Churches struggle to comfort Latinos feeling besieged in a Trump era marked by hate, fear
LA TimesParishioners greet each other after the homily during Sunday service at Church of the Epiphany in Los Angeles’ Lincoln Heights neighborhood. “We are praying that nothing happens to us,” she said as she stood in the back of the church after Estrada’s service. “We are going to protect one another — that’s what we do.” Guillermo Torres, project organizer for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an activist organization for interfaith members in the Los Angeles area, says he has seen more clergy approach the organization to ask how they can actively engage in supporting Latino and immigrant communities. “We are being reached out to by many communities right now that had not been actively engaged before.” Faith is a special way of dealing with atrocities such as the shooting in El Paso, said Melvin Valiente, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Maywood, because it provides hope that things can change for the better, that evil need not triumph. “The community wants to celebrate and lament together,” said Carey, adding that the church and faith provide a much-needed space for people to confront challenges together.
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In El Paso, pastors offer waiting migrants shelter and counsel
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