Brenda Marie Davies is an author, podcaster and YouTuber. Her channel God Is Grey—a guide to becoming an inquisitive, fearless, SEX POSITIVE, free thinking Christian in the modern world —has over 135,000 subscribers.

Her debut book, On Her Knees: Memoir of a Prayerful Jezebel, chronicles Brenda’s spiritual journey over the course of a decade in LA, through marriage, divorce, unlikely friendship, and sexual exploration. Told with raw honesty, sans obligatory shame, this is a story for anyone who wonders if it’s possible to love God without fearing sex, in all its shades of grey.

Recorded live from the GooseCast podcast stage at Wild Goose Festival.

This episode is brought to you by the 2022 Q Christian Fellowship Conference. Use code QUEEROLOGY to save 10% off your registration at qcfconf.org.

Links and Resources:

Q Christian Fellowship Conference
Brenda Marie Davies
God Is Grey on Youtube
Brenda on Instagram
On Her Knees: Memoir of a Prayerful Jezebel
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

This episode first aired Sep 10, 2019. Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder (she, her), a San Francisco native, has served her call through prophetic action and ministry for justice for over thirty years. This call to “blend proclamation, worship, service and advocacy on behalf of those most marginalized in church and in society” led to the founding of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in 1991. In 2003, Rev. Dr. Flunder was consecrated Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational coalition of over 100 primarily African American Christian leaders and laity.

Rev. Dr. Flunder is on the Board of Starr King School for the Ministry and DEMOS and has taught at many theological schools. She is a graduate of the Certificate of Ministry and Master of Arts programs at PSR, and received her Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She is also an award-winning gospel music artist and author of Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic and Radical Inclusion.

This episode is brought to you by the 2022 Q Christian Fellowship Conference. Use code QUEEROLOGY to save 10% off your registration at qcfconf.org.

Links and Resources:

2022 Q Christian Fellowship Conference
Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic and Radical Inclusion
City of Refuge United Church of Christ
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

Jamie Lee Finch is a sexuality and embodiment coach, speaker, poet, and author of "You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity".

She's coached over 400 people in the past 5 years and sees her role in her work as that of a conflict mediator between human beings and their bodies.

She's just released her very first online course called "Your Body is a Person" that walks you through her entire methodology and practice of Personified Embodiment

Links and Resources:

Jamie Lee Finch Website
Your Body is a Person Course
Jamie's free 10-day Course
You Are Your Own Book
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

Samson Turinawe is the Executive Director of Universal Love Alliance (ULA), a Ugandan humanitarian, educator and human rights defender. He believes that "every human being should be respected simply for being who they are, a part of Life's creation." Tolerance, inclusiveness, love, compassion, dialogue and reconciliation are all central themes in his work.

Through his teaching and activism, Samson is working for a new generation -- one that is open-minded, open-hearted, diversity-embracing, and committed to serving all of humanity.

Links and Resources:

Universal Love Alliance
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

Emily Regenstreif has supportive parents. The best thing that they could do and ever did was to listen and then wanting to learn and know more by asking questions.

Emily grew up queer in Portland, Oregon, in a Jewish faith community. She had a lovely and lucky experience — very different from the traumatic backgrounds of others who grew up queer in faith communities. That’s not Emily’s story.

Emily is a 31-year-old receptionist who spends most of her free time playing Dungeons and Dragons as well as writing her first novel, which she has been working on since she was 18 years old.

Topics Discussed:

• Faith Forms Identity: Emily’s supportive journey with queerness being Jewish
• Jonas Brothers to Julia Stiles: Emily’s evolution of queerness started with a girl
• Coming out to friends, family, and faith community was easy for Emily
• Attraction vs. Asexuality: There’s far more to being a person than sex
• Exploration: Be comfortable with who and what you are to feel free, not shameful
• Religious Trauma: Luckily, Emily’s challenges weren’t related to queerness, faith
• Choosing My Religion: Converting to Judaism was Emily’s choice over church
• Proud Every Day: Emily never felt need to project or celebrate Pride Month

Links and Resources:

Emily Regenstreif on Twitter
Queer Youth Faith (QYF) Day
Queerology - QYF Day: Don’t Give Up Everything You Believe In and Everyone You Love (rerelease)
Boy Erased
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

Julie Rodgers is a writer, speaker, and leader in the movement working for full inclusion for LGBTQ people in Christian communities. She played a significant role in shutting down Exodus International, the largest conversion therapy organization in the world, and she was also the first openly gay person to be hired by an evangelical Christian college. She is featured in Pray Away (2020), a documentary about the movement to pray the gay away. Her writing has been featured in Sojourners, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time. She lives with her wife in Washington, DC.

