🎙️ 21. Malynda Hale (African Methodist Episcopal Church – AME) – Being the Good News

Alexis Rice welcomes artist-activist, writer, and Executive Director at The New Evangelicals @TheNewEvangelicals, Malynda Hale (@malyndahale) — raised in the joy and lift of the Black church. African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church is one of the oldest historically Black denominations in the U.S., born out of resistance, faith, and community. Malynda’s story is a beautiful window into this tradition. This conversation is a master class in a healthy, justice-shaped Christianity lived out loud.

With warmth and clarity, Malynda names what the left gets wrong about grace and messaging, shows how faith can inform politics without erasing pluralism, and invites us to be the good news.

🎧 Highlights:

• AME roots: joy, uplift, belonging, and why she never had to “deconstruct”
• Women preaching & leading without apology
• “Spreading” vs. being the good news
• Grace with standards: calling in without purity tests
• Better messaging for the broad middle
• Faith-informed politics without Christian nationalism
• Why diversity is a spiritual gift
• The story behind Malynda’s protest hymn “God and His Gun”

💬 Key Quotes

• “People are so focused on spreading the good news when they should be focused on being the good news.”

💡 Key Takeaways

• Love has teeth: grace is repair, responsibility, and welcome.
• Simpler, human-first messaging connects; policy is pastoral when it protects people.
• Pluralism strengthens witness: affirm your faith and your neighbor’s freedom.
• Measure faith by its fruit: what we practice online/offline forms the public’s view of Jesus.

👤 About Our Guest
 Malynda Hale is a singer-songwriter, activist, writer, and cultural commentator whose work braids art and justice. She is the Executive Director of The New Evangelicals and creates spaces for honest dialogue on race, faith, and the common good. Don’t miss her powerful protest hymn “God and His Gun.”

📚 Resources & Mentions

• African Methodist Episcopal Church — @amechurchofficial
• The New Evangelicals — @thenewevangelicals
• Rep. James Talarico — @jamestalarico
• United Church of Christ — @unitedchurchofchrist
• Joan Osborne’s “What If God Was One of Us” — @joan_osborne
• Jimmy Kimmel (studio story) — @jimmykimmellive,
  @jimmykimmel

🎵 Music Notes

• God and His Gun Music Video used with permission from Malynda Hale

#Christianity #deconstruction #ProgressiveChristianity #OpenAndAffirming #LetHerLead #AMEChurch #AfricanMethodistEpiscopal #FaithInAction #BelovedCommunity

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙️ 20. Brian Recker (Ex-Evangelical Pastor) – Hell Bent on Reclaiming Love

Alexis Rice welcomes Brian Recker (@berecker) — former evangelical pastor, founding voice of Beloved on Substack, and author of Hellbent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love (out Sept 30)

👉 Order on ThriftBooks

With honesty and pastoral clarity, Brian explores why hell-talk became the center of so many Christian upbringings—and how returning to Jesus’ core command to love can free our faith from fear, control, and gatekeeping.

Alexis and Brian dive into:

• What fear-based theology does to kids and communities
• Gehenna vs. “hell”: context, metaphor, and why it matters
• Deconstruction without losing God—and why Brian stayed Christian
• Leaving inerrancy, re-meeting Jesus, and finding church again
• Worship as deeply human
• Justice now vs. afterlife anxiety: building a world where love is in charge

💡 Key Takeaways

• “Perfect love casts out fear” isn’t optional; fear-built faith produces punishment, not Christlike love
• Reading Scripture with history, genre, and language (Gehenna/Sheol/Hades/Tartarus) expands—not erases—faith
• The Kingdom of God is about this world’s flourishing, especially for the most vulnerable
• Curiosity and honesty are spiritual practices; consent and freedom belong in our faith lives

👤 About Our Guest

Brian Recker is a former evangelical pastor turned writer and creator whose work centers love-forward, justice-rooted Christianity. He speaks widely on faith, deconstruction, and reimagining spirituality beyond fear.

