Author Lives Like 'Biblical Woman' for a Full Year

For Christian women, real Biblical living is apparently a tough row to hoe. Author Rachel Held Evans tried it for a year and ended up skipping haircuts, saying penance on her roof, and sleeping outside in a tent during her periods. She also wrote about it in her new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. "All women can relate to the feeling like they’re falling short of some sort of ideal," she said on Today. She wanted to "challenge the idea that any of us are actually practicing biblical womanhood all the way."

On the bright side, she liked cooking for her family on Jewish holidays. But she also followed Proverbs 31:23, which says virtuous women should praise their husbands—so she walked the streets wearing the sign, "Dan is awesome." What did her husband Dan think? He admitted it was hard to have her call him "master" after 7 years of marriage. "You’d think it would be a turn-on but … it just wasn’t. You live in a small town, rumors can get started if she’s out in public calling you master." (More Bible stories.)