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From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Eden and Relations between the Sexes
Message-ID: <Apr.18.03.14.18.1991.7239@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 91 07:14:26 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Lines: 43
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

OFM wrote that the "derangement of relations between the sexes was a
consequence of [the first sin]," and Jim Green replied:

>Derangement???  What 'derangement between the sexes'?  What is he 
>talking about???  Any derangement here is belief that the so called
>sin of the Garden of Eden had anything to do with sex.

While I would not put words into our Moderator's keyboard, I see two kinds
of "derangement" in relations between the sexes: problems with the ways men
and women interact, and sinful abuses of sexuality.

For the first, one need only look at TV shows and movies which are based on
men complaining that women are capricious, or women complaining that men are
insensitive.  Many magazine articles purport to explain "what makes your man
tick" or "ten things men should know about women".  These programs, movies
and articles are immensely popular: many men and women are apparently quite
lost when relating to each other -- even when they are spouses, according to
divorce statistics.  This confusion does not seem consistent with God's plan
to make Adam a "suitable" helper (Genesis 2:18); I believe that these
problems are a result of Original Sin -- and therefore the sin of Eden.

For the second, consider sins like adultery, child molestation, and rape.
As I see it, using one of God's gifts to betray, abuse, and assault other
humans constitutes "derangement" of that gift.


I believe that all these problems between men & women result from humans
being fallen, sinful creatures.  In Romans 5:12 it says "sin entered the
world through one man," and it seems a natural conclusion that the problems
which plague relations between the sexes result from that sin.

I do not know what Mr Green means by his comment that "Any derangement here
is belief that the so called sin of the Garden of Eden had anything to do
with sex."  If the sin in Eden did not cause the problems men & women have
interacting (including the sinful abuses of sexuality), what did?


kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu      Darren F. Provine      ...njin!gboro!kilroy
"The first thing that strikes the careless observer is that women are unlike
 men.  They are `the opposite sex' -- (though why `opposite' I do not know;
 what is the `neighbouring sex'?).  But the fundamental thing is that women
 are more like men than anything else in the world.  They are human beings."
                                                        -- Dorothy L Sayers