Coming Out Christian | Season 3, Episode 15 Guest: Joseph "Zé" Soza

What happens when the faith you were raised in no longer fits and you find yourself building something new from the pieces?

Joseph "Zé" Soza (he/him/el) grew up in a deeply Pentecostal household in Ohio, shaped by long Sundays filled with ecstatic worship, speaking in tongues, and teary altar calls. His father is a theologian, Bible scholar, and pastor; his mother a devoted pastor's wife and public servant. Faith wasn't just part of Zé's upbringing, it was the air he breathed. And yet, after years of being torturously closeted, Zé came out as a gay Queer man in his early 20s and began a journey of self-actualization that eventually led him away from Christianity and toward Buddhism, though he'd be the first to tell you it's more compl ...