SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rev. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issues the following statement:

“As an American, I wholeheartedly applaud the Trump administration for working tirelessly on bringing home the three detained Americans from North Korean, and more broadly President Trump’s role in helping create a genuine opportunity for peace on the Korean peninsula. This is truly a historic day and one that bodes well for the prospect of peace throughout all of Asia.

“As a Christian, I rejoice knowing full well that the proclamation of the Gospel in North Korea has been clandestine in nature for decades. Many brothers and sisters in Christ have risked their lives in doing so and at least one of those released was imprisoned because of his faith. Where the south has flourished economically and spiritually, the north has languished under communist stagnation and state sponsored atheism and shamanism. I believe today marks a prophetic shift in the future of the North Korean people as well as for the Gospel spreading among them, just as it did in the south.” 

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Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, executive producer of The Impossible with 20th Century Fox, and bestselling author of “Be Light.” He has been named by CNN and Fox News as “the leader of the Hispanic Evangelical movement” and TIME Magazine nominated him among the 100 most influential leaders in America.

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference is recognized and identified by Time Magazine, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, Charisma Magazine, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, Fox News, CNN, and a number of additional media outlets, publications, and periodicals as America’s largest and most influential Hispanic/Latino Christian organization with 40,118 certified member churches in the United States and chapters in Latin America. 

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