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Our Story: Love, Church Hurt, and Finding Our Way

In episode two of Inclusive Faith Podcast, we share more of our story.

How we met. How our relationship grew. And how the church made something beautiful feel complicated, painful, and harder than it ever needed to be.

This conversation is personal, but it is not just about us.

It is about what happens when people are forced to fight for their own dignity in spaces that should have offered love, safety, and belonging.

It is also about healing, reclaiming your voice, and refusing to let other people define your story.

For anyone who has been hurt by the church, questioned where they fit, or had to claw their way back to themselves, we hope this conversation reminds you that you are not alone.

Let’s talk about it.

Learn more and connect:
theinclusivefaith.com

Subscribe for honest conversations about faith, identity, church hurt, LGBTQ+ inclusion, progressive Christianity, healing, and belonging.

Why We Started Inclusive Faith

In the first episode of Inclusive Faith Podcast, Kade Rogers and Dr. Gregory S. Neal introduce the heart behind the podcast and why these conversations matter.

After years of talking honestly about faith, identity, church hurt, inclusion, and what it means to belong, Kade and Greg are inviting others into the conversation. This episode shares why the podcast exists, who it is for, and what listeners can expect from Season 1.

Whether you have been hurt by the church, are trying to hold onto faith, are questioning what you believe, or simply want a more honest and inclusive conversation about Christianity, this podcast is for you.

Inclusive Faith is not about having all the answers. It is about making space for real conversations about faith, life, healing, and belonging.

Let’s talk about it.

Learn more and connect:
theinclusivefaith.com

Subscribe for honest conversations about faith, identity, church hurt, LGBTQ+ inclusion, progressive Christianity, healing, and belonging.

Welcome to The Inclusive Faith Podcast.

This is a space for honest conversations about faith, life, and everything in between. Hosted by Greg and Kade, a married gay couple shaped by years of lived experience in church and ministry, this podcast explores the questions many people carry but don’t always feel safe to ask out loud.

If you’ve ever wrestled with belief, identity, or where you belong, you’re not alone.

🌐 Learn more:
https://www.theinclusivefaith.com

Launching soon!

Greg just spent several days at PrideFest in Des Moines—talking with people at a church booth, worshiping alongside nearly 30 affirming churches, and walking in the Pride parade.

And in all of it, he encountered the presence of God.

Faith in 10 is a new bonus series from The Inclusive Faith Podcast featuring short, focused reflections on faith, inclusion, and life—usually in 10 minutes or less.

In this first episode, Greg reflects on why Pride is not about arrogance or rebellion against God. At its best, Pride is about refusing to be ashamed of who God created us to be. It is a celebration of the truth that LGBTQ+ people are loved, wonderfully made, and fully included in the grace and calling of God.

Greg also shares a moment he will not soon forget. A young transgender person approached him at the booth, saw his “This Queer Pastor Loves You” shirt, and asked whether they could ever become a pastor someday.

His answer was simple: absolutely.

This episode is a reminder that affirming churches matter, public witness matters, and LGBTQ+ people should never have to choose between being fully themselves and responding to God’s call.

In this episode:

• Why Christians should not misunderstand Pride
• Where Greg encountered God at PrideFest
• Why affirming churches need to show up publicly
• What a transgender young person asked Greg
• Why LGBTQ+ people are not outside God’s love or calling
• What it means to be “queerfully and wonderfully made”

Follow the podcast, share this episode with someone who needs it, and consider leaving a review. Those simple actions help more people discover these conversations.

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts—including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more—or listen directly on our website at TheInclusiveFaith.com.

After everything the church did to us, why in the world would we stay?

That is a question we get asked often. Why stay in ministry? Why stay Christian? Why remain connected to a church or denomination that caused real harm?

In this episode of The Inclusive Faith Podcast, Kade and Greg talk honestly about calling, church hurt, fear, loss, hope, and the complicated reasons they did not walk away. Greg reflects on more than three decades of ministry, the cost of hiding his sexuality, the fear of losing his credentials, and the deep sense of calling that never went away. Kade shares what it was like to believe in the possibility of an inclusive church, only to experience rejection, threats, and the loss of a former career path.

