Rev. Dr. Samuel Cruz is Associate Professor of Church and Society at Union Theological Seminary, NYC. Rev. Dr. Cruz has previously taught at Rutgers, the State University, New Brunswick, N.J., in the Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies Department. He is the author of Masked Africanisms: Puerto Rican Pentecostalism (2005), and of Christianity and Culture in the City: A Postcolonial Approach (2013). He has published columns on civil rights for El Diario and The New York Daily News, most recently advocating for humane immigration policies, marriage equality, opposing “Stop and Frisk” police practices and critiquing the prison industrial complex. Dr. Cruz has been recently featured in the Stop and Frisk docu-series: “The Pastor”. Rev. Cruz is Senior Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, NY.