Her new book, Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story, is a memoir of her experience growing up evangelical, while knowing she was gay. It’s about love and losses, political and religious power-plays, and the cost to those who sought to stay in a faith community that wouldn’t accept them.

For more queer reflections on faith, public life, and chosen family, join Julie’s substack, Reimagining Belonging.

• Faith & Identity: Lesbian, queer, Christian, cat mom with conflicting, complex faith
• Coming Out, Conversion, Coping: Julie didn’t want to change, but initially gave in
• Don’t be a part of something that makes you hate and harm yourself or others
• Who to trust? Choose to question or follow religious leaders or your own truth
• Breaking Point: Reality behind closed doors vs. belief that things are changing
• Pray the Gay Away: Story that is still present reality in today’s world
• Reasons for Disconnect: Lack of nuance and understanding in liberal spaces
• Save Yourself, Not Everyone: Don’t stay rooted in trauma; live and thrive

Julie Rodgers
Outlove
Pray Away
Reimagining Belonging
The Faith and Justice Network
The Trevor Project
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

How are you celebrating national Queer Youth of Faith (QYF) Day on June 30, 2021?

On this episode of Queerology, a panel celebrates the life, creativity, and gifts of queer youth of faith.

The panel includes Ameera, a trans-Svengolie American Muslim; Taline, a bisexual Armenian Christian; Daniel, a gay Jew; and Sebastian, a trans-Christian.

Happy QYF Day!

Topics Discussed:

• QYF Panel: How each identifies and how faith formed their identity
• Honor, Celebrate, Center: Importance and meaning of QYF Day to each panelist
• Affirming Theology: Spread awareness that God doesn’t hate you
• Queer Realization: Born this way and the continual struggle to find hope and support
• Advice: Nobody’s perfect, don’t change, you’re not alone, find your people

Links and Resources:

QYF Day
Beloved Arise
Rebel Youth Group
Kevin Garcia on YouTube
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram
Queerology Podcast on Twitter
Beyond Shame by Matthias Roberts
Matthias Roberts on Patreon

Melissa Weisz and Pelayo Alvarez are hosts of the Forbidden Apple Podcast, which creates space for LGBTQ+ people to reclaim their spirituality—whatever that means to them.

Melissa is a former Orthodox Jew. Although she came out as queer, Melissa adores her family and the Hasidic Jewish community in which she was raised. As an actor, producer, and writer, Melissa aims to uplift the voices of marginalized people and communities.

Pelayo is originally from Spain and was raised catholic. He now lives in New York City and works for The United Nations in the field of international relations and global affairs.

Pelayo is passionate about discovering how different people around the world live their spirituality and appreciates what makes each story powerful.  He asks for practical advice and takeaways from different life perspectives and uses them for personal development and growth. Also, Pelayo has a YouTube channel where he curates life-changing ideas with a fun twist.

As hosts of the Forbidden Apple Podcast, Pelayo wants to prove that although people celebrate religion and spirituality in so many ways, at the same time, they share so much in common; Melissa wants the podcast to become a platform that gives people a voice, creates a community, and celebrates queerness.

Topics Discussed:

• Faith and Identity: Observe other faiths to learn, love, and understand them
• Spiritual Toolbox: Difference between appropriation versus appreciation
• Podcast Purpose: Deep conversations about religion, spirituality, and queerness
• Deconstruction: What’s religion? Faith? Spirituality? Different but same elements
• Meaningful Blessings: What works and what doesn’t when reclaiming words
• Spiritual vs. Religious: What’s the separation? Good and right, or bad and wrong
• Divine Virtue: 81% of queer people in U.S. grow up in some organized religion
• Discover Why: Do you follow traditional values/morals or free to make your own?

Links and Resources:

Melissa Weisz
Pelayo Alvarez
Pelayo Alvarez’s YouTube Channel
The Forbidden Apple Podcast
Your Spiritual Toolbox
Queer Virtue by Elizabeth Edman
Ross Murray from GLAAD
Made, Known, Loved: Developing LGBTQ-Inclusive Youth Ministry by Ross Murray
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek
Rev. Elizabeth Edman on the Inherent Queerness of Christianity
Masterclass: 4 Practices You Can Start Now to Move Beyond Shame
Queerology Podcast on Instagram