📚 Resources Mentioned (with IG handles)

• James H. Cone (The Cross and the Lynching Tree) 
• Marcus Borg (The Heart of Christianity, Jesus: A New Vision) — @mjbfound
• bell hooks (All About Love) — @bellhooks_
• Rob Bell (Love Wins) — @realrobbell
• Rev. Darrell Goodwin (Executive Conference Minister, UCC) — @revdgoodwin
• United Church of Christ — @unitedchurchofchrist

✨ Beyoncé @beyonce, John Legend @johnlegend, Jon Batiste @jonbatiste — if you’re listening, we’re ready for that Christian worship album. Please and thank you. 🎶🙌

#Christianity #deconstruction #ProgressiveChristianity #Exvangelical #TheSacredSlope

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 19. Sara Groves (Singer-Songwriter) – Faith, Fruit of the Spirit & a License to Love

🕊️ Reconciling Faith | 💜 Fruit of the Spirit | 🌱 Culture Care > Culture War | 🧠 Mental Health & Church

This episode is for anyone holding grief, doubt, and hope at the same time—longing to keep Jesus at the center when public witness fractures. It’s for those learning to absorb harm without returning it, to practice active peacemaking, and to choose culture care in their actual neighborhoods.

It’s also a gentle challenge to churches everywhere: love is the measure. Make space for complicated people to belong—and to heal.

💡 Key Takeaways
• “Without love” is the metric of Christian witness
• Pacifism isn’t passive—it’s active peacemaking like Jesus
• Culture care > culture war—tend the garden where you live
• Faith can mature from certainty to curiosity and stay centered on Christ

🙏 For Listeners Questioning, Lamenting, and Rebuilding
Sara reminds us that love is not a soft retreat—it’s the hard, holy work. We become people of reconciliation by practicing generosity, kindness, peace, and patience—especially in conflict.

⛪ About Our Guest
Sara Groves (IG: @grovesroad • Web: saragroves.com) is a Dove-nominated singer-songwriter whose catalog (Conversations, Add to the Beauty, Fireflies and Songs, Floodplain, What Makes It Through) has accompanied listeners through seasons of doubt and renewal. She co-founded Art House North in St. Paul and has long partnered with International Justice Mission. This year, Sara celebrates 25 years of Conversations and is recording four new songs.

📚 Resources & Mentions
• International Justice Mission — @ijm
• Art House North — @arthousenorth / arthousenorth.com
• John Inazu — @john.inazu
• Makoto Fujimura — @iamfujimura
• Charlie Peacock & Andi Ashworth — @andi_ashworth / arthouseamerica.com
• Henri Nouwen Society — @henrinouwensociety
• The Porter’s Gate — @theportersgate; Climate Vigil Songs: climatevigil.org/album
• Dan McClellan — @maklelan

🎵 Music on This Episode (Sara Groves)
“He’s Always Been Faithful,” “Roll to the Middle,” “Without Love,” “Hello, Lord,” “What I thought I Wanted”

🗓 What’s New with Sara
Conversations 25-year celebration + new studio tracks in progress

Go in peace, friends. May you find sacred ground wherever your questions lead, and may the fruit of the Spirit guide you this week. If you’re longing for community, may you be encouraged to find one that embraces your full, questioning, beautiful selves.

Music in this episode used with permission from Sara Groves

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙️18. Rev. Helen (Church of England) – From St. Phoebe to Today: Women as Leaders, Science & a Kinder Christianity

Alexis Rice welcomes Rev. Helen —a Church of England priest serving at St. Margaret’s, Ipswich—and our first guest from outside the United States. With warmth, candor, and a fierce pastoral heart, Rev. Helen shares how her late-in-life call to ministry grew from community, story, and wonder—and why an inclusive, justice-rooted Anglican faith speaks powerfully in today’s world. Stay til the end if you would like prayer.

Together, Alexis and Rev. Helen dive into:

• How the Church of England works (parishes, bishops, General Synod) and  the monarch’s role
• Women in church leadership—from St. Phoebe (Romans 16) to women priests and bishops
• Science & faith in the UK (Big Bang, evolution) vs. often evangelical creationism—and teaching kids the Bible with genre and context
• Practicing an inclusive church for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people, and why visibility matters
• Public perception of Christianity in Britain: “quiet revival,” everyday parish life, and service to the whole community
• A UK view of U.S. Christian nationalism—and the hope of ordinary Christians choosing love over power
• A pastoral prayer for listeners who need comfort, courage, and blessing

💡 Key Takeaways

• There have always been women in leadership in the church—see Romans 16 and the early deacons and apostles.
• Context isn’t compromise. Reading Scripture with history, culture, and genre in mind deepens faith.
• Science and Christian faith aren’t enemies. Many UK Christians embrace both without tension.
• Parish means everyone. The Church of England exists to serve the spiritual care of the whole neighbourhood.
• Inclusion is pastoral, not political. An affirming, accessible church reflects the wide welcome of Jesus.
• Hope looks like small, faithful acts—prayer, presence, and practical love multiplied in community.

