Bible Tea & Mama G

More Bible Tea, the Fake-Out: Paul’s Fake Letters 

Anyway, let’s get back to that letter to the community in Ephesus. This is one of seven letters that scholars say might be serving up copycat couture. It’s possible Paul didn’t write this, so it might be a fake. Back in the day, community leaders didn’t think twice about identity theft. Signing your name as “Paul,” would be akin to signing your name “RuPaul” today. Paul was a legendary queen, so seeing that name in a letter meant something. Even though scholars think Paul might be the author, I will use the pseudonym Pauline from this point forward. 

HERstory & City of the Gods 

Now let me spill the tea. Ephesus was the concrete jungle of its day. A big city filled with temples to all the gods. Pauline sends this glam-gram to her community… apparently from jail. The letter has two parts. Opening act, history of the world according to Pauline, and Jesus is the queen bee in the whole story. It’s metaphysics, religion, and spirituality. Pauline then plugs the Ephesian community into that story; AKA “gospel story” AKA “grand kiki about the herstory of the community” according to Pauline. All while singing, Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” Pink’s “F*cking Perfect,” Demi Lovato’s “Confident” and Cher’s “The Power” simultaneously. (Eph 1-3)  

How I Became a Glamazon!

But hunty, one section of this letter truly gave me life! This sister Pauline dropped some ancient wisdom straight out of the Psalms when she said, “Be angry but do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” The version from my childhood said it like this: “Be angry, but do not sin. Lest you give the devil a foothold.” Honey, ‘lest’ means ‘for fear of,’ so in my mind it meant: if you’re angry for more than a day, the devil’s gonna snatch your wig!” 

When I was a young queen, the adults around me told me not to get angry. My family and their religion taught me not to feel anything at all. Which is impossible. Yet, sister Pauline’s telling me to ‘be angry.’ If you’re ready for freedom, brace yourselves, siblings, because if you’re like I was when I read this, the first time can be a doozie! Darling, my family drilled it into me that feelings were dangerous territory. Honey, let me tell you this, you have every right to feel your feelings! No apologies. Your feelings are valid! 

Sinners

In the next part sister Pauline says, “Do not sin.”  

“Sin” is a word that’s packed with drama, and honestly, it’s mostly nonsense the way people throw it around. Serving up some knowledge on “sin,” FYI it’s actually an archery term. It means you missed the target, like aiming your arrow and not quite hitting the spot!  Sin, in the context of Pauline’s letter, was all about best ways to behave within this loving and supportive community. So, Pauline might very well say, “Be angry, but don’t cut a bitch.”  Or “Feel your feels, speak up, but don’t burn the building down.” 

“The most revolutionary thing you can do is to be yourself, to speak your truth, to open your arms to life including the pain.”
–Rita Mae Brown, from “Rubyfruit Jungle”

Let That Sh*t Go 

Darling, let’s take a closer look at “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” For too long, I took this literally, which often meant I kicked up a fuss over nothing. One of the biggest problems when people read the Bible is that they get all literal about it. This doesn’t mean, “Don’t sleep until you’ve figured all your shit out.” If that were the case, nobody’d ever get any sleep. It means, “Don’t hold on to that shit longer than you have to.” When we see an injustice, sometimes it takes a while to figure it out. However, in most cases I would advise, don’t let that tea spill into tomorrow! However, as fierce queer folk, sometimes it’s totally appropriate for us to be angry for a while and then channel that anger into action. Let it fuel your authenticity, darling! As the trailblazing queer author Rita Mae Brown said, “The most revolutionary thing you can do is to be yourself, to speak your truth, to open your arms to life including the pain.” So, kings, queens and all of the in-betweens, embrace that fire and let it drive you to be your fabulous, authentic selves! 

The Devil is a Lie

The devil. Talk about literalism gone amuck! As a kiddo, my parents’ religion had me believing there was a literal boogie man out there. Invisible and ready to drag me to hell! They never paid attention to the 411 from Jesus. When Jesus was throwing shade at the religious nuts of his day, he called them children of the devil, but then also said, ‘there is no truth in him (the devil).’ If there’s no truth in something, does that something even exist? I am one thousand percent convinced the devil is a metaphor for the shady ass way humans sometimes think and act! It’s the collective delusion that something is wrong with me or that something is wrong with someone else. However, that’s the point here. Don’t you give that lie space in your heart!