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their great role in lije.
Women have
seldom, as a group, known who they
were, what they were, and how to find
expression and fulfillment.
But Was lt Christian?
There is no society which is exempt
frorn guilt. This includes nations who
thought they were adhering to the so–
called Christian ethic. Perhaps without
realizing it, they misinterpreted what
their claimed guidebook, the Bible,
said about women. This misinterpreta–
tioo was often uscd by both ministers
and lay people as
a
weapon to keep
womeo psychologically "in their
place," though not by cveryone at all
times, of course. But there was an
underlying strain of thought which in–
fected the minds of men and society
in regard to the treatmcnt of women.
Kate Millctt, another leading figure
in the Women's Liberation movement,
alludes to this thought pattern in her
book,
Sexual Politics.
She condemns
a number of social practices as being
discriminatory toward women. In–
duded on her list is thc Christian
mis–
interp,·etalioll
of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden.
"The two leading myths of Western
Culture," says Millett, "are the clas–
sical tale of Pandora's box and the
Biblical story of the Fall ... [they]
condemn the fcmale through her
sexuality and explaio her position as
her well-deserved punishment for the
primal sin undcr whose unfortunate
consec¡uences the cace yet labors ....
"This mythical version of the female
as the cause of human suffering,
knowledge, and sin is still the founda–
tion of sexual attitudcs, for it repre–
sents the most crucial argument of the
patriarchal tradition in the West ..."
(pp.
51-52).
Millett, of course, has her own mis–
couceptions about what the account
does
say.
Paradoxically, in this and other
Bíblica! accounts are found the basic
At the markel, she teaches her childt·en
the importallt 1zeeds of living.
PLAIN TRUTH June 1972