Evangelical Christian leaders from the United States have united with Latin America in their fight against gay marriage.

According to Reuters, the leaders include Samuel Rodriguez, a Latino preacher who considers his views a mix between those of Martin Luther King Jr. and televangelist Billy Graham. The other leader is Mat Staver, a veteran in the same sex marriage fight. He followed the late Jerry Falwell, who help found the conservative political action group Moral Majority, which dissolved in 1989 according to Infoplease. Staver also leads a campaign that supports keeping religious symbols in public buildings and stores during the winter holidays, Reuters reports.

In April, the leaders joined National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the U.S.' biggest Hispanic Christian Evangelical Church, of which Rodriguez is president and Staver is a board member, with Conela, a network for Latin American evangelical churches, Fox News Latino reports. The goal of HNCLC/CONELA is reportedly to help Latin American evangelical leaders extend their political influence.

"This merger is a win-win for both NHCLC and Conela, and we are thrilled to join together to better serve Hispanic evangelicals worldwide," Rodriguez said in a May press release. "Under the new NHCLC, we will continue to unify, serve and represent the Hispanic evangelical community with the divine and human elements of the Christian message all while advancing the Lamb's agenda."

According to NHCLC, the union was the idea of Ricardo Luna, president of Conela, although Rodriguez is head of the group.

"Because of what was happening in Latin America and what we are fighting here in America there needed to be a combination to be able to create a firewall for our Judeo-Christian values. That is what ultimately brought about this merger," Staver said on his Faith and Freedom radio show according to Reuters.

NHCLC/CONELA is planning to work in Peru in 2015 and eventually expand to the Caribbean. They also wish to increase work in Mexico and have already appointed a leader in the country in the fight against pornography.

"Yes, I can't deny that we are asking Evangelicals in Mexico to rise up and become very engaged and to defend Biblical truth and religious liberty to stand up for family and faith," Rodriguez told Reuters.

In addition to fighting gay marriage and pornography, the group is also against abortion.

"They were looking to us in America for help. Why? Because America through this current administration has been using a bully pulpit to try to tell them what to do on abortion and homosexuality, and they don't like that," Staver said.
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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