Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader Russell Moore has been added to the organizational board of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), a conservative-leaning organization opposed to gay marriage and abortion rights but more in line with President Obama than Republican leaders on the issue of immigration reform, according to a press release.
Founded in 2001 by Samuel Rodriguez, pastor of New Season Christian Worship Center in Sacramento, Calif., the NHCLC now includes more than 40,000 churches and calls itself the nation’s largest Hispanic Christian organization.
Moore, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), has worked with Rodriguez on various issues in the past and was a keynote speaker at the NHCLC annual meeting in April along with GOP presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush.
“I am happy to join my friends at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference,” Moore said. “I pray that God would enable us, together, to raise up a new generation of gospel-centered Hispanic leaders to evangelize the Americas and the rest of the world for the glory of Jesus Christ.”
Rodriguez said Moore’s nomination to the board emphasizes one of the group’s “most important directives and goals of the immediate future — the cause of religious liberty and freedom here in the United States and around the world.”
“We look forward to having him join our efforts to spread to fight for justice during this critical time,” Rodriguez said.
At the recent NHCLC annual meeting, Rodriguez challenged attendees to earnestly pray for the Supreme Court to uphold the traditional, biblical definition of marriage.
“As we are speaking, something critical is taking place right now at the Supreme Court of the United States,” Rodriguez said. “We could be politically correct and have everyone love us, but there is no such thing as a ‘comfortable Christian.’”
The gathering also featured official launch of the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition, billed as the world’s largest and most influential pro-Israel Latino entity.
Rodriguez, who prayed a benediction at the Republican National Convention in 2012, also challenged presidential candidates to pledge support for immigration reform. “Republicans must cross the Jordan of immigration reform to step into the promised land of the Hispanic faith electorate,” he said at a press conference prior to the annual meeting. “There’s a period there, not a comma. They must.”
The NHCLC agenda “seeks to reconcile evangelist Billy Graham’s message of salvation with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march of prophetic activism” through seven “directives” of life, family, evangelism, stewardship, justice, education and youth.
Rodriguez is scheduled to speak Aug. 5 at the ERLC national conference titled “The Gospel & Politics” in Nashville, Tenn. Other speakers include Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, RedState.com founder Erick Erickson and syndicated Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson.
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