A Filipino Catholic archbishop called on Filipino-American voters “to vote as Jesus would” in the coming US elections.
“When you decide on whom to vote, please say I will vote as Jesus would vote,” said Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan.
“That is what you do in the ballot, that is how you decide,” he said in a US online talk on October 10.
“If you vote as God, you will vote selflessly. You are not going to vote according to the benefits that you will get but according to God’s plan for America,” said Archbishop Villegas.
He said that as baptized Christians, the people embody the presence of Christ, “so be who you are.”
“And who am I? ‘I am Jesus,’ so vote like Jesus,” said the prelate.
He warned that when “you go against Jesus, you are going against who you really are” and therefore, “you have no right to complain later on.”
“You have put that judgement, condemnation on yourself because you went beyond yourself, you violated yourself. So be who you are,” he added.
“That’s why there’s a saying ‘you have to pray’ because Jesus will not be able to speak to you about for whom he will vote unless you are attuned to his heart,” said the archbishop.
Many Filipino-Americans are expected to cast their votes before November 3 through mail-in ballots.
As of October 16, more than 22 million voters have already voted as early voting rolled out across the country.
As of 2017, there were more than four million Filipinos in the United States, making up the third largest Asian-Americans behind Chinese and Indians.
