"If a man rapes a woman, it is because she has tempted him with a provocatively appealing dress. If a man abuses a woman, it is because she irritated him. If a man divorces a woman, it is because she became one with whom he found it no longer tolerable to live. If a woman is competent at playing the man's game, she is put down with the suggestion that at best she is a hussy and at worst, a bitch. If she resorts to feminist wiles to achieve her goal, she is playing 'the female thing' for all she is worth. These assumptions continue the pattern established in this story told about the Garden of Eden. Eve was the reason for man's downfall. She was responsible for the introduction of evil into the world. . . . 

"She was made to bear the blame and guilt. She was the source of death, which was inescapable. It was a terrifying charge to lay at the feet of the female, but that is what this primal myth does. It states that the reason evil and death are the most distinguishing marks of our humanity is the woman's disobedience. The apostle Paul certainly contributed to that definition. So did Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, in the fifth century. He made it the keystone of his thinking, and through him it was to dominate Christian thought for a thousand years. To this day this negativity toward women and sex is a major, if subliminal, feature of our religious life.

"A whole theological system has been built on this story. We still refer to women as the 'temptresses' of noble men. Women are still called the 'forbidden fruit' for which male bodies yearn. Women are still defined as the corrupters and polluters of human holiness. They are still blamed for male powerlessness. Because of this story, holiness in Western civilization came to be associated with avoiding women — that is, with sexlessness. Virginity in women and celibacy in men were established as the 'higher way.' Even marriage was defined as a compromise with sin, an option primarily for the weak. Jerome, that great translator of the scriptures, who would be better remembered if he had stuck to translating, once observed that the only redemptive aspect of marriage was that it 'produced more virgins.' That statement still makes me blink with incredulity. Women were indeed evil to their core. That was the message of the Christian church and it was built quite specifically on the story of Eve.”