DaveO

Good point. I only meant to give an example of "casual comment" of the sort heard frequently here that just assumes "every one knows that women are imperfect." It was quite obvious the preacher had no idea what he'd said. There was no visible reaction from the congregation, so they probably missed it, or agree with it.

Since he was expounding that there would be "no need for sex" in heaven, I suppose it might make little difference whether the "perfect male" had the ability to procreate...

One unfortunate young lady of my acquaintance, raised as a Catholic, has just exited here 8th marriage. So far as I can tell, each of her former spouses qualified to be call "fundamentalist." I had little chance to know her situation in one of the 4 instances since I've known her, but in the other three she has indicated that she was:

1. Ordered not to talk to certain (most) of her former friends.
2. Ordered not to admit visitors of any kind while he was away from the home.
3. Ordered not to leave the home except when he accompanied her.
4. At least one of them locked her in the house when he went to work, and had installed double-cylinder locks on all the doors so she could not leave. Accessible windows were nailed shut from the outside.
5. At least one of them removed the cord from the only phone and took it to work with him so she could not make telephone calls in his absence.
6. She showed visible signs of physical beatings by at least two of them.
7. With at least one, the only time she was permitted to leave the house was when he took her to a bar to drive him home when he got drunk. Her older sister did assert in my presence once that "one of her ex-husbands wasn't an alcoholic."

The rest of her family seemed quite rational. Probably just a youthful rebellion against parental authority...

I would agree with Wolfgang's observation that one who asserts the "literal interpretation of scripture" should be called a "literalist." Those in my area who call themselves fundamentalists go a step further by asserting that all people should be required, by law, to observe their "literal" interpretations of their selected parts of their scripture. They are very dangerous, especially in the current US political climate.

John