Sonny Sandoval is known for his passionate, faith-filled raps fronting P.O.D., but in his spare time, he’s heavily involved with the Whosoevers, a Christian outreach organization. Sandoval, who co-founded the Whosoevers with public speaker Ryan Ries, recently spoke with Alternative Fix about the organization’s mission and purpose.
“I’m a follower of Christ. I believe in Jesus and his teachings, but there’s a lot of stigma that comes with Christianity,” Sandoval told Alternative Fix. “I think as people that believe in Jesus, we’ve done a bad job of living up to what he taught. So a lot of times, everybody just put that stigma of Christianity that a lot of people don’t relate to.”
Sandoval says the name the Whosoevers comes from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“The Old Testament scripture tells us that whosoever should call upon the name of God shall be saved,” Sandoval said.
He added that the idea for the Whosoevers started small, but has grown.
“It started just as a simple idea, because I’m in a rock band and I’m in the real world, and I have a lot of friends and brothers who are in the real world, from enter from acting to athletes to other rock star guys, but they all want to live their life right,” he said.
“A lot of them are dealing with sobriety. A lot of them are changing their lives in general. This started as a brotherhood… It started as brotherhood of accountability, saying, ‘Just pray for me, man. That I don’t get caught up.’ It opened up doors for us to go into schools and rehabs and public places and share our stories, and that’s where it started, just sharing our stories.”
He added, “Sometimes these kids will give someone like myself who looks like me or they believe has the experience or maybe because I’m in a rock band, and they give you two minutes more of their time than they would a Bible scholar they don’t relate t
o.”