Politicalidad Pentecostal: Derechos humanos latinos y complicidad con el poder

Authors

David Luckey PhD, Southern Methodist UniversityFollow

Abstract

The early Pentecostal movement was characterized by social boundary crossing that challenged the church and society. Today, a growing number of Latinx theologian-scholars of Pentecostalism are foremost representatives of outspoken witness. They employ an emancipative hermeneutic that calls the contemporary Pentecostal community to holistic engagement and forcefully addresses corrupt power structures. This prophetic tradition, however, is being distorted by Samuel Rodríguez and the NHCLC through the denial of the human rights of Latinx immigrants and Muslims. Rodríguez is an outspoken advocate for Donald Trump’s dehumanizing immigration policies and the incarceration of migrant children at the U.S. borders. He is also a founder of the Oak Initiative, a blatantly Islamophobic organization. In this paper, I argue that the vision of Rodríguez and the NHCLC has been seduced by the power, wealth, and prestige that comes with working in support of Trump and his administration. The result is the distortion of Rodríguez’s prophetic claims and his misguiding leadership of the NHCLC. My conclusions challenge Rodríguez and the NHCLC to live into a truly Pentecostal prophetic witness.

Creative Commons License

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Recommended Citation

Luckey, David PhD (2021) "Politicalidad Pentecostal: Derechos humanos latinos y complicidad con el poder," Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano: Vol. 41: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholar.smu.edu/apuntes/vol41/iss1/5