Spiritual Misfits Podcast · Meeting Ground

"Queer Blood and Fire" — the Experience of LGBTQ+ Salvation Army Officers (Brad Watson)

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

An officer newsletter ad triggered an email saying gay Salvation Army officers should not exist.

Will Small welcomes Brad Watson as the author of a PhD-turned-book about LGBTQ+ Salvation Army officers. Watson's research grows out of personal faith crisis as much as academic work, and he says purity culture left him with no good options because he knew that was not true and not good. The book title, *Queer Blood and Fire*, sits at the center of a conversation that keeps circling back to truth, hurt, and what it means to keep going. Watson is direct about eternal conscious torment, saying there is zero evidence for it in the Bible. That sits alongside a broader question of how to decolonize the structures of church and find a path forward with honesty and kindness. The Salvation Army becomes a useful case study because, unlike some other churches, it is one integrated organization with one management layer, one board, and no separate social arm, so faith expression and social service are tightly intertwined. Small notes that the same kind of tension shows up in other traditions too, and the discussion widens to include the Australian conversation around LGBTQ+ faith, including writers like Joel Hollier whose work appears in Watson's footnotes. The episode also touches on the Salvation Army's history and the different stages of its posture toward LGBTQ+ people. The tone stays serious and attentive, but it never feels sterile. There is grief here, and there is also the insistence that honesty and kindness can belong together. By the end, the conversation settles on the idea that love is the point, even if the path forward is hard.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about queer belonging, purity culture, and the work of making church honest.

Brad Watson's conversation with Will Small follows Watson's research into LGBTQ+ Salvation Army officers in Queer Blood and Fire, then widens into purity culture, faith crisis, and what it would mean to decolonize church structures with honesty and kindness.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a clear-eyed conversation about queer faith inside the Salvation Army, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Spiritual Misfits Podcast