Episode Details

🎙 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

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Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
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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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