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CHAPTER THREE Angels and Animals

This past year my family and I stayed at a wildlife lodge in Africa. We would wake up early each morning and climb into a Land Rover with our guide, who drove us all over the “bushveldt,” as the Africans call it, looking at animals in their native habitats. Rhinos, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, birds that had flown to Africa from Russia for the winter—we saw it all. In the afternoon of our second day, as we pulled into a large clearing, we saw two lions lying out in the open.

A male and a female.

The female would periodically get up and walk back and forth in front of the male, then she would roll on her back and side, then she would lie still for a while, then she would go through her routine all over again. Our guide explained that it was—you guessed it—mating season, and the female was going through this ritual to get the male ready for their “encounter.” Our guide then launched into an extended explanation of the male-female relationship and how they attract one another and how the one relates to the other.

When you see the biological need up close, so raw and so primal, you can’t help but notice how strong it is. These animals are going to mate because it’s in their DNA, their blood, their environment. They aren’t lying out there in that field, thinking, I just really want to know that you love me for more than my body. They aren’t discussing how to make a difference in the world. One isn’t saying to the other, “I just don’t feel you’re as committed to this relationship as I am.”

Other than basic biological functions, there’s nothing else going on.

Pure instinct.

No higher plane,

no greater cause,

no transcendent purpose.

Biology. Period.

Those lions reminded me of when I was in high school and my sister and I were visiting some relatives in Florida during our spring vacation. We decided to go check out the “scene” at Daytona Beach. I’m assuming you know the scene I’m referring to. It happens all over the place every spring. Cancun or the Caribbean or an island off the coast of Texas or whatever spot is “the spot” for that particular year is invaded by thousands and thousands of students from all over the country to drink large amounts of alcohol and have sex with lots of people.

The vibe is the same regardless of the year or the location or even the weather. This is your week to let yourself go, to lose yourself, to give in to whatever cravings or desires or urges you have. Because whatever happens in (choose a city), stays in (that city).1

Perhaps you’ve been there, you’ve seen the footage, or you’ve heard the stories. There’s the pervading sense that if something feels good, it takes precedence over everything else. And so how do the stories that are brought home begin?

“I can’t believe I . . .”

“We totally lost our minds . . .”

“It was so out of control . . .”

“The next morning I couldn’t . . .”

These scenes aren’t just about partying and having a good time and hooking up with someone, they raise questions about what it means to be fully human. The temptation is to ignore your conscience or sense of higher purpose, sacrificing what it means to be human. Which leads a person to act much like . . . an animal.

Are we just the sum of our urges?

Think about some of the phrases that get thrown around:

party animal

we attacked each other

she’s a tiger

basic instinct

They’re all an acknowledgment of the primal, base nature of the person’s behavior. As if there are these incredibly strong forces down in there that are usually repressed but for these few days are going to be allowed to take over. And when they’re given the reins, you have no idea what might happen.

Food for the Stomach

In the ancient Greek world, people used a phrase to describe this understanding of what it means to be human. They would say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.”2 They understood a person to be a collection of physical needs—you’re hungry and there’s food to satisfy your hunger, you’re tired and there’s sleep. They concluded that sex is just like food, so when a man was “hungry,” he would go to a prostitute, saying, “Food for the stomach . . .”

There’s a passage in the book of First Corinthians where one of the writers of the Bible addresses this worldview. He confronts his audience with a challenge: Can they live for a higher purpose than just fulfilling their urges? He then claims that their bodies are “temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God.”3