⛪ About Our Guest
 Rev. Helen Prior Townsend is an Anglican priest (Church of England) and Assistant Curate at St. Margaret’s Church, Ipswich. A liberal Anglo-Catholic, she weaves Godly Play, story, and sacrament into family ministry and champions women’s leadership, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and neurodiversity-affirming worship. Ordained in 2024 after serving as a Licensed Evangelist, she brings a grounded parish lens to life, liturgy, and public faith in the UK.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• James Talarico @jamestalarico (Running for US Senate- Texas) https://jamestalarico.com/
• St. Phoebe — woman serving and leading in the early church
• Godly Play — nurturing children’s spiritual imagination through story and wonder
• General Synod (Church of England) — how doctrine and practice are discerned and decided
• Women’s Ordination in the C of E — priests since 1994; bishops

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙️ 17. Pastor Paul Drees (Lutheran) - Grace, Power & the Future of the Church

This week, Alexis Rice welcomes Pastor Paul Drees (@pastorpauldrees)—a Lutheran pastor of a local church. His online ministry, begun in 2021 in response to church trauma and toxic theology, has since reached 90M+ video views and drawn 650K+ followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Together, Alexis and Paul dive into:

• Why grace comes first in Lutheran identity—communion as gift, not reward
• How Christianity has gone wrong whenever it chooses power over sacrifice
• The history of weaponized faith—from slavery to Christian nationalism today
• Different views of hell in Christian history, and Paul’s perspective as an annihilationist
• The role of a pastor in pointing us back to the gospel: “a different way is possible”
• Why progressive Christians must show up online and reclaim public conversations about faith

💡 Key Takeaways

• Grace is God’s gift from the beginning—we don’t earn it.
• Communion is not a prize; it’s an open table of love.
• Christianity’s witness falters when it seeks power instead of sacrifice.
• Loving our enemies—including those we most resist—is the radical call of Jesus.
• Progressive Christian voices must take up space in the digital and political commons.

⛪ About Our Guest
Pastor Paul Drees serves in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). A graduate of St. Olaf College and Luther Seminary, he combines parish ministry in Wisconsin with a bold online presence that challenges Christians to live faithfully, love radically, and resist injustice.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us — Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail | IG: @rev.lizzie
• A Change of Habit — Sister Monica Clare | IG: @claudettemonica
• Jesus and Nonviolence — Walter Wink
• At the Altar of Wall Street — Scott W. Gustafson
• Rep. James Talarico — Texas legislator and seminary student whose public faith inspires many | IG: @jamestalarico. James Talarico talking with Joe Rogan about his Christian faith and progressive politics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2352-james-talarico/id360084272?i=1000717982651

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 16. Tim Whitaker – Rebuilding Faith Beyond Fundamentalism

This week, Alexis welcomes Tim Whitaker @timwhitakerspeaks, founder and host of The New Evangelicals@thenewevangelicals, a digital-first community holding space for honesty, justice, and theological exploration. Tim’s story mirrors so many of ours: deep roots in white evangelical subculture, then courageous questions the old answers couldn’t hold—culminating in a movement inviting Christians into a wider house of faith. 

We Explore

• From “basement” faith to a bigger house: conservative upbringing (AWANA, missions, purity culture), cracks of doubt, and the books/voices that opened windows (Irresistible Revolution, Pagan Christianity, BibleProject).
• The cost of conscience: losing a church role and friendships, and how grief gave way to healing.
• Christian nationalism: Ten Commandments in schools, pluralism, and why symbolism-as-power misses Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
• Good-faith dialogue: critiquing ideas, not people; refusing dehumanization.
• Empathy isn’t a sin: why “toxic empathy” is propaganda, and why gospel-shaped empathy is essential.
• Beyond deconstruction: letting anger tell the truth, then building something better.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Accountability > “safety.” Real community risks hurt; healthy community repairs it.
• Dehumanization is a red line. Hold convictions without mocking image-bearers.
• Empathy is gospel-shaped. Love of neighbor demands proximity and policy concern.
• Reconstruction matters. Tearing down isn’t the finish line; rebuilding with Jesus’ fruit is.

