The Misunderstood, Non-conventional Christian Latina

I am Mexican, A Chicana,

I am a Latina – because I embrace the power in our Pan Ethnicity

I am a Christian.

I have undocumented immigrants in my immediate family.

I am pro life (from the Womb to the Tomb variety).

Which means I value life, the unborn, the orphan, the poor child, the struggling parent, and the aging.

Guns scare me, but I don’t think the government should take them away.

I think too much government intervention is inefficient government.

But, Government  is the best entity to protect us FROM EACH OTHER.

At the church where I attend, most of the leadership are by default Republicans.

I serve alongside the hardest working, honest, loving, Christian illegal aliens you’ll ever meet.

The most law-abiding people I know. They work hard, they serve the community, they tithe, they pay their rent (in-cash and before its due), they give to the poor…

One day while sitting in Starbucks with one of my undocumented friends, I saw her physically SHAKE IN fear when a police office walked in – She was gripped with fear of being snatched up and deported.

So who represents THAT Christian?

I believe what the bible says: that it is the church’s role to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the disenfranchised.

Jesus when on this earth: hung out with thieves, ate with the rejects, honored women, and defended the oppressed.

Jesus was Love and Social Justice personified.

Jesus had very little patience for the legalistic, self-righteous oppressors

The Christian Martyrs of Civil Rights movement knew this about this Jesus. Their ships anchor was not liberalism or conservatism. It was their faith. Their faith was their moral compass.

They were flawed men and women, their beliefs at times at tension with one another, their tactics at times questionable, but they believed what the bible said about freedom and justice—and that was their constant.

The larger Conservative movement does not represent me, because it does not incorporate those that I love. And it certainly does not represent my undocumented sisters and brothers.

And so it is up to me, the misunderstood, non-conventional Christian Latina, To Represent them. With my voice, with my scholarship, with my vote, with my activism.