Shameless Theology: Queer Feminist Latine Decolonial Faith

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...

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.  Rosa describes her youth as a “manzana de la discordia” pursuing knowledge, resisting shame, and questioning her elders. Rev. Alba and Rosa discuss the importance of listening to children, keeping them grounde...

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...

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 c...

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 exper...

What happens when the place that taught you God’s love also teaches you to divide your spirit from your body—and to call your body the problem? In this week’s episode, we bring you Part One of our conversation with Dr. Arelis “Aly” Benítez , a beloved friend, colleague, and one of the people whose encouragement and editorial insight helped shape the book at the center of this season. Years ago, Al...

In this sunrise love letter from Manila, Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) reflects on a weekend of Queer spiritual courage during the first-ever Culto Cuir in Asia—and Soulforce's first Deaf-centered Culto Cuir. As the city wakes, they recount the power and tenderness of the Trans baptism and name‑change ceremony, a ritual born in Ecuador and now carried across continents as a sacred act of re...

Despite all the harm caused by evangelical churches, today’s guest, Zayn Silva, shares some of what they got right. Rev. Alba Onofrio and Zayn discuss his upbringing in a powerful Spanish-speaking Pentecostal family network with major political and media influence that organized New York’s largest anti-same-sex action in 2009. He shares how he was publicly outed, subjected to conversion therapy, a...

In this week’s Love Letter, Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) invites us into a night sky in eastern North Carolina and into a story of breathtaking bravery from Soulforce’s global community. Drawing from Soulforce’s seed‑grant program, Reverend Sex shares how liberatory theological resources are translated into local languages so communities can resist Spiritual Violence on their own terms. But in...

When food and water are denied in the aftermath of an earthquake on the basis of religious affiliation, white Christian Supremacy is laid bare. In part two of our conversation with Dr. Danielle Boaz and Dr. Gustavo Melo Cerqueira, Danielle offers a sweeping historical and political analysis of Haiti—from the Haitian Revolution to the 2010 earthquake and cholera outbreak—showing how anti‑Blackness,...

Forgiveness is often preached as holy, but in abusive systems it becomes a tool of control that protects institutions and silences survivors. Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) reflects on the weaponization of Christian forgiveness, sharing a story of an 18-year-old in Costa Rica shamed as “impure” and barred from church dance after giving birth at 12 due to abuse by a church elder the community pro...

Spiritual Terrorism does not require intention to do harm when social, political, and cultural structures are established to facilitate harm. Today, Rev. Alba Onofrio introduces two scholars who have worked together for almost a decade to expose these structures and document incidents of Religious Racism in Brazil. Dr. Danielle Boaz and Dr. Gustavo Melo Cerquiera have built a bilingual database of...

What if your queerness isn’t just who you love—but the lens that teaches you to question everything?  Reflecting on a rainy night at home and a recent visit to United Lutheran Seminary, Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) answers a seminarian’s brave question: “What is a Queer Christian?” They unpack how identity-shaping adjectives matter, and how “Queer” differs from “gay” as a politicized, counterc...

What do you do when you can’t find a spiritual home? You build one. In pursuit of a faith that could withstand questioning and a community that embraced freedom and dignity, guest Rev. Rhina Ramos worked to create the spiritual home she’d been searching for. In today’s episode, Rev. Alba Onofrio invites Rhina to share her journey from a punitive Catholic upbringing in El Salvador, through migratio...

Profane or impolite? How do the words we choose relate to the faith we practice? Honoring a rebellious heart and faithful spirit Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) explores why profanity unsettles many Christians but can be a political and spiritual practice rooted in activism where survival leaves little room for polite society. Drawing on the Battle of Hastings and the class divide between Old Eng...

When purity is preached as protection but feels like surveillance, pastor’s kids can become extensions of the pulpit under constant scrutiny.  In part two of a conversation with Yolanda Santiago-Correa,, the story turns personal. Yolanda describes how her parents—shaped by their own religious trauma—protected her through honest, nuanced dialogue rather than censorship. Even so, she navigated polic...

If you’ve been wondering whether that persistent tug in your spirit is a real calling, this love letter is your sign to listen—and be brave. Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) shares their own improbable path toward divinity school as a queer, non-monogamous mother, guided by Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon’s mantra: “Do the work your soul must have.”  A transformative moment during a Moravian Love Feast—know...

Puerto Rico’s colonial past isn’t just politics—it’s a Christian story written into bodies, churches, and daily survival. Rev. Alba Onofrio (Reverend Sex), Executive Director of Soulforce, introduces Shameless Theology Season 2 as a series based on the book Spiritual Violence: Religious Phenomena that Defile the Faith , naming spiritual violence, religious abuse, and white Christian Supremacy as l...

“Grief is not a disorder, a disease, or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, spiritual and physical necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” --- Earl Grollman When the waves of pain make everything feel senseless, Reverend Sex (Rev. Alba Onofrio) offers presence to those grieving amid violence, systemic harm, and spiritual overwhelm in this opening episode o...

White Christian Supremacy was brought to this continent through violent conquest. Subsequent nations and societies have been founded on its death-dealing ethos, shaping collective consciousness and enforcing oppression at every level. It’s time we name the harm caused by this spiritual terrorism - not as abstract theories, but in the lived realities of the many marginalized people hurt by White Ch...

Shameless Theology is a unique podcast that amplifies ferocious Queer, Trans, and feminist, academically-trained Latine theologians who are living examples of counter-narratives and theological resistance to the political and religious threats our people face. Coming Out in May! SUBSCRIBE NOW! This media project is the first of its kind: a woman-led and queer-centered conversation space where Lati...

In the season finale of Teología Sin Vergüenza — and the close of our very first English‑language season — host Reverend Alba Onofrio (Reverend Sex) and Soulforce Associate Director Nadia Arellano return to the heart of Queer and Feminist Latin American theology. Together, they revisit the conversations that shaped this season, reflecting on the wisdom shared by Queer and feminist Latine faith lea...

In this season finale, host Nadia Arellano, Associate Director at Soulforce, guides listeners through a year-in-review from 'Friday From the Archives,' highlighting the organization's steadfast commitment to ending religious and political oppression of LGBTQIA+ people. This episode features 12 reflections that encapsulate the highs and lows of 2025, including escalating state-sanctione...

In this Advent episode, Reverend Sex reframes joy as a form of sacred resistance—one that refuses the binary logic of white Christian Supremacy. Drawing from decolonial theology, queer Latina spirituality, and Marian devotion, the episode invites listeners to hold grief and joy together while recovering Mary—not as a symbol of submission, but as a protagonist in a long lineage of anti‑imperial res...

Rev. Alba welcomes CasSandra Calin, a Queer, feminist, Black-Cuban healer, who is passionate about spirit work, identity, divinity and pleasure. Together, they explore what it means to claim shamelessness as a spiritual, political, and embodied practice, especially for Black, Queer, and diasporic people whose lives have been shaped by religion, race, gender, and colonial identity rubrics. CasSandr...