Christ views everyone as equal servants of God with the practical outcome of serving each other. Jesus identified himself as the servant of the people. He said that he did not come to Lord over men [judge and enforce laws] but serve and give his life to save others.

More people modify their lives by receiving good attitudes of service than by receiving a legal judgment about their behaviour.

As influence of the Christian moral conscience diminishes in Western societies they will fall back into legalism and enforced State control over people.

http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=10896

Consider council given upon the Qur'an by leading imams on sex outside marriage with captured girls

"It may appear distasteful to copulate with a woman who is not a man's legal wife, but once Shariah makes something lawful, we have to accept it as lawful, whether it appeals to our taste, or not; and whether we know its underlying wisdom or not. It is necessary for a Muslim to be acquainted with the laws of Shariah,.. but it is not necessary for him to delve to find the wisdom of these laws because knowledge of the wisdom of some of the laws may be beyond his puny comprehension. Allah Ta'ala has said in the Holy"
Qur'an: "Wa maa ooteetum min al-ilm illaa qaleelan" which means, more or less, that, "You have been given a very small portion of knowledge". Hence, if a person fails to comprehend the underlying wisdom of any law of Shariah, he cannot regard it as a fault of Shariah (Allah forbid), it is the fault of his own perception and lack of understanding, because no law of Shariah is contradictory to wisdom.

A slave girl can be possessed and even bought and sold, thus, this right of possession, substituting as a marriage ceremony, entitles the owner to copulate with her. Shari'ah is still valid today

Note to HAMLET:

In NT times prostitutes braided their hair, had it uncovered, and wore lots of gold and pearls. Thus the NT writer's calls for modesty are the same as if a pastor encouraged 21C women not to come to church wearing very provocative clothing.

Also, women in those days were not educated as much as the men. Some scholars have said that women and men used to sit on different sides of the church, and when the (then uneducated women) did not understand something, they would yell out to their husbands, thus disrupting the Church service. Others have said that the women used to yell out to their husbands on moral points, e.g. the pastor might say "do/don't do something", and the women would yell out to their husbands the equivalent of "told you so".

The references to Adam and Eve are perplexing. Re: verse 15, I think you have a bad English translation, as I've heard this reference to child-bearing to be about the Christ-Child bearing?

IDK. But in Jewish culture (many of the early Christians were Jewish/exposed to Jewish culture), the highest honour a woman could receive was to be married to/to give birth to a Rabbi or man of high Jewish standing. So maybe the NT writer is trying to say, if you continue in faith, love, sanctity, self-restraint (calls to all Christians by the way, as seen in other parts of the Bible), the added blessing that comes in mothering/being married to a man of respect will be yours. (E.g. instead of tearing down your man, lift him up).

Anyway I know this is an old thread, but thought my post might clarify. A friend of mine was recently reading a book entitled "why not women" which speaks a lot on these points. It also brings up how "radically feminist" (though perhaps not in a Davinci code kind of way) Jesus was for his culture in the way he treated women (defining marriage as a man leaving his family for his wife, refering to a woman as a "daughter of Abraham" when only men were called "sons of Abraham", freeing the repentant woman caught in adultery who was in trouble even though the male adulterer wasn't, etc.) The NT also talks about the equality between "male and female".