Struggle against his own homosexual desires in an intolerant society may have inspired Paul the Apostle to write

sublime Biblical teachings on unconditional love and inclusivity — and also a few “clobber passages” used by
anti-LGBTQ bigots.
Paul the Apostle, also known as Saul of Tarsus, is widely considered one of the most important figures in
Western history and one of the greatest religious leaders of all time. He is second only to Jesus in his impact on
Christianity. More than half of the books in the New Testament are attributed to him, and seven are recognized
as his own authentic work.

It may seem absurd to consider Paul as queer. As Gayheroes.com asked: “Who in their right mind would ever
think that St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, writer of Epistles used by Christians to condemn gay people for
centuries, might himself be gay?”
Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, in a book published Friday that is bound to spark controversy, speculates
that the Apostle Paul--an unmarried man plagued by an unnamed weakness--was a secret homosexual.
The most outspoken church leader on this question is John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal bishop. He presents
the case for Paul’s homosexuality in his 1991 bestseller “Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop
Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture”:

“When I suggest the possibility that Paul was a homosexual person, I do not mean to be salacious or titillating or
even to suggest something that many would consider scandalous. I see no evidence to suggest that Paul ever
acted out his sexual desires and passions…. A rigidly controlled gay male, I believe, taught the church what the
love of God means …

Nothing else, in my opinion, could account for Paul’s self-judging rhetoric, his negative feeling toward his own
body, and his sense of being controlled by something he had no power to change. The war that went on between
what he desired with his mind and what he desired with his body, his drivenness to a legalistic religion of
control, his fear when that system was threatened, his attitude toward women, his refusal to seek marriage as an
outlet for his passion — nothing else accounts for this data as well as the possibility that Paul was a gay male.”
(p. 117)
Some facts suggest Paul was gay
The modern concept of homosexuality did not exist in Biblical times. But Spong and others point out that a
sexual attraction to men would explain some mysteries about Paul’s life:

* Paul never married, which was unusual for a first-century Jew, but had a series of younger men as
companions.

* He sometimes expressed negativity toward women and homosexual exploitation.

* Tormented by self-reproach, he pleaded with God three times in vain to remove an unspecified “thorn in my
flesh” that troubled him. Some believe that “thorn” was attraction to other men. God’s answer, according to
Paul, was to deny his request with the explanation, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.”

* Homosexuality might even help explain Paul’s cataclysmic conversion experience. He went from intensely
persecuting Christians to becoming the most articulate leader of the very movement that he had tried to destroy.
His vision of Christ left him stunned by the revelation that nothing could separate him from God’s love.
“The war going on inside of him is a fairly classic description of what I have come to understand in repressed
gay males,” Spong said in a Los Angeles Times interview.

For Spong, these contradictions finally made sense when he first encountered the possibility of Paul’s
homosexuality in the 1937 book “Saint Paul” by British theologian Arthur Darby Nock.

“I was absolutely floored by how it opened up Paul to me,” he told the LA Times.

Some see a possible romantic relationship between Paul and his “beloved brother” Onesimus in the Epistle to
Philemon. There may also be a homoerotic component to Paul’s love for the risen Christ, as explored in “Eros
and the Christ: Longing and Envy in Paul’s Christology” by David E. Fredrickson.
Spong: “A gay male taught the church what the love of God means”
Spong gives an eloquent and detailed explanation of why he believes Paul was gay in “Rescuing the Bible from
Fundamentalism.” Some find the idea scandalous, but Spong sees beauty in Paul’s queer spiritual journey:

“To me it is a beautiful idea that a homosexual male, scorned then as well as now, living with both the self-
judgment and the social judgments that a fearful society has so often unknowingly pronounced upon the very
being of some it its citizens, could nonetheless, not in spite of this but because of this, be the one who would
define grace for Christian people. For two thousand years of Christian history this Pauline definition has been at
the very core of the Christian experience. Grace was the love of God, an unconditional love, that loved Paul just
as he was. A rigidly controlled gay male, I believe, taught the Christian church what the love of God means and
what, therefore, Christ means as God’s agent. Finally, it was a gay male, tortured and rejected, who came to
understand what resurrection means as God’s vindicating act.” (p. 125)

