on behalf of Obama, cultivating support in battleground states like Florida and Colorado.

Rodriguez, however, is much more conflicted. He says he'll pull the lever for McCain in the voting booth but has no plans to publicly endorse him. He might have done so if the Republican leadership had publicly repudiated what he considers the party's xenophobic stances. On the other hand, "if Senator Obama was a pro-life, pro-traditional-marriage Democrat," he says, "I would have supported him completely." Neither scenario, of course, will come to pass. As Rigoberto Magaña, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Greeley, Colo., puts it, "If we could combine the two [candidates], it would really help us out. But I guess we don't have that luxury."

With Jim Moscou

© 2008