Back to home

Wednesday November 7, 2007

Evangelicals lose fear of participating in politics

Trinidad Vásquez, MANAGUA, Nicaragua, May 12, 2004

Evangelical pastors and leaders have lost their fear of participating in politics and are launching Taxi Heathrow Airport campaigns to run as mayors and aldermen in upcoming municipal elections in Nicaragua.

Several are running for the Nicaraguan Christian Way Party, even though this group is criticized by some Evangelicals for its supposed alliance with the Partido Liberal. The PCCN turned over a complete list of candidates to the Supreme Electoral Court in the first week of June.

Frank Sarria, the party’s secretary of organization, said they will participate in municipal elections because that is what the grassroots have called for and that they have the backing of hundreds of pastors and leaders from different denominations and Christian ministries as they have lost their fear of participating in politics. 

Sarriá confirmed that the leader of the Assemblies of God, Elizabeth de Rojas is running for the mayor of Managua. He said he has the support of the Evangelical Nicaraguan Alliance.

In Leon, 90 kilometers from the capital and considered the second most important city in Nicaragua, Dionisio Martinez is running as mayor and Pastor Hilario Daniel Sobalvarro is running as vice mayor for the Pentecostal Church.

Baptist Pastor Jose Rivera is running is running in Chinandega, another important city in western Nicaragua close to Leon.

Sarria noted that more Churches are opening their doors to Guillermo Osorno, president of the PCCN and legislator. This is opposite to what took place in 1996 when the National Justice party and some Churches blocked him, because they considered it a sin to be involved in politics, he said.

Sarriá noted that the Presbytery of the Assemblies of God Church reformed one of the articles of its statutes; allowing its pastors and leaders to run as candidates. Another pastor recalled that the Assemblies of God, in the 1990s, criticized the pastors for becoming involved in politics and today, Pastor Roberto Rojas, is supporting his wife as a candidate for the mayorship of Managua.