Politics tamfitronics
With the 2024 election less than two months away, more than 300 leaders have signed a statement outlining their shared beliefs about the relationship between faith and politics. The statement, signed by notable Christian leaders, is titled “Confession of Evangelical Conviction” and encourages Christians to consider each candidate’s “character and not merely their promises or political success.” One signatory, Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president and founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and pastor of The Gathering Place Assemblies of God congregation in Orlando, Florida, told The Christian Post he is “encouraged” by the support of the statement from a broad swath of Pentecostal and Evangelical leaders from across the country.
“[They] may be different in terms of … the way they vote, see the centrality of the Gospel,” he said. “I think that it’s a good reminder, and I’m hopeful that … people who give a close read to it don’t see it as anything more than a pastoral call to ‘let’s engage this in the spirit of Christ and let’s not hurt the credibility of our Christian and Evangelical witness by speaking ill of other people who may disagree with us.'”
Notable signatories include Russell Moore, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Revs. Galen Carey and Walter Kim of the National Association of Evangelicals; Justin Giboney of the And Campaign; progressive Christian author Shane Claiborne of the advocacy group Red Letter Christians, Christian rapper Lecrae and megachurch Pastor Joel C. Hunter.
Several signatories, including Moore, Claiborne, and Ekemini Uwan of the advocacy group Evangelicals for Harris, have been outspoken in their opposition to former President Donald Trump and the evangelicals who support him. Nevertheless, Salguero maintained that the statement goes beyond politics.
“This document is not aimed at anyone,” he told CP. “This document is a call to put Christ first in all our public engagement. I think that I, as a pastor, don’t use the language of …aimed at this or aimed at that; I think that’s political language, not pastoral language. And I’m not a politician; I’m a pastor. And so I try to eschew phrases like ‘this is aimed at.'”
Salguero called the statement a “Gospel-centered, biblical call to … engage in the public sphere with respect, with the spirit of Christ, with the tone of Christ and with the truth of Scripture” that is, “balancing grace and truth without being uncivil, without name-calling, without being [harsh] to people who may disagree with us or who we may disagree with.”
“It’s not aimed at anyone,” he stressed. “It’s a call to the Church to remember that we engage in the public sphere in the spirit of Christ and with the teachings of Jesus.”
“We call people from every part of the political spectrum to respect and love each other,” he added.
Salguero noted that members of his family and congregation are both Democrats and Republicans.
“There are Republicans and Democrats who, I think, if they read the confession closely, would be fine in saying, ‘Hey, this is about having the Gospel as a primary allegiance,'” he said.
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