by Brandon Beck

For years, I’ve thought Paul was a petulant and recalcitrant problem. I shied away from him anytime he came up in theological discussion and assumed that he would be used to “clobber” me. I’m studying with New Testament scholar Dr. Shelly Matthews at Brite Divinity School now, and I’m learning to look at Paul in new ways, to grant him the grace that, with dignity and respect, I’ve always wanted him to grant me.

Recently, in Dr. Matthews class, we were discussing Paul’s letter to the Romans, and we read a chapter of a book by her former student Dr. Jimmy Hoke: Feminism, Queerness, Affect, and Romans: Under God? Before delving much further into Dr. Hoke’s work, let me remind you that only seven of the letters in The New Testament are considered authentic Paul – 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, and Romans. Keeping this in mind is part of what is helping me look at Paul in new ways. Often what has been used against me in Paul’s writings has not actually been Pauline; it has been pseudo-Paul. That, of course, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, but I can forgive Paul, and, by extension, forgive those who have misused him.

Dr. Hoke takes one of those passages that is Paul’s that is often used to “clobber” people who are LGBTQ+ and analyzes 1st Century Roman sexual politics as a lens through which to better understand what might be going on in the problematic passage, leaving me with a more hopeful way to view Paul not only in this letter but in the other Pauline letters.

As I’ve re-read Paul through my new lens of cautious hope, I’ve been able to remember that Paul was just a man, just a person afraid for his life and trying to protect his friends, just like all of us here now. I have remembered, as I re-read complex and difficult passages such as 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, that Paul was just as confused as the people he was trying to teach but was zealously striving to bring people together as they all were trying to realize their ideal forms in the Eschaton.

Reflecting on the ways that I am able to change my perspective on this historical and critical Christian figure, I wonder who among the people I know in my daily life I might need to consider from a new perspective? Is it the person who unintentionally brushed against me in the grocery story? The person who looked at me in a way I didn’t like on the bus? The priest whose sermon I didn’t agree with? The person who laughed when I thought it wasn’t appropriate? The person who took communion with me but won’t vote the way I will? Let me turn my swords into poughshares again today.