looking at animals in their native habitats . . . When you see 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, and 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.50
Animals are born that way, humans are not. Yet Gaga’s album contains lyrics like, “It doesn’t matter if you love him . . . Just put your paws up ‘cause you were born this way, baby.”51
Lady Gaga is a gifted artist, and has since converted to Roman Catholicism. Nonetheless, these lyrics seem to deny that we have a spiritual dimension to us that the animals don’t have. She seems to be suggesting that for humans, like animals, sex has no higher plane, no greater cause, no transcendent purpose.
The Apostle Paul, almost as though he saw Gaga coming, addresses this worldview:
Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?52
I used to think Paul called our bodies’ members of Christ’s only to demonstrate how significant they are, or to make us feel guiltier when we use them to sin. Yet the more I learn about the connection between physiology and spirituality, the more convinced I am that Paul’s admonition is to be taken literally.
The Substance of the Gospel
Traditional Christianity tends to view the body of Christ as a merely social body, and biblical references to Christians as Christ’s body are considered metaphoric. Yet Paul was much more precise in his explanation of this concept, referring explicitly to the physicality of our representation of Christ: “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”53
When Christ ascended into the heavenly realm,54 the same Spirit that had been governing his actions on the earth entered all believers.55 This happened so that our bodies could replace his.
Father Ron Rolheiser wrote:
The incarnation began with Jesus and it has never stopped . . . God still has skin, human skin, and physically walks on this earth just as Jesus did. In a certain manner of speaking, it is true to say that, at the ascension, the physical body of Jesus left this earth, but the body of Christ did not. God’s incarnational presence among us continues as before.56
St. Teresa of Ávila, who championed a contemplative life through mental prayer, so aptly wrote, “Christ has no body now but yours.”57 Perhaps this is why Paul likened physical bodies to “tablets of flesh”58 on which the gospel is written, or “earthen vessels”59 by which God’s power is made manifest. Our bodies are the substance of the gospel.
Quantum Intercourse
Studies indicate that men’s sex drives not only tend to be stronger than women’s, but also that male and female sex drives tend to be motivated by vastly different factors, many of which cannot even be pinned down. I believe God intentionally designed these differences in brain chemistry so that marriage could mirror his relationship with us. The imbalance of sexual desire between the sexes forces him to pursue her, just as Christ pursues his bride: the church.
The quantum principle of entanglement asserts that when you split a single entity into two pieces, no matter how far you separate them, each piece still mirrors the physical properties of the other. In the quantum world, the notion of making “two” out of that which was once “one” is physically impossible. Such is the case with the sexual union between a man and a woman.
Several neurochemical processes occur during sex that bond lovers to one another. Men produce a bonding agent called vasopressin, and women produce oxytocin. These chemicals give physical substance to Christ’s assertion that in sex, the two are made one. This explains why sex that takes place outside of a lifelong commitment is so emotionally destructive. Attempts to make “two” out of what was once “one” are, both scientifically and spiritually, impossible.
The problem with pornography is that the same chemicals that bind us to a spouse in lovemaking, will also bind us to images on a screen. Brain scans confirm that the thalamus, which plays a crucial role in distinguishing real from pretend, responds to inner and outer realities identically.
Mirror neurons fire in the brain when the body is engaged in action, but they also fire when we merely observe the same action being performed by another. The neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were performing the action themselves.60 Perhaps this is why Jesus said one only needs to look at a woman lustfully, and he’s already committed adultery.
Sexual activity also stimulates production of the same chemicals that drug use does, which explains the addictive nature of our relationships. We have a chemical need for relationship, though sexual activity isn’t required to meet this need. A sincere conversation or close hug from a trusted friend will trigger the release of dopamine in my brain. Although in seasons of isolation, when there was no embrace to be had, I have turned to Internet pornography, which mimics intimacy by releasing the same chemicals that are released through real world relationship.61
It is in moments like these that God needs a body, because I need a hug. Loving our God and loving each other are so closely related that the New Testament uses the same Greek word to describe them both.62 If you want a deeper relationship with God, start by loving those around you. By loving their body, you are loving God’s.
When I’m transparent with someone about my need for affection and they ask “how is your relationship with God?,” I know I’m not getting a hug. It is the polite way of being told I should get my needs met directly through the Lord.
Such individuals have removed the body from the Christian life and, in so doing, confined the gospel to the invisible, ethereal realm where it exists only as an idea, and does no one any practical good here on earth.
The tendency to divorce spirit from matter, coupled with spiritual socialization that posits the body as “worldy,” all serve as obstacles to integrating one’s body into their relationship with God. Why are so many uncomfortable kneeling in church to pray, or lifting their hands in the air during a worship song? Father Ryan asks, “Is it because we have been conditioned to remove our bodies from the expression of our spiritual selves?”63
Indeed, this false division breeds a religious contempt for the body which tempts us not only to exclude it from religious life, but also to hide it from each other.
Chapter 3—That Famous Fig Leaf
Scripture tells us it was a cool day in the Garden when our forefathers tasted the forbidden fruit, and, in so doing, ushered in the fall of humankind. According to Genesis, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked . . .”64
Alan Wright, in his book Shame Off You, explains what the fall may have looked like in modern-day society:
Imagine sitting in church and suddenly, during the sermon, a picture of you appears on the big projection screen and all of the thoughts you’ve had that week are exposed for the whole church to see. One embarrassing thought after another—moments of silent lust, jealous thoughts about other church members, critical thoughts toward
