Angela Dela Cruz is a porn star, making a living from an industry widely considered evil and predatory. She’s also a pastor of Living Faith Church, a new church plant in downtown San Diego.
Angela and her husband, Stephen Dela Cruz, launched the church plant this summer, advertising it as “a church for sinners by sinners.” The church website further explains that the church’s leaders are “the biggest sinners, and this is the most non-judgmental church around!”
While the church website doesn’t identify its pastors, the couple has been open on social media about Angela’s involvement in adult entertainment and her role in the church.
“Where else will you find an adult actress who is also a pastor?!” a Sept. 6 post on the church’s Instagram reads in part.
The couple has also posted invitations to their followers for a church event where they covered the topic. “PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN of Angela, an adult actress, and her husband, Stephen Dela Cruz, starting a church for sinners by sinners,” Angela’s post read in part. It ended with an invitation to RSVP by texting “GOSSIP” to an 888 number.
Religion researcher Scott Thumma was speechless when he looked at the social media posts.
“I’ve never heard of anything quite like this,” said Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary and a longtime scholar of nondenominational churches and religious leadership.