A controversy is brewing among leading Latino groups over a promotional poster that invokes Jesus to help encourage Latino evangelicals to participate in the 2010 census.
The National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) has been passing out a poster from civilrights.org that depicts Joseph with a pregnant Mary, as they arrive in Bethlehem so Joseph could be counted in the Roman census. According to the Biblical tale, this is where Jesus is born. The poster says as much: “This is how Jesus was born — Joseph and Mary participated in the census.” The poster also says “Don’t be afraid,” and “It’s time. Make yourself count.”
The ad, which has mostly been printed in Spanish, is part of a push to rally Latino voters to participate in the census. According to USA Today, Jose Cruz, senior director of civic engagement at NALEO, who also designed the poster, said “our challenge is a full Latino count.” Cruz also described some fear among Latinos, particularly those in the United States illegally, and said religious imagery was chosen because “there is no more trusted voice in our community than faith-based leaders.”
But NALEO is facing some opposition from other Latino groups, who object to use of religious imagery in the poster, and to Latino participation in the census altogether. Particularly, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC) is supporting a boycott of the census by undocumented immigrants to help bring attention to the need for immigration reform.
In a press release, Reverand Miguel Rivera, CONLAMIC’s chariman, described the poster as “an act of impious exploitation to invoke the holy name of Jesus for what we consider a merely secular effort, financed by taxpayers, without any respect for the Christian faith during the Christmas season.”
