From one of my admiring readers... I think.
comments = You can do whatever you want however someday you will answer to God and He is the One who Calls the Shots my friend Not You...I Love you and you make alot of sense however sin is sin and no one can justify sin not even myself are you...If you would spend your time for argument we need God in the World it would be for a much better and worthy Cause....wake up man and see yourself 100 years into the future....repent and get right
Having read your well thought out and clearly stated objections to my article on prostitution, I find that I do have comments on your objections. I was puzzled by your attack on me for my article on helping ladies who are being aggrieved by attacks under our current laws. I really had intended this as a political discussion, not theology. But you seem to think it needs a theological reading...
Sin
NOUN:
A transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.
Theology
1. Deliberate disobedience to the known will of God.
2. A condition of estrangement from God resulting from such disobedience.
Something regarded as being shameful, deplorable, or utterly wrong.
Since it appears you are a Christian, though which sect I can't tell, it would seem to me that you should adopt the attitude, “Let you who are blameless cast the first stone.” After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to a prostitute before he appeared to the apostles telling us most assuredly that he values prostitutes more than he does religious officials, an idea I agree with most whole-heartedly. Prostitutes offer value when they take your money.
As I hope you noted, I quoted St. Augustine, claimed by all three branches of the Christian faith as a Father of their doctrines, and he made it quite clear that Christians should have an open attitude towards these women. St. Augustine would never lead believers into sin. As long as the act doesn't lead to estrangement from God, see definition 2, it would seem to have little bearing on the status of our Christian brothers, as sinful as they are. It seems certain that the Most Holy Roman Catholic Church does not view prostitution as a sin since they established brothels for the benefit of Ecclesiastical Authorities during the middle ages. I also seem to remember several prostitutes reaching the very highest levels of the Byzantine world. And we know from recent stories how popular prostitutes are with various evangelical preachers. (With preacher's proclivities I don't need to worry this will ever be outdated) So it seems members of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant sects shouldn't be condemnatory towards these women.
I should make a further point about sin, since you seem so consumed by it, unlike most of us who try to avoid it. How do we know God's will on prostitution? He has spoken to us many times in many places and His views can seem inconsistent. (For instance, I wish He would make up his mind on which is the one and only True faith, instead of coming up with a new one every few hundred years.)
Anyway, back to prostitution which is much more interesting than theology. Certainly Jesus seems to have no problem with prostitution since he welcomed a practitioner into his inner circle. The followers of Ishtar practiced Temple prostitution. Shinto has no problem with sex for sale. The Tao doesn’t mention it at all, it is just sex, not something of importance to enlightenment. Some Hindu religious works read like sex manuals. Buddha never spoke against it. The Old Testament is divided. For instance, it allows the selling of a daughter into prostitution (Exodus 21:7) but in other places it excoriates infidelity. But it tells youth to sew their wild oats. Perhaps the Old Testament means that single men can use prostitutes but married men should not. I agree the Bible certainly isn't clear on this point. But considering that most religions, all of them being God’s direct unchanging word, don't explicitly ban prostitutes, and most seem to consider them a social good, as I discussed in the article, it seems that objections to prostitution as sin, definitions 1 and 2 above are contradicted by God’s own words to the various religions of the world.
A final point, if I may. The Deists, another religion and therefore also the absolute revealed word of God, point out that God made man to seek pleasure and avoid pain. I think we might all agree that sex is pleasurable, if done right. Therefore, I would posit that sex is carrying out God’s plan as revealed to the Deists, a much more recent religion and therefore God’s revelation to them must be much more current and applicable than the Old or New Testaments. It seems to follow logically that the pleasure derived from sex with a prostitute must further God’s intention to provide pleasure for Man and by dint of God’s Grace, cannot be a sin.
I hope my disquisition has helped alleviate your concerns about prostitution being a sin. A sin is sin, unless you change religions to one that it isn't a sin. We must always remember when we approach a topic such as sin that God’s word is eternal and unchanging. We need only find which of His eternal unchanging revelations that we agree with to give us that smug feeling that we are right and all others are wrong. “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”
There are only two things which are infinite; God's forgiveness and human stupidity. And I'm not positive about the former -
With apologies to Albert Einstein
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