Samuel Rodriguez, one of the nation’s most prominent conservative Latino religious leaders and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference is planning to go on a 40-day hunger strike to press Congress to act on immigration reform.
“In the spirit of Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other leaders who have acted on the moral imperative to do justice, as well as our ultimate example found in Jesus, I likewise sense an urgent conviction to engage in the spiritual exercise that in my faith narrative produces great results,” said Rodriguez in a press release announcing the hunger strike. “Starting today, I will be engaging in a personal fast and call others to join me as we pray for the vital importance of immigration reform now.”
The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference is the nation’s largest Christian Hispanic organization, representing more than 40,000 churches.
Rodriguez is a prominent conservative leader who gave the benediction at last year’s Republican National Convention. He was also among about a dozen faith leaders who were invited to the White House to discuss comprehensive immigration reform with President Obama earlier this year.
Rodriguez has framed the immigration issue as a religious and moral one, pushing his fellow evangelical pastors to advocate for an overhaul of our broken immigration system that would bring 11 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and keep our families together.
