Ancient Christian Witness

I knew how he got into christian rap, but I never knew this aspect of it. In his blog, he shares, some of the hurt and pain he went through, and how it molded his style of rap.

"The following is a video of me rapping when I was a senior
in high school. The school was Lancaster Mennonite High School, a school where I
have great memories. However, some miserable guys there did not like the fact
that I was a die hard urbanite using rap as means of praising God and
communicating His word. Their god was created in their image–white and also
racist. I share this video made by a friend, who kept it all these years, to
demonstrate how the rap was birthed out of pain and hope. Pain because there
were people who hated me just because I thought different, looked different, and
was different. It was a painful time because on one hand the few Latinos and
African Americans at the school recruited from the inner city thought I was
holier than thou because I was vocal about my faith and called all Christians to
the standard of Christ likeness. On the other hand I was despised by a few white
people who hated my culture, my land, and my ethnicity. My time there was lonely
and painful yet God used that time to mold me into the man I am today."

To read the rest, please go to his blog at cdero.wordpress.com.





This was when he was in highschool (1993). Cruz goes into more detail about why the song was made, and the whole history and context of that period in his life. (as seen on his blog)


This next video happened years later. Cruz is the last one rapping (in a crew of 5 or 6).......about the 3:30 minute mark.




I forgot when this video was made. I wanna say 1999, but I really don't know. But Cruz has come a long way, and I always was a fan of his music.

I could be wrong, but I think he is a teacher and a boxer now.

But what I found interesting in that highschool video is that he was talking about social justice in 1993. Alot of the Calvinists that Cruz and I both know, gave him a hard time about this. They saw it as liberal, as if he changed or something. But this video is proof, that he always cared about social issues. So I think the Calvinists that turned their backs on him should apologize. They owe him an apology.




JNORM888