Meet the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, the founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, which offers an important leadership voice for the nearly 8 million Latino evangelicals in the country. He’s also pastor of Orlando’s multicultural Calvario City Church.
He was one of the healing forces in the wake of the June 12, 2016, massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, when 49 people were killed and 50 more wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. It was terrorism on a scale larger than any since 9/11 and 90 percent of the dead were members of the Latino and LGBTQ communities.
When Equality Florida, which advocates for the civil rights of the LGBTQ community, went looking for a spiritual leader to pray at the memorial service, Salguero answered the call — a decision that shocked, but also ministered to many. “This is where Jesus would be,” he told one surprised to see him there. “We’re going to love you through this.”
In this episode, Salguero talks about Jesus’ command to love our neighbor in spite of our differences. “That means your Jewish neighbor, your Muslim neighbor, your LGBTQ neighbor, your rich neighbor, your poor neighbor, your Republican neighbor, your Democrat neighbor,” he says. He talks about how we can do that without labeling those who believe differently and while refusing to compromise our “courageous convictions.”
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