Together, they also talk about the good that still keeps them rooted: people being fed, families receiving care, LGBTQ people hearing that they are loved by God, and the deep belief that the way of Jesus is still worth following.

This is not an episode about pretending the harm did not happen. It is about why harm did not get the final word.

• Why ministry is more than just a job
• The cost of staying closeted
• Why denominational change came far too late
• What it meant to receive threats after coming out
• Why local churches can still be places of healing
• Why we still believe in the way of Jesus
• What inclusive faith means to us

Learn more, connect with us, and find resources at theinclusivefaith.com

In this deeply personal and extended episode, Kade Rogers talks with his husband, Dr. Gregory S. Neal, about Greg’s experience surviving conversion therapy as a teenager.

Greg shares the story of being outed as a young person, being told that being gay separated him from God, and being sent into a conversion therapy program that used shame, fear, Scripture, and aversion practices in an attempt to change him.

Together, Kade and Greg talk about the lasting harm of conversion therapy, religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and church harm. They also reflect on the faith and love that helped Greg survive, including the powerful support of his great Aunt Witchy, who reminded him that God loved him exactly as he was.

This episode is a difficult but necessary conversation about why conversion therapy is harmful, why LGBTQ+ people do not need to be fixed, and why faith should never be used as a weapon against someone’s identity.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of conversion therapy, religious trauma, emotional abuse, aversion therapy, suicidal ideation, and church harm.

Does taking the Bible seriously mean taking every passage literally?

In this episode of The Inclusive Faith Podcast, Kade and Greg talk about biblical literalism, Bible interpretation, and why faithful reading of Scripture requires context, humility, history, and honesty. They discuss the harm that can come when the Bible is flattened into one rigid way of reading, especially for people who have experienced religious trauma, church hurt, or Christian deconstruction.

Kade reflects on being taught stories like Noah’s Ark as literal history and how that created barriers in his faith journey. Greg shares why the Bible has been interpreted in many ways throughout Christian history and why genre, context, symbolism, metaphor, and story all matter. The episode also explores Genesis 1 and 2, the Psalms, the parables of Jesus, science and faith, and what it means for progressive Christians and LGBTQ affirming Christians to take the Bible seriously.

For anyone who has ever wondered, “Does the Bible really say that?” or “Can I question the Bible and still be Christian?” this episode is for you.

The comment section can be funny, exhausting, heartbreaking, and revealing.

In this Faith in 10 episode from The Inclusive Faith, Kade Rogers talks about the comments we receive online as LGBTQ-affirming Christians. Some are beautiful. Some remind us why this work matters. And some sound a lot less like the love of Jesus and a lot more like judgment with a Bible verse attached.

From “I love you, but…” to “show me where Jesus affirmed homosexuality,” this episode uses humor and honesty to name what so many LGBTQ Christians already know: the loudest voices online do not get the final word on your belovedness.

For every angry comment, there is usually someone quietly reading who still loves God but is afraid God does not love them back.

This episode is for that person.

You are not a debate topic.
You are not a threat to the gospel.
You are beloved by God.

Subscribe to The Inclusive Faith for honest conversations about faith, LGBTQ inclusion, church hurt, scripture, grace, and belonging.

Let’s talk about it.

Why do some Christians seem unable to talk about LGBTQ relationships without immediately reducing them to sex?

In this Faith in Ten episode, Greg reflects on the way queer love is often stripped of its humanity and reduced to sexual stereotypes. But the biblical story of companionship does not begin with sex. In Genesis 2, God identifies isolation as the first human problem: “It is not good that the human should be alone.”

Marriage and committed relationships are about companionship, covenant, faithfulness, sacrifice, joy, grief, family, prayer, and choosing one another again and again. LGBTQ relationships contain that same ordinary and sacred love.

Greg challenges Christians to examine whether their reaction to queer relationships truly comes from the Holy Spirit or from fear, inherited prejudice, tradition, and discomfort. Because discomfort is not automatically discernment, and cruelty does not become Christlike simply because it is wrapped in religious language.

Faith in Ten is a bonus series from The Inclusive Faith Podcast featuring brief reflections on faith, inclusion, and life.

Subscribe and join us as we continue creating space for honest conversations about Christianity, scripture, LGBTQ inclusion, and the love of God.

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