I have to disregard your article, I guess. See... I can tell you exactly what can happen when a man decides to me "nice" and pick up a woman stranded on the side of the road, in the middle of the night, in February. Sounds like the Christian thing to do, right? Give her a ride home? Yes, I'm sure it was, when my husband "rescued" a woman like that. Thing is, when they arrived at her destination, she decided to "thank him" by giving him oral sex. He was caught off guard, and didn't say no. He brought home an STD that caused me to have a miscarriage. That is what can happen. If my husband stops to give any woman a ride, unless he's related to her... He'd better just move in with her, because I won't want him.

This is such a funny post. Only Christians worry about this kind of stuff, proving once again that we are weird. I'm an attractive professional business woman and I spend hours with non-Christian men. In 10 years, NOT ONE non-Christian man has ever hit on me -- with the door closed or open. Christian men obviously have problems with self-control. Non-Christian men don't. Sad.

Great comments, especially the one on June 1, 2011, from "Christian Lawyer." • Why spend time alone with a woman and treat her as you would anyone else? Because Jesus did. • What help a woman on the side of the road? Because that's what Jesus taught. • Why travel with women? Because Jesus did. He traveled a lot with women. Read the Bible. • Why have intimate talks with women about their deepest issues? Because Jesus did. • Why talk alone with "bad" women? Because Jesus did. • Why be willing to touch and unclean woman rather than avoid her? Because Jesus did. • Why be willing to have your reputation trashed? Because Jesus did. Pharisees called him a friend of sinners. He didn't care. His job was to seek and save the lost. So is ours. So my comments to men and their wives are: 1. Jesus commands you to love, serve, and spend time with sinners. Someday you stand before Jesus (not the denominational committee) and he will say, "You say to me 'Lord, Lord' but you did not do what I said." Jesus doesn't accept excuses for disobedience. He has no trouble sending "good Christians" to eternal suffering. 2. As Jesus said to the Pharisees who bragged about tithing: "You should have loved AND tithed." (Luke 11:42) Jesus says we must do both. It's amazing to me how the "teachings of men" have trumped the "teachings of God" on this topic.

What I mean is, instead of viewing the women in their world as potential problems to be avoided as much as possible, and viewing themselves as explosives wired to go off if the heat gets too high... You mean like under Strict Shari'a? Isn't that the rationale behind FGM, the burqa, locked harems, and honor killings?

1 Thessalonians 5:22 actually says (using the Greek order of words): "from every form of evil abstain." The word "appearance" is not in the Greek.

This entire post and most of the responses are both wrong-headed and anti-Christian. The debate is centered around where to set the boundaries. This is Pharisaical legalism and hair-splitting that is of no value to character formation. Much of the commentary has been about who has the best boundaries. Or the worst. Jesus said that the old teaching was to set a boundary - not to commit adultery. The new teaching is to remove the need for boundaries altogether. Instead of looking at the externals and what rules one should follow, the Christian (i.e. in imitation of Christ) thing to do is to treat women as human beings rather than objects of lustful intent. The antidote to scandal is the pursuit of love and respect, honor and consideration for all women. We should look to Jesus for a positive example of a man who "crossed boundaries" but did so in a godly way.

After coming back from the Middle East, I see similarities in the Muslim solution and the conservative Christian solution: Do not be alone with a woman--she is dangerous. Males, do not alter your thoughts about a woman -- instead put the shame of your lust on her. Thanks for the post...we are dealing with this issue in our ministry.

Larry - That sentence does not stereotype men. It does not even have the word "men" in it. Dan - The article talks about a "type" of man, yes. It does not say that all men are like this. Furthermore, the author is interpreting quotes that men themselves wrote, men who are prominent Christian leaders and who, through such statements as the author quoted, are giving advice to other Christian men. The author, however, is countering this advice. The author is not constructing a male viewpoint out of thin air; if you have issue with the male type portrayed in this article, confront the men themselves who are perpetuating it who she quoted. Why is this article on a women's blog? First of all, it was written by a woman. Secondly, it's about women. Thirdly, lots of men DO read this blog, as your own posts prove. My own husband reads this blog. Women can pass this article along to men they know. Such a piece also gives women the words to discuss this issue in their lives with men they know. It offers a counter-argument to beliefs they may have heard from men and assumed were right. I could probably go on.

@Chandra Lere: Well said and thank you for listening. I must say that as I got into a closer analysis of this blog, I couldn't help noticing that some of the women began to sound a lot like some of their male counterparts when they are accused of - at a minimum - prejudicial behavior toward women: denial, sarcasm directed not at the points that I was trying to make - but at me as a person (hence my disclosure of some of my personal history so as to make me more of a person with concerns - did it help? I don't think so), dismissive comments (eg. "white noise"; and "relax" - how many times have some boorish men dismissed a woman who was concerned about something she thought was important? You know the kind of man I mean: "Relax little lady, we men have it all under control.) and sometimes just a flat dishonest representation of what I said. A lot of women - so I hear - go through similar experiences daily. Btw, I'm not the only one to comment here about what I saw as inequities in the blog. I'm just the obsessive-compulsive one. ;-)

Her.meneutics. Wow. Study of the Bible? I see lots of social and cultural discussion, but an amazing paucity of rendering the Bible into today's world.