Love Letters From Rev. Sex S1:06 Audre Lorde and The Gospel of the Erotic

This season finale of Love Letters From Reverend Sex begins on a quiet island where Reverend Sex reflects on the ocean’s ability to hold emotional turbulence and on the heavy days that call us back to choosing love over fear. After a conversation with Pantay, an LGBTQ youth advocacy group in Manila, Reverend Sex shares the raw moment when a mother asked why so many people still choose hate—and why religion so often stands in the way of love. Reverend Sex explores how fear becomes the engine of division, how religious teachings about obedience and punishment shape our understanding of love, and how fear gets normalized in families, churches, and society. They trace how this fear-based theology leads people to comply with systems that harm them, and how Queer and Trans people continually resist by choosing authenticity, community, and love even when fear is justified. The love letter closes with a meditation on the bravery of choosing love in a world built on fear, drawing a parallel to Jesus’ own refusal to recant his message of equality and liberation. Reverend Sex offers a prayer for courage, protection, and the strength to keep choosing love—trusting that the desire for truth and belonging is always more powerful than fear. 01:41 Ocean Reflections at Dusk 02:06 Holding Turbulence in the Body 02:48 LGBTQ Youth Q&A 04:29 The Mother’s Question 05:46 Fear as the Engine of Division 06:50 How Religion Gets Weaponized 08:26 Fear, Obedience, and Belonging 13:26 Choosing Love in a World Built on Fear 16:05 The Lineage of Jesus and the Cost of Love 17:52 A Prayer for Courage and Truth

In this season finale of Shameless Theology Rev. Alba Onofrio hosts beloved returning guest Rosa Manriquez in an inspiring conversation that captures the essence of the Sinvergüenza spirit.

Today’s episode opens with the restless energy of a storm moving across the Philippines and turns quickly toward a deeper reflection on authority–how it’s granted, how it’s abused, and how it can be reclaimed for healing. Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) traces their own path into ministry, shaped by a desire to understand what scripture truly says about Queer and Trans people and to question why certain leaders are allowed to define holiness, sin, and belonging. They offer a response to the question many have asked: “Who are you to speak for God?” Reverend Sex shares the practice of a reverse altar call, where LGBTQIA+ people return the burden of shame the church placed on them—releasing what was never theirs to carry and receiving a blessing in exchange. It becomes a moment of collective truth‑telling, apology, and the beginning of repair. This love letter closes with a meditation on what spiritual authority is for: not to control or condemn, but to name harm honestly and help communities heal. Reverend Sex invites both faith leaders and those who’ve been wounded by them into a shared work of transformation, ending with a prayer for courage, accountability, and the blessing of laying down what was never ours to hold. 01:41 Typhoon Winds and the Weight of Authority 02:28 Why I Became a Pastor 03:57 Who Gets to Speak for God? 04:39 Conversations with Queer Immigrants 07:22 “Who Are You to Speak for God?” 08:55 A Historic Queer Mass in Manila 09:45 The Reverse Altar Call 12:24 Returning the Burden That Was Never Ours 14:35 What Authority Is For 16:18 A Prayer for Healing and Accountability Hosted by Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio - Executive Director of Soulforce), Love Letters from Reverend Sex is confession and revelation, intimate and inspirational. This weekly message from an ordained pastor, spiritual healer, and bruja troublemaker will empower you to reject practices of spiritual violence and eradicate shame and fear in your life. This is the spiritual home you’ve been looking for. The entire Shameless Theology podcast channel offers connection, reflection, and community for anyone feeling spiritually marginalized or exiled but still resiliently faithful. It’s a space for exploration--un/learning and re/membering our spiritual journeys through sharing the experience, wisdom, and connections Soulforce has built as an international LGBTQIA+ social justice nonprofit organization over the last 30 years. Join in our community of Sinvergüenzas by visiting our Shameless Theology homepage or our Spanish WhatsApp Lista de Difusión. If you’d like to support this cutting-edge movement of ferocious Latine power building, please make a donation. https://soulforce.org/donate/ FREE PREVIEW: Spiritual Violence and Religious Phenomena that Defile the Faith: https://soulforce.org/download/spiritual-violence/ Find episode transcripts at https://soulforce.org/podcast/

