excreationist

This is my latest little brain teaser for Christians.
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Prostitution seems to be seen as a bad thing in the Bible, and it is mentioned in some of the OT laws. I don't think the penalty for prostitution was death though, so it seems less severe than homosexuality. (Its OT penalty was death)

Jesus seemed to accept prostitutes but he said something like "don't sin again" to them.

So in the Bible, prostitution is a sin - but is it bad enough for it to be illegal?

In the <a href="http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21677&perpage=30&pagenu mber=1" target="_blank">What punishment should gays receive? Christian Forums thread</a> it looks like most Christians think that homosexuality, which seemed to be a greater sin in the Bible, should be legal. So what about prostitution? Please support your view using the Bible.

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Some Bible verses about prostitution: (NIV)

Leviticus 19:29 - "Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness."

Leviticus 20:5 - "I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech."

Leviticus 21:7 - "They [the priests] must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God."

Leviticus 21:9 - "If a priest's daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire."

Deuteronomy 23:17 - "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute."

Deuteronomy 23:18 - "You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute [ 23:18 Hebrew [ of a dog ] ] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both."

So God doesn't like prostitution, but unlike things like adultery, working on the Sabbath and homosexual acts, he usually doesn't order it to be punished. (except if the daugter of a priest becomes a prostitute)

[ September 03, 2002: Message edited by: excreationist ]</p>

himynameisPwn

Why don't use ask these questions on a christian board. Im sure you'll get actual Christian answers there.

excreationist

Well I recently started a thread about this at <a href="http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21735" target="_blank">ChristianForums.com</a>. The Christians didn't really answer the question - they kept on side-stepping the issue...

Lots of them replied to my earlier <a href="http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21677" target="_blank">What punishment should gays receive?</a> thread (300+ posts)... I also asked people about prostitution there and I actually got some replies... they generally said they're against prostitution since the majority of society is and support the legality of gay sex (which I think is inconsistent as I explained earlier). One Christian thought that both gay sex and prostitution should be illegal (see <a href="http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?postid=331063#post331063" target="_blank">post #174</a>) Well at least his morality was fairly consistent with the Bible.
In the <a href="http://iidb.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=52&t=000293&p=2" target="_blank">infidels gay punishment thread</a>, one Christian, Vesica, thought prostitution should be legal. Vesica is being more Biblically consistent than Christian who believe gay sex should be legal but prostitution should be illegal.

Amen-Moses

From the passages you quote it would appear that it is fine for widows (who do not have a brother in law) and divorcees to become prostitutes.

In fact it may even be OK for single women to do so as long as she a) doesn't do it in a shrine or take any of the money she earns to pay vows to the temple and b) isn't the daughter of a priest.

Amen-Moses

Senorial

I'll try to provide some sort of commentary on your post. I'm Christian, but I was also raised in Las Vegas, so I probably have some inconsistencies in the matter. Please fell free to point them out if you see any.

For one, at least one of those verses refers prostituting (worshipping) oneself to another god, which is not really sexual prostitution.

Im not really sure how you can get that interpretation. Just by looking at the Deut 23:18 verse you can see that the earnings of a prositute are detestable. I don't know if I would say 'fine' == 'detestable.'

But whether prostitution or homesexuality should be illegal, that is a hard question. For one, and this might have nothing to do with this particular argument, you have to remember that many of the Old Testament laws were given in a theocratic form of government. So things like breaking the Sabbath were in fact punishable. One example is the man who was collecting wood on the Sabbath who was stoned. (Im sorry I dont have my Bible with me so I cant provide a specific reference). Bascially my point is that you can't always look at something illegal in the old testament and then apply it to our governments laws. (Those Christians who do are called Theonomists).

In the Old Testament the laws were there for two main reasons. One, to show that all people are sinful. Two, to keep the nation of Israel pure. In non-theocratic governments, we have laws to protect peoples interests, property, etc... I guess the best thing to do is to look at the implications of homosexuality and prostitution to find out why one is illegal and the other is legal.

Though I'm probably not the best person to make that evaluation. Perhaps someone else can provide a practical reason why prostitution is illegal.

To give you my opinion. Both are wrong, but just because they are wrong does not mean they should be illegal. Perhaps prostituion should be legal. But I definitely don't think homosexuality warrants being illegal. Just to repeat my earlier statement, the Bible can absolutely tell you what is wrong vs. right but it can't always tell you what warrants being illegal and what punishment should be.

But maybe Im horribly wrong.

(I apoligize if my post is a bit scatter brained but I tend to be that way).

Amen-Moses

Deuteronomy 23:18 - "You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute [ 23:18 Hebrew [ of a dog ] ] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both."

Two points here, 1) the Hebrew use of "dog" can be construed as "Gentile", throughout the bible "Swine" and "Dog" are used as synonyms for gentile, 2) Finding the earnings detestable does not automatically make the job itself so. In a similar way a man with crushed testicles cannot enter the temple, does that mean that god hates men with crushed testicles? Or is it just an example of god only being administered to by perfect beings?

Amen-Moses

Senorial

Good points. While you are probably correct in saying that it does not necessarily mean a job is detestable if the earnings are detestable, it would seem to be a high probability in my opinion. Its hard for me to think of a situation where the money would be bad but the job would be acceptable.

Concerning your crushed testicles statement, I can't think of that particular verse. I know there were certain restrictions on becoming a high priest, of which crushed testicles could in fact be on the list. One I do remember is that you can't be a midget.


Sounds like a bumper sticker

Vesica

This may be way off base but I have heard it put forth that prostitutes in the old testement (and one assumes New) were mainly prostitutes attached to temples and houses of worship for other dieties...For them the sex was part of worshiping thier gods and the Bible is pretty clear on the other gods issue....

....I am trying to find verses or sites that support this.

Vesica

Some early findings:

In<a href="http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=JOSH+6&language=english&version=NIV& showfn=on&showxref=on" target="_blank">Joshua 6</a> we hav ethe fun story of Rahab the prostitute who is specifically rescued during the siege of Jericho because she had hidden the spies in thier earlier scout of the city. Joshua specifically instructs his men to find her and all her family/relatives and escort them into the Irealite camp. Then they burned the rest of the city to the ground and killed most everyone...The OT can not be that strongly opposed to prostitutes if we have a whole army pausing while one is spirited out of her doomed city!

Here are also some fun versions of Duet.23:17.

That whole other religions thing is here....Intresting. Any other voices on this?

Vesica

I think the above versions of Duet. 23:17 kind of clear up the previously quoted 23:18....It is clear why earnings from prostitution were not welcome in God's House...Because you earned them serving another god!