RELIGION SHOULDN’T APPEAL TO OUR BASER INSTINCTS
Yesterday I wrote about the uneasy relationship between spirituality and animal instinct. Religion is at its best when it calls us to something higher, to master our baser nature and rise above it. But at its worst it can give our animal passions moral approval, as with Islamic suicide bombers or Mormon polygamy.
Today I want to tell you of lives impacted by an example
much closer to home, a ministry headquartered in
Ransomed Heart Ministries teaches that men are inherently
wild at heart, that we want a battle to fight, and a beauty to rescue. These are all things that God is calling us
to do. Women, by contrast, are to be
beautiful, seductive, and subservient to their man. For women, God is the ultimate romancer,
seducer and lover who will make them whole.
Ransomed Heart is a Christian ministry, and practices an
elaborate New Testament-based theology developed by its founder, John
Eldredge. Am I alone in finding the
ministry’s connection between spirituality and biology horrifying?
God talks to Eldredge, for example, in ways that reinforce
his male warrior fantasies. In one of
his books, God tells Eldredge that he is “Henry the Fifth after
Just like the other examples we saw yesterday, the feedback
relationship between religion and biology can have devastating
consequences. I personally know of two
women whose marriages have ended under the influence of Ransomed Heart. In the words of one, “Ransomed Heart gave my ex-husband permission
to abandon his responsibilities and expose me to financial ruin, all while
claiming to be acting for a higher purpose.”
If I know two such women, how many more are there?
Perhaps Ransomed Heart believes broken marriages fall under
the category of acceptable losses. After
all, men must fight battles, and battles have casualties. To which I’d reply, “That’s why peace is
better.” In one terminated marriage, the
father and his son didn’t speak for over a year. Right now, they’re going through some very
tough times. Although I continue to hope
for full reconciliation, their relationship may never be the same again.
Eldredge’s books consistently rank high on Christian
bestseller lists. I wonder if that’s
because the chattering classes are always telling us sex differences don’t
matter, when everyday experience tells us they do. I can’t tell you how many times as an
academic I’ve had to sit politely with a straight face while some highly
credentialed professor told me that masculinity and femininity were “socially
constructed”. To anyone who’s raised a boy and a girl, that statement is obviously
nonsense.
The modern convergence of psychology, cognitive science and
biology has taught us a lot about human nature.
We now know that men really are more violent. They take more risks, they are more
comfortable with one night stands, and they look for youth and beauty in a
mate. Women really are more nurturing, more emotional, prefer to hold out for
romance and intimacy, and like status and power in a man. None of this will surprise any evolutionary
biologist. Or online dater.
Yes
Religion has an answer: We fight back. Men may want to sleep around, but they
shouldn’t. Women may want to use their
sexual power to get what they want, but they should dress modestly and behave
chastely anyway. Men can fight if they
have to, but only for something greater than indulging our innate predilection
for violence or desire for status over other men. Risk taking is OK, but once you marry and
bring children into the world, your behavior must change.
So what if the elderly millionaire and the trophy wife have
their basis in biology? If biology is
all they have, the marriage won’t last. The
answer to the spiritual seduction of our instincts has been known for a long
time: Just because it’s natural doesn’t
make it right. The purpose of religion
and ethics is to channel our instincts in ways that make us better. If they do anything else, all Hell will break
loose.