In Part Two of our conversation with Dr. Arelis “Aly” Benitez, we continue exploring the lived realities of Spiritual Violence, white Christian Supremacy, and the survival strategies that emerge when communities demand that we split ourselves to stay safe. Rev. Alba Onofrio leads the conversation into a discussion of stubbornness as a spiritual virtue that can keep us connected to God even when church teachings are full of hypocrisy and contradictions. We discuss the value of learning to navigate liminality and how code‑switching becomes a form of wisdom and self-protection for those living at the intersections of multiple identities. Together, we explore the concept of Spiritual Terrorism and how fear, surveillance, and the threat of punishment shape the lives of undocumented families, Queer and Trans people, and anyone whose existence challenges the boundaries enforced by church or state. Aly shares how she learned to see herself as “bent but unbreakable,” and how healing becomes possible when we have language to name the harm and access to communities that accompany us through the work of questioning, discerning, and reclaiming our wholeness. Arelis Benítez, PhD (ella/she) serves as Assistant Professor of the Practice of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, and Director of Field Education at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Grounded in Chicana feminist theory and Mesoamerican wisdom, her scholarship reimagines pastoral theology, cultivating identity formation, cultural engagement, and spiritual care as pathways of transformation in theology and praxis.

In this Pride‑season love letter from Manila, Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) reflects on officiating a quiet, deeply intimate wedding for a Queer and Trans couple in a country where their love cannot be legally recognized. Their story, two women who dated in college, drifted apart, and reunited nearly twenty years later, opens into a reflection on the midlife Queer awakening so many people experience after years of fulfilling family and societal expectations. Reverend Sex shares the many kinds of unions they’ve been asked to bless: couples rejected by their churches, undocumented partners seeking spiritual recognition, political and survival‑based marriages, and Queer families building home in unconventional ways. Each story affirms that love is sacred long before the state acknowledges it. The episode turns to the scriptural story of Ruth and Naomi as a Queer love story—two women who choose each other against all expectations, whose vows form the foundation of modern wedding liturgy. Reverend Sex explores how all of us read scripture through our own lenses, and how Queer people have always been part of the biblical lineage. 01:45 An Evening Love Letter from Manila 02:07 A Quiet Wedding in a Country Without Marriage Equality 03:03 The Pattern of Midlife Queer Awakening 4:26 When the Church and State Say No 07:10 Blessing the Loves the Church Rejects 9:07 Ruth and Naomi: A Queer Love Story in Scripture 14:28 Queer Lineages in the Story of Jesus 15:43 Reading the Bible Through Our Own Lenses 20:20 A Pride Prayer for All Who Seek Themselves in Scripture Hosted by Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio - Executive Director of Soulforce), Love Letters from Reverend Sex is confession and revelation, intimate and inspirational. This weekly message from an ordained pastor, spiritual healer, and bruja troublemaker will empower you to reject practices of spiritual violence and eradicate shame and fear in your life. This is the spiritual home you’ve been looking for. The entire Shameless Theology podcast channel offers connection, reflection, and community for anyone feeling spiritually marginalized or exiled but still resiliently faithful. It’s a space for exploration--un/learning and re/membering our spiritual journeys through sharing the experience, wisdom, and connections Soulforce has built as an international LGBTQIA+ social justice nonprofit organization over the last 30 years. Join in our community of Sinvergüenzas by visiting our Shameless Theology homepage or our Spanish WhatsApp Lista de Difusión. If you’d like to support this cutting-edge movement of ferocious Latine power building, please make a donation. https://soulforce.org/donate/ FREE PREVIEW: Spiritual Violence and Religious Phenomena that Defile the Faith: https://soulforce.org/download/spiritual-violence/ Find episode transcripts at https://soulforce.org/podcast/