Prostitution

The late George Carlin once said, "I do not understand why prostitution is illegal. Why should prostitution be illegal? Selling is legal, fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal??"

Good question, George. Personally, I think that it has to do with the way that we've been influenced here in the West, particularly in good ol' America. We claim to be a Christian Nation, after all. I hate to be repetitive folks, but we get a lot of our "Christian" viewpoints, not from the Bible per se, but from the gnostics, which influenced many of the early church fathers, especially Augustine. When the Bible mentions "prostitution," it's not how we define it today. The term was in context to religious temple worship (i.e., idolatry). Deut 23:17 says, "There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel" (KJV 2000). That's what the King James Bible says. What comes to mind when reading that? You might say, "Oh, simple! It means just what it says. Don't let your daughters become 'sluts' and don't let you sons become 'fags'. The Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it!" Not so fast, there. Do you know what other translations more accurately say? Some say it more like this, "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute" (NIV). So the terms actually refers to religious prostitutes, not gays and what we would consider to be prostitutes. It was about idol worship. Same thing with orgies by the way. Only about a quarter of all orgies had anything to do with sex. It was eating and getting drunk to a false god.

Check out this video from YouTube for more info:

Morality (at least in the context of the culture at large) is one reason why prostitution is illegal. Another reason could be the claim that prostitution degrades women and empowers abusers (i.e., pimps). Check out this Slate article, which states,

The case for making it against the law to buy sex begins with the premise that it's base and exploitative and demeaning to sex workers. Legalizing prostitution expands it, the argument goes, and also helps pimps, fails to protect women, and leads to more back-alley violence, not less.

I'll put in my two cents here. Wouldn't legalizing it actually help women to have a way to escape their tormentors (which was also touched on in the article)? And since it would be a legal profession, the 'ho's' would be entitled to livable wages, have access to health screenings, and benefits just like everyone else. I think prostitution should be decriminalized and legalized. We're already doing this with cannabis.