⛪ About Our Guest

Tim Whitaker is the founder of The New Evangelicals, a nonprofit creating pathways out of fundamentalism toward a Jesus-centered, justice-rooted faith. Through podcasts, content, and events, TNE models theology, good-faith dialogue, and a zero-dehumanization posture.

📚 Resources & Links

• The New Evangelicals Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-evangelicals-podcast/id1557794865
• BibleProject Podcast: @thebibleproject
• Shane Claiborne @shane.claiborne– The Irresistible Revolution 
• Frank Viola & George Barna – Pagan Christianity?
• Scott Coley – Ministers of Propaganda: https://www.eerdmans.com/9781467466004/ministers-of-propaganda/
• Theology Beer Camp (Homebrewed Christianity): @theologynerd 

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 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 f

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 14: Better Ways to Read the Bible — with Pastor Zach Lambert

This week, Alexis Rice welcomes Pastor Zach W. Lambert (@zachwlambert), founding pastor of Restore Austin and author of Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing.

Zach’s work calls us to examine the lenses we bring to Scripture. He argues that the Bible itself isn’t the problem—it’s the harmful interpretations that have been weaponized to silence women, justify racism, and marginalize LGBTQ+ people. Instead, he invites us to reclaim Scripture through the lens of flourishing, grounded in Jesus’ mission statement from John 10:10: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Together, Alexis and Zach explore:

• Why flourishing, not fear, should guide biblical interpretation (Luke 4, Matthew 25, John 10:10)
• How to walk through deconstruction and reconstruction faithfully—like Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus
• Raising kids in faith with curiosity and honesty, rather than dogma
• The urgent need for progressive Christians to reclaim Scripture and faith language from those who distort it

Zach also shares his personal journey from college athlete to pastor, the founding of Restore Austin, and why he believes pastors must speak out against the weaponization of faith while building spaces of love, joy, and hope.

💡 Key Takeaways

• The Bible is not inherently harmful—our interpretive lenses matter
• Deconstruction is not abandonment of faith but a biblical, ongoing process
• Progressive Christians must reclaim Scripture, faith, and even patriotism from harmful ideologies
• Healthy discipleship nurtures curiosity in both adults and children
• Our role as Christians is to create communities of flourishing that naturally critique cruelty and injustice

⛪ About Our Guest
 Pastor Zach W. Lambert (@zachwlambert) is the founding pastor of Restore Austin, co-founder of the Post-Evangelical Collective, and a doctoral student at Duke Divinity School. A graduate of Fuller Seminary, Zach has been a faithful pastoral voice for those deconstructing harmful versions of Christianity. His writing appears on Substack, and his sermons and resources can be found at restoreaustin.org.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• Better Ways to Read the Bible by Zach W. Lambert — @zachwlambert
• Inspired and Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans — @rachelheldevans (legacy account)
• The Bible for Normal People podcast by Pete Enns & Jared Byas — @thebiblefornormalpeople, @peteenns, @

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 13. Semler (Singer-Songwriter) – Faith, Queerness, and Why Sometimes the Most Rebellious Act of All Is Staying

🌈 Faith & Courage | Music as Resistance

Semler @gracebaldridge made history when their independent release Preacher’s Kid became the first openly queer Christian album to reach #1 on the iTunes Christian charts—an accomplishment they repeated with Late Bloomer. Semler has toured nationally, including alongside Relient K in 2022, performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and attended the 2022 Dove Awards as a visible queer Christian artist in a space where LGBTQ+ inclusion still remains contested. Featured in Rolling Stone (@rollingstone), Religion News Service (@religionnews), and The Advocate (@ouradvocate), Semler continues to spark conversations that challenge the boundaries of Christian music and faith communities. In 2025, Semler released their debut full-length album, Revival in My Mind, expanding their spiritual and musical landscape.