Spong also asserts that Paul was homosexual in a video of his 2006 debate with James White, director of Alpha
and Omega Ministries. Viewers can watch the seven-minute section where Spong argues for Paul’s
homosexuality or the full three-hour debate.
excerptOn the video he sums up his views on Paul’s sexual orientation, including this statement:

Paul went through a cataclysmic experience, and in that conversion experience I think he came to the realization
that God loved him just as he is, as we indeed sing ‘Just as I am without one plea.’ That’s how God loved him.
And he came out of that convinced, in what I think is a very revealing statement, that nothing could finally
separate him from the love of God, not even he says ‘my own nakedness’ can separate me from the love of God.
Now I don’t know that Paul was gay, and I have no sense that even if he were gay he ever acted it out. My sense
is he lived bound by the law in such a way that it was killing him inside. But his conversion experience was a
sense that whatever it is that God is, God loved him as he was, and so he breaks into this great epiphany of
wonder that not height, not depth, not angels, not principalities, not things present, not things to come, nothing
can separate me from the love of God. Now let me just finally say, I don’t know that Paul was gay. That’s a
supposition. I’m personally convinced of it. I’ll ask him when I get to the kingdom of heaven. It will be a very
revealing conversation.
Paul quoted a queer Greek prophet
Paul quoted queer Greek philosopher Epimenides twice in the New Testament: in Acts 17:28 and Titus 1:12. He
referred to Epimenides as a “prophet.” Queer Bible scholar Virginia Mollenkott wrote about it in the book
“Transgender Journeys”:
“When I was young, it would have given me enormous courage had I known that not just once but twice the
New Testament honors a transgender and homoerotic prophet by quoting him in a positive context. … I am
referring to Epimenides, a poet and prophet who lived in Knossos, Crete, in the sixth century B.C.E. …
According to Greek sources, Epimenides was the shaman who successfully helped to rid Athens of a plague and
who assisted the Athenian statesman Solon in his famous reforms, including the institutionalization of
homoerotic love as it was practiced in Crete. In his book Greek Divination (1913), William R. Holiday
compares Epimenides to the transgender shaman Tiresias, who changed sex several times and whose clothing
was simultaneously ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine.’”Novels explore Paul’s homosexual side
At least three novels have explored the possibility of Paul’s sexual attraction to men. They include:

“The Secret Love Letters of Saint Paul” by Bern Callahan. (Booklocker, 2016
“A Wretched Man: A Novel of Paul the Apostle” by R.W. “Obie” Holmen. (Bascom Hill Publishing, 2010)
A former trial lawyer, the author did post-graduate studies at St John’s School of Theology, a progressive
Benedictine community in Minnesota. He is also the author of “Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian
Ministry in American Protestantism.”
“The Apostle: A Novel Based on the Life of Saint Paul” by Sholem Asch. (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1943)
Did Paul condemn homosexuality?
A few scattered passages attributed to the Apostle Paul have been used to condemn homosexuality for centuries,
inciting anti-gay violence and sodomy executions. They include Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and 1
Timothy 1:9–10.

These verses are among a small set of scriptures known as “clobber passages” because proof-texting
conservatives wield them like weapons to justify discrimination and clobber or bash LGBTQ people.

Many Bible scholars have debunked the idea that the Bible condemns today’s loving, responsible same-sex
relationships. They use powerful arguments to prove their point: The scriptures that supposedly ban
homosexuality have been mistranslated and/or taken out of context. Prejudice against homosexuality led to
misunderstanding of the original texts. Some of the passages attributed to Paul may have been inserted later by
lesser authors. Scripture needs to be interpreted in light of history and reason.
The following books are recommended for further study about what Paul (and the rest of the Bible) says about
homosexuality:

“God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships” by Matthew Vines
(2014, Convergent Books)

“What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality” by Daniel Helminiak (Alamo Square Press, 2000)

“UnClobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality” by Colby Martin (Westminster John Knox
Press, 2016)