Tiger King: Why we need a Saviour

by Ted Giese

Sometimes certain stories bubble to the surface of the public consciousness only under the right circumstances. The tragic and unfortunate story of Joe Schreibvogel has been growing slowly for years through documentary films like 2013’s Joe Exotic – The Tiger King and 2016’s Joe Exotic The Life Exotic: Or the Incredible True Story of Joe Schreibvogel. But the story of Joe Exotic— a gay, gun toting, presidential and gubernatorial candidate, and “big cat” zoo owner/operator —finally clicked with audiences with the addition of a true crime element. Add to that recipe a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and people cooped up at home, and audiences finally got hooked. The Netflix documentary series Tiger King sank its claws into viewers with its bizarre story of volatile competing personalities, methamphetamine-fuelled sham gay relationships and sex cults, Las Vegas party scene con-artists, and animal rights activists devolving into a revenge murder-for-hire plot.        

Few individuals connected to Exotic and Baskin have clean hands in the matter; they use each other for personal gain of one kind or another. Sadly, the tigers, lions, and other wild and endangered animals take a back seat to the personal drama and dangerous behaviours of the central figures.    

The seven-episode documentary is carefully crafted to come hard out of the gate, introducing an over-the-top motley crew of characters, with each episode ending with a hook coaxing viewers to keep watching for even more shocking and strange revelations. And it delivers. Average law-abiding viewers are amazed that such a seedy world of endangered animal breeding for fame and profit even exists, and are likely shocked that a tiger could be bought for roughly $2,000. The reason tigers are surprisingly low-priced is that when they are full grown they are expensive to maintain and feed. So zoos like Joe Exotic’s G. W. Zoo continually need room for more big cats because the most lucrative and popular activity offered is the hands-on pet-for-pay lion and tiger cub experience. As the cubs grow into full size lions and tigers they become too dangerous for most people to play with. Even people who work around them every day can suffer serious injury.

The baby tigers, however, are a huge draw, which garner the attention of groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and individuals like Carole and Howard Baskin of Florida’s “Big Cat Rescue,” who fought to shut down Joe Exotic and other privately-owned zoos. Carole Baskin’s main complaint, aside from living conditions and general care of the animals, centres on the pet-for-pay lion and tiger cub experience. She claims it creates a situation where younger cats eventually bump older cats out of their enclosures leading to black market animal sales to other private zoos or individuals. The Baskins accuse Joe Exotic and others of running “lion and tiger puppy mills,” while failing to maintain the ever-growing prides of endangered cats. They also assert that Joe engages in deceptive euthanization practises and disposing of animal remains outside the oversight of the United States Department of Agriculture—actions amounting to gross negligence and animal cruelty. Joe Exotic doesn’t see it that way.   

The feud between the unstable Joe Exotic and the persistent, eccentric Carole Baskin eventually develops into a murder-for-hire plot involving criminals, ex-cons, federal investigators, and attorneys. There is hardly an individual in the whole sordid plot who could be considered noble or blameless.

“In short, if you steal much, you can expect that much will be stolen from you; He who robs and gets by violence and wrong will submit to one who shall act the same way toward him. For God is master of this art. Since everyone robs and steals from one another, God punishes one thief by means of another. Or else where would we find enough gallows and ropes?”

For anyone familiar with Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, the following passage may come to mind: “In short, if you steal much, you can expect that much will be stolen from you; He who robs and gets by violence and wrong will submit to one who shall act the same way toward him. For God is master of this art. Since everyone robs and steals from one another, God punishes one thief by means of another. Or else where would we find enough gallows and ropes?”

By the end of Tiger King there is an arrest and conviction—but none of the individuals involved seems less guilty than the others. Few individuals connected to Exotic and Baskin have clean hands in the matter; they use each other for personal gain of one kind or another. Sadly, the tigers, lions, and other wild and endangered animals take a back seat to the personal drama and dangerous behaviours of the central figures.        

STAND WITH INTEGRITY

Christian viewers of Tiger King know that “over and above our own body, spouse, and temporal possessions, we still have another—honour and good reputation [Proverbs 22:1]. We cannot do without these. For it is intolerable to live among people in open shame and general contempt. Therefore, God does not want the reputation, good name, and upright character of our neighbor to be taken away or diminished, just as with his money and possessions. He wants everyone to stand with integrity before wife, children, servants, and neighbors” (Luther’s Large Catechism).

It’s hard to watch a documentary that lays bare almost every fault and accusation that reside in a person or could be leveled against them. While Baskin is held in high regard by those who admire her “Big Cat Rescue” compound in Florida, other private zoo owners like Doc Bhagavan Antle of the “Myrtle Beach Safari” call her a hypocrite, noting she also profits from lions and tigers. He further alleges that rumours of her involvement in her second husband’s death are more than rumour.

This is the peculiar nature of Joe Exotic: he garners not only intense disdain but also admiration, even though he is objectively deceptive and abusive to the people around him.

Joe Exotic believes these rumours, and feels justified in treating Carole Baskin less kindly as a result. He tells himself that he is helping the cause of justice against a hypocritical woman who had gotten away with murder. Much of the documentary’s crass and unsalutary language comes from Exotic’s expletive-laden screeds against Baskin. The allegations are all the more confusing, since a real mystery surrounds the 1997 disappearance of Baskin’s second husband, the exotic cat enthusiast Don Lewis.

