When 1,500 leaders and pastors gather October 1 and 2 for the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders' (CONLAMIC) conference in Washington, D.C., boycotting the 2010 U.S. Census will top their agenda.
Unless Congress advances immigration reform during September, CONLAMIC chairman Miguel Rivera plans to expand last April's call for undocumented immigrants to shun the census to all Latinos nationwide.
"When we started this action, our main moral position was, 'We take care of our brethren,'" said Rivera, a pastor whose organization claims nearly 22,000 evangelical churches--with an estimated 38 percent of members undocumented.
Though most U.S. Hispanics agree that immigration reform is urgently needed, support for the boycott appears weak. Two other national Hispanic Christian groups oppose it. They cite the census' impact on distribution of federal aid, which affects many Latino communities.
"Miguel has done great work on immigration, but I disagree totally with him on strategy," said Luis Cortes Jr., pastor and president of Esperanza, a 12,000-member evangelical network that supported the census at its National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in June. "It breaks the law and asks people who are undocumented to compound that by breaking another law."
Others agree. Jesse Miranda, executive director of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference--which represents 25,000 evangelical churches--sees participation in the census as a longstanding civic responsibility.
"We're simply encouraging our churches to take part," Miranda said. "It's more an issue of education than a debate. As Christians, we want to comply with things we feel are right and proper."
Though Rivera is aware that census data are confidential, his objection to the decennial count stems from "opportunistic politicians" who use resulting demographic information to promote anti-immigrant legislation.
"Because we have a broken immigration system, there is no way immigrants can fix their legal status," Rivera said.
However, leaders say the disagreement doesn't symbolize division within the Latino evangelical church. "We agree that we want immigration reform," Cortes said. "This is just a tactic. We disagree on a tactic."
Juan Martinez, associate dean for Fuller Theological Seminary's Hispanic church studies department, agrees, saying the dispute reveals the diversity of Hispanic evangelicals.
Martinez said using one label for this group ignores its numerous ethnicities and disparate agendas.
And despite the media coverage in recent months, Martinez doesn't think the discussion has moved to the forefront of the church's consciousness.
"I have not heard it in the life of the church or in the conversations of local pastors," he said. "It's not an issue at that level."
However, Gaston Espinosa, professor of religious studies at California's Claremont McKenna College, thinks the boycott can gather steam if Rivera provides a stronger rationale.
"You could almost look at this as an attempt to keep President Obama and the Democrats accountable for their political promises," Espinosa said. "Hispanic evangelicals clearly supported Obama in the last election, which was a reversal of what they had done [with Democrats] in 2004."
SOURCE: Christianity Today
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To my Latino brothers and sisters,
I'm a Black man. Please do not listen to anyone who tells you to boycott the census. This includes pastors. The same people who have been working behind the scenes to keep Black people oppressed, disadvantaged, underpopulated and unaccounted for, have now turned their attention to you. You have become the their greatest threat to their "supremacy" in this country. They have successfully crippled the Black community by using the same types of tactics they're trying to use on you. They can't go into your neighborhoods and "control" you themselves, so they pay your leaders to do it for them. Look at us and our backstabbing leaders. Bob Johnson, founder of BET, who is responsible for turning our Black queens into b!tches and hoes, and our strong Black men into materialistic, selfish, irresponsible "players". Faye Wattleton, the first Black president of Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by KKK hero Margret Sanger for the purpose of "controling" the Black population. Our values have been vicously attacked and mangled, and they've used our own people to do it. Do not fall for the same trick. Participate in the census. Be counted. Fight for your families. Fight for your values. Do not accept the lies.
I have a concern about the US 2010 Census Question #9 About Race. I feel the Hispanic or Latino Race is not included. And the comment or note in black bold text found on the US 2010 Census form before Question #8 is very upsetting to me. (In this census, Hispanic is not races.) I was bought up to believe that Hispanic was a Race. I was born in the US and my parents are from Mexico. Almost all my life I have filled out other government paperwork & etc. that I'm Hispanic or Latino under the question of Race or Ethic Race. I called the 1-800# to the US 2010 Census about my concern and they told me to choose one or more of these options of race provide on the form for me that best fits me. Honestly none of these options of race fits who I am.
I haven't really heard anything about this on the media yet, but I'm hearing that many well know Latinos are supporting or doing Ads for the US 2010 Census. Have they had the chance to look at the form that they are supporting? Telling us that we should fill it out, so we could be counted. I'm wondering how these Hispanics or Latinos honestly are filling out Question #9 about Race.
“Are we A RACE, or have we been Erased?"
Please voice out your comment about this
This is the way I’m going to answer Question #9. I’m going to choose option: Some other race & write in Latino. At least this way we could be counted and heard. Please spread the word to your family, friends, & other Hispanics (Latinos) Latino is its own RACE!!!
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