A journey of theological exploration with the tattooed theologian Dillon Naber Cruz
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. 1 Timothy 6:10 Our economic system is capitalistic and it has been since Europeans first invaded the North American continent centuries ago. …
Continue reading Capitalism kills: A brief theological exploration of the love of money
Christians are often broadly painted with the same brush by people as a large homogeneous group. When I was immersed in the fundamentalist's worldview, the term Christians meant the people who believed as I did that the Bible is inerrant, penal substitution was the heart of the gospel, and all nonbelievers were going to suffer …
I live in Lancaster County, PA, a bucolic area known for its landscapes dotted with farms, its large population of Anabaptists - the Amish, Mennonites, and Church of the Brethren - its welcome of refugees, and the small city of Lancaster at the heart of it all. For the aforementioned Anabaptist groups, their Christian faith …
In recent weeks two men with obscene levels of wealth stroked their overly developed egos as they became the first private citizens to fund a trip to "space." It seemingly did not matter to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos that what they were doing was an utterly pointless vanity project, or that NASA has been …
Biblical scripture speaks to the beauty of our home planet, the need to take care of it, and I believe command to reverence it as well. The Orthodox Church in America notes that reverence is hard to define, saying that it can be seen in attitudes of wonder, awe, submission or respect, along with veneration, …
Earlier this week, I had an interaction with a former seminary colleague and friend who had been posting some pro-Trump links on her social media page. I simply asked her point blank if she is now a Trump supporter to which she replied, "I now see the Republican platform as the lesser of two evils. …
Recently, I was invited to be the 'Heretic of the Week' on the delightful Heretic Happy Hour podcast as part of their series on the Sermon on the Mount. It was a perfect way to introduce people to the concept of permaculture being a way to live out the golden rule and inform our day-to-day …
During a recent trip to Ohio, the current occupant of the White House said that if Joe Biden were elected that Biden would, " "Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. "He's against God, he's against guns, he's against energy, our kind of energy."(1) From …
Continue reading On Trump’s pandering and using God as a prop
When I was a child and into my high school years, I was made to say the "Pledge of Allegiance." This nationalistic pledge is still said in some schools today despite the fact that it is quite dangerous for anyone to say for a variety of reasons, which I will highlight below. For Christians, it …
Dear white people, Hello, I'm Dillon, and if you're a white American, I am writing specifically to you. Like you, I am a white person in America. In fact, according to the two DNA tests I took a few years ago via Family Tree DNA, I am super-duper white. My test results showed that my …
The Tattooed Theologian 