The Lutheran Large Catechism speaks to situations like these with great wisdom. For those who have watched Tiger King (this review is not a recommendation), think how much better Exotic’s life would be if he could only restrain himself and follow this one piece of advice:

“Let no one do any harm to his neighbour with the tongue, whether friend or foe. Do not speak evil of him, no matter whether it is true or false, unless it be done by commandment or for his reformation. Let everyone use his tongue and make it serve for the best of everyone else, to cover up his neighbour’s sins and infirmities, excuse them, conceal, and garnish them with his own reputation. The chief reason for this should be the one Christ declares in the Gospel, where He includes all commandments about our neighbour, “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” [Matthew 7:12]. Likewise St. Paul provides this wonderful advice, “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands,” (1 Thessalonians 4:11).

For the most part, people working for Joe Exotic aspire towards this goal.

To his credit Exotic employed people who would otherwise have difficulty getting a job—whatever Exotic’s own motivations might have been. His employees joined the G. W. Zoo when they were down on their luck. They grew to love the tigers, lions, and other animals and showed loyalty towards Exotic even when it was difficult. At times it is only men like John Reinke the zoo’s manager who could find kind words to say of Joe or at least words tempered with kindness. G. W Zoo zookeeper Kelci Saffery said that while she thought justice was served when it came to Joe Exotic, the thought of him dying in prison was wrong. Saffery also commended Exotic for his charity work feeding the hungry. She said all this during a post-documentary wrap-up eighth episode and along the way always spoke well of Joe Exotic even when it appears she had every reason not to. This is the peculiar nature of Joe Exotic: he garners not only intense disdain but also admiration, even though he is objectively deceptive and abusive to the people around him.

SEXUALITY

Another aspect bearing some contemplation by Christian viewers is the way the program presents sexuality. Jeff and Lauren Lowe’s swinger lifestyle is clearly manipulative, predatory, and well outside the prescription given by God for Christians to lead a sexually pure and decent life. But it pales in comparison to the details of Joe Exotic’s relationships. His gay lifestyle doesn’t fit neatly into the popular paradigm that sexual orientation is innate. At one point, he says his problem was that he kept falling in love with straight men—a problem which somehow didn’t prevent him from convincing two of them to “marry” him at the same time. (This polyamorous “throuple” wasn’t legal, and certainly isn’t in keeping with Christian marriage between one man and one woman.)

The relationships are all the more tangled given that, while consenting to a sexual relationship with Joe Exotic as his “husbands,” at the same time they secretly engaged in heterosexual relationships behind Joe’s back. For his part, Joe Exotic repeatedly gravitated to young and impressionable men whom he could easily manipulate and entice to the lifestyle he offered. These relationships have a tendency to end tragically—as was the case of Travis Maldonado who died of an accidental self-inflicted gun shot to the head from a handgun received as a gift from Joe Exotic.

Maldonado’s death didn’t slow Joe down for long. The documentary ends with him in another relationship with an impressionable young man named Dillon Passage. To further complicate things, Joe Exotic takes on some of the last names of these men further removing himself from Schreibvogel—his given surname. While he legally changed his last name to Exotic, he now calls himself Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage. To say there is significant confusion and self-deception involved in these relationships would be an understatement.     

Another manipulative and abusive series of sexual relationships in the show centres around Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle, born Kevin Antle and best known as Doc Antle of the “Myrtle Beach Safari.” He styles himself after a Hindu guru using ideas rooted in Siddha Yoga like Shaktipata, where the initiate is said to achieve spiritual awakening and an infusion of energy from their spiritual master through touch. Bhagavan is a Sanskrit word meaning Lord and holds a connection to divinity within Hinduism. Antle uses this cloak of mystery along with his private exotic animal zoo to cultivate a harem of young women for his personal pleasure. One of Antle’s former apprentices, Barbara Fisher, felt pressured into having sex with him and said that doing so would have advanced her career at the zoo, as the best jobs were given to the girls who became Antle’s sexual partners.

BEYOND THE TABLOIDS

Tiger King is a sensationalist piece of documentary filmmaking, but don’t dismiss it out of hand because of its tabloid enticements. It is also highly manipulative and sophisticated in its presentation and edited to elicit judgment from viewers. As a result there is literally something for everyone. If a viewer is for more regulation in the breeding and sale of exotic animals, they will have a plot to follow; if a viewer is a proponent of wide open Second Amendment gun ownership rights and libertarian extreme free speech, they will likewise find a plot to follow. If viewers simply want a true crime drama, they will find what they are looking for. There’s even eccentric music videos of Exotic lip syncing songs written by Washington state musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton.

Tiger King is a sensationalist piece of documentary filmmaking, but don’t dismiss it out of hand because of its tabloid enticements. It is also highly manipulative and sophisticated in its presentation and edited to elicit judgment from viewers. As a result there is literally something for everyone.

After watching Tiger King, viewers can say with confidence the words first penned by King Solomon: “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted” (Ecclesiastes 1:14–15).

Exotic occasionally talks about God and even prays. Christian viewers should remember this, and pray that Joseph Allen Schreibvogel would step away from his self-fashioned personas of Joe Exotic and Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage—that he would look instead to the one who can take a crooked, lacking life and make it whole. There is no hope for anyone on Tiger King—or for anyone, for that matter—unless they find repair for their broken state in Christ Jesus.

Everyone needs salvation—even if their life is not as wild and crazy as shown in Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.

The real challenge for many viewers will be to avoid passing judgement on the motley crew of characters and their complex, broken lives. Christians will want to remember St. Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).

Everyone needs salvation—even if their life is not as wild and crazy as shown in Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.

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Rev. Ted Giese is lead pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; a contributor to The Canadian Lutheran, Reporter; and movie reviewer for the “Issues, Etc.” radio program. For more of his TV and Movie Reviews, check out the Lutheran Movie Review Index.

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