🎙 15. Rev. Roberto Che Espinoza (Baptist) – Becoming Human With One Another

This week, Alexis Rice welcomes Rev. Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza, PhD (@drrobertoche), pastor, scholar, and founder of Activist Theology and Our Collective Becoming.

Roberto’s life and ministry embody a theology rooted in interdependence, tenderness, and justice. A Latinx trans man, theologian, and ordained Baptist minister, Roberto has devoted his work to spiritual formation, collective liberation, and radical ethics. He invites us to rediscover the practices of Jesus—not as abstractions, but as embodied acts of eating, walking, storytelling, and living in community. Song: Stay Safe provided by singer-songwriter and ally, Derek Webb @derekwebb.

Alexis and Roberto explore:

• Why oppositional politics fuels polarization—and how interdependence offers a better way
• How embodiment and presence can reshape theology and ethics
• Roberto’s call story: growing up in poverty and violence, finding home in the church, surviving abuse, and reclaiming his call to ministry
• The painful reality of being pushed out of churches for living prophetically, and the hope of interspiritual community
• What it means to become a stone catcher in a world of violence toward queer and trans people
• How proximity, care, and hospitality can disrupt cycles of fear and build true solidarity

💡 Key Takeaways

• Embodied presence is the starting point for repair
• The fruit of the Spirit—not fear or exclusion—must guide Christian community
• To follow Jesus is to risk proximity, solidarity, and radical love
• Flourishing requires more than inclusion—it demands spaces where difference blooms

⛪ About Our Guest
Rev. Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza is a pastor, visiting professor, activist, and scholar. A Latinx trans man, Roberto works at the intersections of embodiment, decolonial thought, moral imagination, and justice-rooted theology. He holds a BA in Bible, an MTS in Ethics, and a PhD in Constructive Philosophical Theology. He founded Activist Theology and Our Collective Becoming, is a visiting professor at Duke Divinity, and speaks nationally and internationally on gender justice, faith, and politics. Roberto lives in upstate New York with his wife, Erin, where together they are building a life of tenderness, resistance, and sacred embodiment.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• Activist Theology & Body Becoming — @drrobertoche
• Queer Virtue — @elizabethedman
• Survival Songs album — @derekwebb
• Homebrewed Christianity — @theologynerd
• Exvangelical — @brchastain
• Straight White American Jesus — @straightwhitejc & @bbonishi
• Work by Sarah Heath — @revsarahheath
• The Bible for Normal People — @thebiblefornormalpeople

May you find sacred ground, may the fruit of the Spirit guide you. If you’re longing for community, may you be encouraged to find one that embraces your full, questioning, beautiful selves.

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About The Sacred Slope
Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity.
Come explore our global, diverse, inclusive Christian faith, deconstruction, and spiritual identity in a rapidly changing world. Through conversations with clergy, scholars, and cultural voices, the show creates space for people navigating faith after certainty, church harm, or political co-option of religion.

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Fruit of the Spirit:  ❤️ love • 💫 joy • ☮️ peace • 🕊 patience • 💝 kindness • 🌿 goodness • 🙏 faithfulness • 🤲 gentleness • 💪 self-control