Latino Evangelicals on the Lower East Side Struggle with Reality of Trump

A congregant at The Lamb's Church on the Lower East Side sways to music in the first service since Donald Trump was elected.

Faith leaders across the country are providing a refuge for those seeking to make sense of the presidential election and struggling to understand where the country goes from here.

But the congregation at The Lamb’s Church on the Lower East Side may be more conflicted than many.

It’s an evangelical church with a largely Latino congregation. So while many congregants may agree on social issues with some Donald Trump supporters, many also worry about the president-elect’s rhetoric on immigration and his call for mass deportations.

“I think we need to dispel the myth that the evangelical community is a monolith,” Enid Almanzar said after a bilingual service on Sunday. “I think we need to realize that Latinos view the world very differently. We are not single issue voters.”

Richard Lopez, another congregant, said the election wasn't a simple choice between issues.

“I’m obviously anti-abortion. I’m pro-Life so if I had to choose between that and what would be the other thing? Building the wall?” Lopez said.

If it was that simple he'd have voted for the candidate that would end abortion. But Lopez said his little daughter pushed him to vote for Hillary Clinton.

“My daughter had a conversation with me the day of election and she goes ‘Daddy, who are you voting for?’ And I said, ‘I’m not really sure yet baby, you know?’ And she goes, ‘Daddy you can’t vote for Trump because he’s mean,’” Lopez said. “It was just that concept that she has already as a five-year-old of what he created for himself as a persona, as an image for himself to the world.”

Others at the church couldn’t get past Hillary Clinton’s political baggage and said they voted for a third party candidate.