{"id":35312,"date":"2023-03-12T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-vs-desantis-florida-pastors-ponder-priorities\/"},"modified":"2023-03-12T22:15:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T22:15:08","slug":"trump-vs-desantis-florida-pastors-ponder-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-vs-desantis-florida-pastors-ponder-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs. DeSantis: Florida pastors ponder priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"La
La Puerta Life Center Pastors Abraham and Marylin Rivera stand for a portrait, Tuesday, March 7, 2023, in North Miami. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a drink until you\u2019re 21, but you can have a sex change when you\u2019re 13 or 14?\u201d (Marta Lavandier\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Marta Lavandier<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DORAL, Florida \u2013 Several of Florida\u2019s conservative faith leaders have the ear of two early frontrunners for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination \u2013 former President Donald Trump, who lives in Palm Beach, and Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n

The clergy\u2019s top political priorities are thus likely to resonate in the national campaign for the religious vote, even as both men\u2019s agendas are still being weighed from the pulpit.<\/p>\n

The faith leaders\u2019 key issues include education, especially about gender and sexuality, and immigration, a particularly relevant matter in Florida, which is a destination for hundreds of thousands of newcomers and home to politically powerful Latino diasporas.<\/p>\n

Trump made reducing illegal immigration a strong focus of his previous campaigns, often with strident rhetoric, and has discussed building on his legacy in a second term. DeSantis, who isn\u2019t yet a candidate but is widely expected to run, has taken a more careful approach with immigration developments in Florida, while spotlighting issues related to schools and family.<\/p>\n

Several pastors, particularly in heavily Latino South Florida, argue for reforming immigration policy. They want a more orderly process at a time of historically high illegal border crossings, but also more help to regularize and integrate undocumented migrants who are contributing economically and socially in United States communities.<\/p>\n

The faith leaders\u2019 top priority, however, is defending their congregations, and youth in general, from what they see as efforts to impose \u2014 through public education \u2013 concepts of marriage, family and identity that run against their values.<\/p>\n

\"Pastor
Pastor Frank Lopez sits for a portrait in the sanctuary of Jesus Worship Center, Tuesday, March 7, 2023, in Doral, Florida. \u201cThe Christian church is not about looking for a perfect person or a charismatic person,\u201d L\u00f3pez says. (Marta Lavandier\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Marta Lavandier<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some LGBTQ advocates, teachers unions, and others argue that the issue of \u201cparental rights\u201d is being used to inject conservative politics into public schools.<\/p>\n

But for pastors like Frank L\u00f3pez of Jesus Worship Center in Doral, a Miami suburb, exposing children to certain types of sexually explicit materials in schools without their parents\u2019 knowledge is a form of political indoctrination that \u201cbrings conflict to a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want any government ever to go above a father and mother,\u201d said L\u00f3pez, whose church has grown to more than 3,000 members from over 40 different nationalities since it was founded two decades ago with barely three dozen worshippers.<\/p>\n

He cited as a counterweight a bill DeSantis signed last year to give parents a say in what books are available in school libraries, targeting the presence of sexually explicit volumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the government should not get involved in any religion, but yes I believe that religion should get involved in governing,\u201d said L\u00f3pez, whose church has hosted visits by Trump, DeSantis and other conservative politicians.<\/p>\n

Tom Ascol, the senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral who offered a prayer at DeSantis\u2019 inauguration earlier this year, said he wants political leaders fighting \u201cwoke mobs\u201d to restore \u201ccommon-sense sanity\u201d on issues like sexually explicit materials in public spaces with children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Governor DeSantis did here in Florida, I\u2019m grateful for,\u201d Ascol said.<\/p>\n

For Rabbi Avrohom Brashevitzky, executive director of Chabad Jewish Center of Doral, the top concern is similarly \u201cthe breakdown in morals and ethics,\u201d which he believes leads to societal ills including antisemitism, a growing worry nationwide.<\/p>\n

He attributes that breakdown to failures in education to imbue youth with the values of tolerance, kindness and a belief in a higher existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife doesn\u2019t begin and end with your cheeseburger, you and your pleasures,\u201d Brashevitzky said, praising DeSantis and the Florida legislature for passing a \u201cmoment of silence\u201d in schools before the day\u2019s start, where children can pray or reflect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a society, Christian or not, have a responsibility to protect the young ones,\u201d echoed Abraham Rivera, senior pastor at La Puerta Life Center, a Brethren in Christ church with about 200 members in Miami.<\/p>\n

The focus on freedom for conservative faith-based moral values, particularly for youth, is proving a winning argument among religious voters nationwide, experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly see a lot of energy around what conservatives would call \u2018parental rights\u2019 \u2026 I don\u2019t see that ending,\u201d said Marie Griffith, the director of religion and politics studies at Washington University in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

In Florida, conservative family values might have turned younger Latino voters toward DeSantis, helping to account for his nearly 20 percentage point reelection victory last year \u2014 \u201cunheard of\u201d according to Susan MacManus, a professor emerita of political science at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n

The state is almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, she said. Trump won the prized battleground state by single digit percentage points in the last two presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evangelical vote in Florida is too diverse to be a big force in politics,\u201d she added, but many faithful across denominations like seeing DeSantis take charge of issues like sexually explicit materials available to children. \u201cThat resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to stand up for more conservative values is also inextricably linked to the free exercise of religion for faith leaders like Rivera and his wife, Marilyn, who\u2019s also a pastor and met with Trump when she led South Florida\u2019s Association of Hispanic Ministers, which represents about 800 pastors from different Christian denominations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never come at it from a hate perspective. As a pastor, I happen to believe what the Bible teaches about sexuality and marriage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he and other pastors fear holding on to those beliefs could put their churches at risk of being sued, for example when refusing to celebrate same-sex marriages, or that they might be forced to go against their conscience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effort of some on the \u2018progressive side\u2019 to define religious freedom as freedom to worship but not necessarily the freedom to serve or the freedom to advocate\u201d is also a top concern for Thomas Wenski, the Catholic Archbishop of Miami.<\/p>\n

Wenski noted that \u201cneither party will necessarily embrace the whole gamut of Catholic social thought,\u201d which includes opposing abortion and capital punishment. Last year, Wenski\u2019s strong advocacy for migrants and refugees put him publicly at odds with DeSantis, who\u2019s Catholic.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, faith leaders said that a candidate\u2019s integrity and ability to address their concerns through policies outweighs a candidate\u2019s likeability and other personal traits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Christian church is not about looking for a perfect person or a charismatic person,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cIt wants a person who does what he says and a person who\u2019s aligned with God\u2019s values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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