Semler’s music and witness stand in the long tradition of faithful resistance—holding fast to God while refusing to bow to theologies that harm, and showing the church a bigger, more loving way forward. Fierce, vulnerable, and wise, Semler is just who we need in this time to help us see a fuller picture of the Body of Christ and teach us how to love better.

This episode is for anyone who’s been told they can’t be both queer and Christian—and for friends, pastors, and families who want to better stand with those who are marginalized, disrespected, or dehumanized. It’s for those wrestling with weaponized theology, searching for God beyond exclusion, and longing for a faith that protects rather than harms.

It’s also a call to church spaces where harm is still justified as “biblical.” History shows us that this label has been used to defend injustice—slavery, segregation, apartheid, bans on interracial marriage, silencing women, and shaming abuse survivors. Every one was wrong. Anti-LGBTQ theology is simply the newest iteration of that same bigotry. Our calling as Christians is not to defend fear, but to bear the fruit of love, humility, and compassion.

💡 Key Takeaways
• Queerness and Christianity are not contradictions
• Music can dismantle shame and open dialogue
• The Christian music industry still resists LGBTQ+ inclusion
• Curiosity, not fear, deepens faith

📚 Resources & Mentions
• 🌿 Music in this episode from Semler: (Faith, Jesus from Texas, Bethlehem) Revival in My Mind – @gracebaldridge
• Derek Webb – @derekwebb
• John Foreman / Switchfoot – @jonforeman / @switchfoot
• Jennifer Knapp – @jenniferknappmusic
• Relient K – @reliantk

Music in this episode by Semler

Go in peace, friends

Support the show

Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify
LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere
FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky)

🔗 Connect
🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
📬 Nominate a guest: [email protected]

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

🎙 12. Pastor Joe Smith (Non-Denominational) - Reclaiming Faith from Christian Nationalism

Alexis Rice is joined by Pastor Joe Smith IG @therealjoe.smith — a bold and unflinching voice reclaiming Christianity from white Christian nationalism, spiritual manipulation, and cultural complacency. Known for his viral sermons and fearless online ministry, Joe shares his journey from fundamentalism to liberation—and how he uses his privilege as daily repentance for the harm he once enabled.

Together, they explore what it means to deconstruct in community, how to raise boys with a healthy model of masculinity, and why now is a Bonhoeffer moment for the American church. With raw vulnerability and prophetic fire, Joe calls Christians to choose: Will we stand with Jesus at the edge of the cliff—or be part of the mob trying to throw him off?

This episode is for anyone who’s questioned the church but still longs for Jesus, for those grieving the loss of community, and for all who are seeking a braver, freer, more Christlike faith.

💡 Key Takeaways

• White Christian nationalism is a distortion of Jesus’ message
• Deconstruction is not just personal—it’s communal and sacred
• The American church often rewards manipulation over integrity
• Healthy masculinity must replace the “UFC Jesus” culture
• Faith can survive—even thrive—on the other side of certainty

⛪ About Our Guest
Pastor Joe Smith (@therealjoe.smith) is a non-denominational pastor and the lead pastor of Shift GNV in Gainesville, Florida, currently merging into a new spiritual community called Maison—rooted in love, justice, and inclusion.

Raised in the Free Will Baptist tradition and trained at a fundamentalist Bible college, Joe spent decades inside the American evangelical system before publicly deconstructing his faith from the pulpit. Today, he’s known for preaching a gospel that centers the marginalized, confronts abusive power, and calls the church to account.

Joe is also a husband, dad, and history buff who draws inspiration from the civil rights movement, John Lewis, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

📚 Resources Mentioned

• Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne — @shane.claiborne
• Rob Bell (author/speaker) — @realrobbell
• Christopher L. Heuertz — @chrisheuertz
• Rep. Angie Nixon — @angieforfl
• Shift GNV Church and Podcast — @shifthappenspodcast_
• Meizon Church (launching soon)

Go in peace, friends. May you find a faith that speaks truth to power, holds space for healing, and follows Jesus all the way to the margins.

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Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity, exploring its many expressions.

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🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope
🎙 Hosted by Alexis Rice
🎵 Music by Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence
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🌿 Community Guidelines 🌿
Fruit of the Spirit: ❤️ love • 💫 joy • ☮️ peace • 🕊 patience • 💝 kindness • 🌿 goodness • 🙏 faithfulness • 🤲 gentleness • 💪 self-control