I feel like this was pretty overlooked for what PF said here..and I was like O_O? when I read it.. so I am going to give my opinion on some things he said:
Pound Foolish wrote: The Bible never meant all it's rules to last through the ages. Divorce, for example, is now morally out the window.
For clarification, are you saying that rules that God makes doesn't matter? I know that isn't what you meant, but it sure seems like you are saying something like "Not ALL rules that God made last, so we can chose which we want to obey" Where I don't think some rules APPLY to us, I don't think that means they don't last. Obviously God had a reason for them, and there is a reason they are in the bible.
Second, are you saying that since divorce is "morally out the window" that it is now okay to get a divorce?
Just because a society thinks something is morally alright, or everyone is doing it, doesn't mean that it is acceptable or that we should do it. The Bible is against separating something God made holy, such as marriage. Now, the Bible does allow (if that's the right word) divorce in situations such as adultury. That being said, I don't think that God's stance on divorce has changed or wasn't "made to last".
Yes, there are some pretty crazy "rules" in the Bible. I went to a bible study/elective class thing last night and we were talking about crazy/questionable rules in the Bible. I wish I had payed better attention/took more notes because it was really interesting. The basic idea of it is that some rules may seem crazy or unreasonable but does that mean they aren't in our best interest? We may just not have the whole picture.
The teacher told us a story about when his daughter was very young he buckled her into her car seat. During their drive she managed to get out of her car seat. She didn't see anything wrong with it, she was too little to understand the danger. He pulled over and strapped his daughter back in. By this point she was crying and struggling and probably felt like he was being "unfair" or "mean" or he had some crazy rule. But she wasn't able to comprehend to understand why he was doing it, so it seemed wrong. Aren't some of God's rules/guidelines like that? are we meant to understand all of them?
Like this rule: Leviticus 15:2 "'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When any man has an unusual bodily discharge, such a discharge is unclean. Whether it continues flowing from his body or is clocked, it will make him unclean''"
This whole passage is rather interesting. Basically anything coming out of your body is considered 'unclean' no matter if it's natural or not. Now we may be like " O_o why would God make that rule? Should we no longer go to the bathroom?" but really.. he was just setting aside time for the body to recover/clean oneself from the discharge. Pretty much understandable.
Ok. I don't fully understand this one.. but essentially slavery isn't right. I am not positive it totally says that in scripture, but I do know that God didn't held his people's treatment of their slaves at a different and higher standard. Also.. wasn't Christ the slave/servent of us? and doesn't He call us to be servants to all? About the "relations" Sexual immortality is definitely against's God's will, it says so several times in the Bible.
I guess what I am saying, PF, is that I don't really see your points and how they relate to pants. They are interesting thoughts, which is why I wrote a reply =p . But I don't see how it relates to women wearing pants.
I think that wearing pants is a personal opinion. If a woman wears, or doesn't wear, pants it doesn't make her any more or less a Christian. Obviously we want to do what pleases God but as long as we are modest, ladies, we can either wear pants or not wear pants. It's personal preference/cultural/ denominational.
Sorry this is so long, and kinda off topic.. *shrug*