Accusations of Racism in a Brooklyn Lutheran Community

The Rev. Samuel Cruz went into a meeting at his Sunset Park church last month as his bishop’s sole nominee for dean of the southwest Brooklyn conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He would have been the first member of a minority group to represent the area’s eight parishes, most of which date to when the area had a large Norwegian population. The nomination, an aide to the bishop said, recognized Pastor Cruz’s efforts to reinvigorate Trinity Lutheran Church, which in contrast to other parishes in the area was thriving. 

By the meeting’s end, Pastor Cruz not only had lost to a last-minute candidate, but he was also repeatedly disparaged by Leonard Bartkus, a layman who days earlier had circulated an email saying Pastor Cruz, a professor at Union Theological Seminary, was a troublemaker who was “not respected or liked” by local Lutheran clergy members. 

A dispute later erupted outside the church, and witnesses said they heard Mr. Bartkus hurl two racial slurs and an obscenity at Pastor Cruz, who is Latino. Both men have filed misdemeanor charges against each other stemming from the confrontation. Mr. Bartkus did not respond to several emails and a voice message.

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