Rachel Held Evans: A Woman’s Year of Living Biblically

Like many inspired ideas, the notion to live for a year according to the Bible's instructions for women came to writer Rachel Held Evans while she was taking a shower. "I was thinking about the book 'The Year of Living Biblically' [by male journalist A. J. Jacobs] and how different it would be if a woman had written it," the Tennessee native tells Shine. She embarked on a 12-month radical experiment to explore the Bible's rules for women—from not cutting her hair to calling her husband "master"—and wrote about it in on her popular blog. A book about her experiences, 'A Year of Biblical Womanhood' is being released at the end of October.

Evans was raised an Evangelical Christian and says within that community there is a lot of pressure for women to live according to the Bible. However, the way she sees it, many of the rules that are espoused by church leaders or in articles are "bullet points" that force women to be submissive. "The term 'Biblical womanhood' is basically a reaction to feminism,' explains Evans. "It means a woman who stays home and submits to her husband. It's a remembrance of June Cleaver—not what we see when we actually read scripture."

The response to her blog has been overwhelmingly positive, but she says she was surprised at "how harsh some of the criticism has been." She also asserts that Lifeway, the country's largest Christian bookseller, won't stock the book because it mentions the word, "vagina." While Evans acknowledges the book is full of "crazy stunts," her aim wasn't to be mocking. "It was hard facing criticism from people who didn't understand what I was trying to do," she tells Shine. "They thought I was making fun of the Bible, when I was really trying to honor the Bible by having more honest conversations about how we interpret and apply it. I'm hoping that when people read the book, they see that."

Evan's husband, Dan, fully supported her project, but she says some of her stunts, such as praising him with a sign "outside the city gates," as instructed by Proverbs or calling him "master,' "freaked him out."

A Christmas present to her "master."

Since Evans doesn't have children, she ordered a "Baby Think It Over" computerized infant to explore the Bible's instructions for mothers. After a series of 3 a.m. feedings, she called this particular experiment "a nightmare."

Evan's matzo toffee. In addition to learning to cook, she consulted with an Orthodox Jewish woman in Israel about how to celebrate the Jewish holidays, which she says was one of the most rewarding aspects of her year.

Evans slept in a tent when menstruating. Considered "impure," she also avoided touching men and carried around her own cushion to sit on.

When she complained, nagged, or gossiped, Evans had to put a penny in a "jar of contention." Within the first couple of days, she added 26 pennies.

For every penny in her "jar of contention," Evans spent one minute sitting on her roof as penance. According to the Proverbs, it's better to "live on the rooftop of a house" than with a contentious woman.

Evans tried to make her own clothes. She ended up enlisting her mother's help since she had "never even sewed a button on before."

Evans tells Shine that the first thing she did when her year was over was go to a salon. "The Apostle Paul wrote that it is a woman's glory to have long hair, and I'm convinced he would have written no such thing had he met me!"