Let me tell you a little story about the garter snake. Common garter snakes live further north than any other snake (save possibly the European adder). During the winter, they go dormant in a process akin to hibernation. They mate en masse when the Spring wakes them up, with a single female potentially attracting 25 males in a writhing mating ball (picture Fleetwood Mac at Clinton's inauguration).
The males wake first, warm themselves up, and then have at any females that emerge. However, as is the way of things, some males always wake up late. This puts them behind the curve - not only do the other males have a headstart in chasing the snakey wimminz, but they're not even yet warm enough to do anything about it (being ectothermic and all).
Fortunately, they have an ace to play. They start emitting female pheromones. The males use the pheromones to find the emerging females; and are easily duped into chasing pretty much any snake that's wearing the right perfume. They engulf the cross-dresser, both pulling them off the pursuit of a genuine female, and also allowing the late riser to use their body heat to warm his own self (termed kleptothermy. I just like that they actually have a name for it.)
I'm pretty easy-going about Christians selling all they have and such; but I really want to see them taking a stab at being wise as serpents.