c. 1999 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Bad girls, talking about the sad girls, sad girls, talking about bad girls, yeah … of the Bible.

With no apologies to Donna Summer (and a bow to her own history with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll), Christian comedian Liz Curtis Higgs examines the women biblical tradition has painted as wanton in her new book “Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn From Them” (WaterBrook Press).

Higgs discovered in her journey through Scripture that some women such as Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab who persecuted believers, were “bad to the bone,” but others such as Rahab, the “harlot” who protected two men Joshua sent to Jericho as spies, were able to put their pasts behind them and develop grace-filled relationships with God.

“In every case, they made a redemptive choice to turn toward God … which is very encouraging for this old bad girl,” the effervescent Higgs said in an interview. “It’s a book of hope.”

It isn’t easy being a woman in Scripture. Most of the leading figures are male, and even when women would appear central to the biblical accounts, they are often given only passing references or not even mentioned by name. And when women are bad, they’ve often been portrayed over the centuries as very, very bad in the depictions of biblical interpreters, artists and, in more recent times, Hollywood producers.

Advances in biblical scholarship, particularly in feminist studies, have started to recast the role of women in Scripture and offer new insights into how negative portrayals were influenced by patriarchal attitudes extending in some cases back to biblical times.

In her research, Higgs, 45, of Louisville, Ky., said she studied more than 50 commentaries and 10 different translations of the Bible.

“Funny, the older scholars blamed the women for everything and painted the men as heroes. The newer writers blamed the men for everything and described the women as victims and the men as jerks,” writes Higgs. “The truth lies somewhere in the middle, so that’s what I aimed for: balance. And truth.”

And a sense of humor. The comedian and author of “One Size Fits All and Other Fables of Modern Life” and “Help! I’m Laughing and I Can’t Get Up” finds humor an excellent way to “tear down the walls” surrounding difficult subjects.

Higgs likes Sapphira and the Woman at the Well, but as she continues with her survey of biblical “bad girls” _ her list adapts Lou Bega’s hit song “Mambo No. 5” _ you know they’re getting meaner:

“A little bit of Potiphar’s wife in Joseph’s life, a little bit of Michal by David’s side, a little bit of Jezebel was more than the Israelites needed, a little bit of Lot’s wife and what she saw, a little bit of Eve in the garden, a little bit of Delilah all night long, a little bit of Rahab, here I am.”

Rahab, a prostitute who hid two Israeli spies according to the Book of Joshua, is one of Higgs’ favorite women, in fact.

Rahab and the Woman at the Well in the Gospel accounts had some sins in their past, Higgs says, “but they were also willing to change and be changed. What a joy to watch their encounters with God redeem them for eternity!”

Even Eve, the all-time “bad girl” in much of Western culture, would go on to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and become “the mother of all the living.”

And that woman, not the idyllic beauty in Eden, is the one Higgs said she can relate to.

“When she was perfect, beautiful and innocent, I found no toehold where I could connect with Eve,” Higgs writes. “When she was tempted by her flesh, humbled by her sin and redeemed by her God, I could sing out, “Oh, sister Eve! Can we talk?”’

Higgs notes in the book and in talks throughout the country that she speaks about “bad girls” from experience.

“That’s the street I walked,” the former radio shock jock said in an interview. “You often become convinced you have gone too far. You cannot come back into the fold.”

Higgs describes herself as someone who grew up in the ’60s “and lived there” amid the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Her T-shirts expressed her philosophy in such statements as “Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.”

She begins the book with a scene from her own life, of a 19-year-old girl getting punched in the face by a man she had picked up in a nightclub. As she tried to flee, the man caught her and pulled out a gun and forced her upstairs to her apartment.

Her life changed in 1982, she said, when she met the man who would become her husband and friends who helped her embrace Christianity.

God knows how bad she was, Higgs tells readers, but “Here’s the good news: He loves us anyway.”

In the introduction to her new book, Higgs said she had four kinds of readers in mind: former “bad girls” who are struggling to figure out how they fit into God’s family; temporary “bad girls” who fear they cannot ever be forgiven; veteran “good girls” who want to grow in understanding and compassion for others, and aspiring “good girls” who think there must be something more to life but don’t know where to look.

“For the good girl, for the woman who sees herself as pretty good … this book can be a bit of a wake-up call for her. Be careful how you stand or you fall,” Higgs said.

As one who knows life on the other side, Higgs said she also wants women “to have compassion for that woman who’s still out there, and not to judge her.”

IR END BRIGGS