LATINO EVANGELICALS LIVING IN THE HYPHEN

Latino Evangelicals Living in the Hyphen

By Fidel “Butch” Montoya

As the Congress continues to struggle with many of the critical issues facing Americans, immigration reform debate has slowly become the silent issue on the political landscape. Depending on who one listens to, immigration reform this year is dead, while others claim that if given an opportunity to vote on the issue, reform would pass. One must admit, the expectation that reform would continue to gain momentum as the Congress moved toward a vote, in fact has lost much of the Si Se Puede spirit.

The tireless efforts of many pro-immigration reform for families groups have seemed to have lost much of its political influence since Congress went on vacation during the August recess. Returning to the distractions of Syria, health care reform, finalizing the federal budget, and the on-going struggle to jump start a weakening economy which is not keeping pace with the number of good jobs needed by Americans.

With less undocumented immigrants coming from south of the border, many Latino faith leaders are beginning to look at growth projections of the past, and are now acknowledging the fact that Spanish-speaking ministries may have misplaced priorities and expectations of the future. Arlene Sanchez-Walsh, associate professor of Latino church studies at Azusa Pacific University places the blame squarely on the economy for less church planting. “The economy has put a crimp on how you can start a church.”

The Spanish-speaking church will soon be facing the fact that less Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants are no longer risking the dangerous journey through the new desert trails to the United States, only to face the reality of not finding a “good paying job” in an economy that cannot even meet the needs of Americans under-employed.

This disturbing trend should prompt serious soul-searching by Latino evangelical church leaders as to whether cantering to Spanish-speaking adherents should be the focus of the church. Daniel Rodriguez, professor of Religion at Pepperdine University states clearly what he believes the Latino church leader’s position should be. 

“The church's mission is to preach the gospel to all people. It is not to preserve the language and cultural preferences of any generation, whether foreign or native born. As God's missionary people, we have been sent into the world just as Jesus Christ was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21). We cannot allow our ethnocentrism to blind us to the prisons of disobedience evident in every culture, including our own.”

The dramatic changes in demographics in the Latino community should be cause for Spanish-speaking church administrators to reexamine who the church will be ministering to in the near future. Gaston Espinosa, associate professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College says the changes in demographics “will pressure churches to gear more toward second and third generation Hispanics – who virtually all speak English as a primary language.” 

As more undocumented immigrants become more “Americanized in language and culture,” English will become the predominant language at home, school, and business. Second and third generation Latinos understand that in order to succeed in the USA, learning to read and write English proficiently is a given.

In the past, most Latino families felt it was important to maintain a strong cultural tie to our Raza heritage, and language was thought to be the best way to keep our customs alive. In addition to ministering to Spanish-speaking congregations, Spanish was a cultural icon that kept our traditions vibrant and alive in a society where the dominant group placed little value on their cultural past.

Perhaps more alarming or critically important for faith leaders in Latino evangelical ministries, is to heed the words of Daniel Sanchez, from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas who teaches church planting, “Any church that insists on just being Spanish-speaking risks losing young people.”

Beyond debating the politics of how many undocumented immigrants are crossing or not crossing the border, what the focus of our debate should be how evangelical Latino leaders examine the demographic changes and how they are challenging Latino churches to remain culturally and spiritually in touch with second and third generation Latinos. 

With more Latino youth opting out for English, where will these Latino young people go to church? Bi-lingual church services were all the rage a generation ago, but even though seen as an accommodation, if one understood both English and Spanish, it was a double dose or dare we say, “Double portion of the Word?” Bi-linguicism in Latino churches while a noble attempt to keep both groups content, services were perceived as doubling up on every facet of the service.

Daniel Rodriguez, professor of Religion at Pepperdine University, adds another important perception to the debate of ministering to the Spanish-speaking ministry models. Rodriguez claims these models “were unintentionally designed to preserve the language and cultural preferences of foreign-born Latinos.

Rodriguez outlines how the Latino church has missed one of the greatest opportunities for meeting the spiritual needs of the Latino whose demographic changes should also modify the church’s focus in ministry. “My research during the past five years has convinced me that as the church's attention and resources have been drawn to the rapid growth of the Hispanic evangelical church during the past three decades, they have unintentionally overlooked U.S.-born English-dominant Latinos.

Like the Greek-speaking Jews described in Acts 6:1–4, "Hellenized Latinos" are not receiving the daily distribution of spiritual food. They represent more than 60 percent of all Latinos in this country, but are invisible to many denominational and local church leaders who uncritically equate "Hispanic ministry" with "Spanish-language ministry.”

There will always be a need for a Spanish-speaking ministry, but to ignore “more than 60% of all Latinos in this country not receiving the daily distribution of spiritual food,” must also be acknowledged as a priority strategy.

Manuel Ortiz, in his groundbreaking study, The Hispanic Challenge, contends that the role that language plays in the Latino church will always be one of on-going debate. Ortiz observes that, “Legal and illegal immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States ensures an ongoing need for Spanish-speaking immigrant churches. But it is time for church and denominational leaders to recognize a new generation of Hispanic leaders dedicated to becoming all things to all Latinos – including the silent majority who are native born and English dominant, “living in the hyphen” Latin American and Anglo-American cultures.”

While Latino evangelical church leaders lead the debate on the need for comprehensive immigration reform for families, we must also focus on the importance of the future of the Latino evangelical church and its ability to recognize how immigration reform may affect the Latino evangelical church’s ability to remain relevant to a diverse Latino community – and how language may be an advantage to accomplish more for Christ, and our ability to spread the Gospel.