Because of my scathing attack on Genesis, I want to repeat that I don't mean to launch a wholesale attack on the Bible, and certainly not on the New Testament. In the NT there is nothing to suggest that the sexuality of women is a horrible threat to humanity, and apart from the story of Salome, Herod and John the Baptist and some obscure warnings in Revelation, there is nothing here to suggest that women cause the downfall of men. There is absolutely nothing to be found to that effect in the Gospels, and even Paul makes no suggestions to that effect.
And the Old Testament certainly isn't all bad from a feminist's point of view. The Song of Solomon celebrates both women and the beauty of loving sex. And there are many brave and good women in the Old Testament, such as Deborah and Ruth, who is my favorite. And like Terry said, Proverbs celebrates Wisdom, which is seen as a female concept. Also, there are many passages that don't celebrate women but also don't attack them, and which are beautiful and inspiring.
Obviously I also know that there is another Biblical version of the creation of man and woman, where man and woman are created equal.
I want to repeat that the reason for my outburst was that I thought that Terry was saying that 9/11 happened because of the immoral behaviour of female American cultural icons. Terry has clarified his post by saying said that American females are no more immoral than American males, and I have no more comments regarding Terry's posts. I still want to say that I find it very dangerous to blame a country's culture for a devastating attack on it when there is extremely little evidence to support such a view. And I think it is still more dangerous to blame "female immorality" for things like 9/11 or earthquakes and floods. Such a view has very little chance to prevent catastrophes like 9/11 or earthquakes or floods, but it has good chances of increasing the oppression of women.
Ann
