If you love your daughter...

With the recent arrests of women from the ‘Royal Day Spa’ in West Hempstead on prostitution charges, one writer to the Patch blogged and suggested legalizing prostitution. I can only surmise that this advocate of moral decline is blinded by the lure of profits, educated by TV and Hollywood’s glamorization of it and ignorant of the evils of prostitution, legal or not. His thinking is a hair’s breathe from pimp-sympathetic economics.    
   
    Stella Marr, former prostitute, now founder of ‘Survivors Connect,’ which aids former prostitutes writes;

    “Well-meaning people who've never been commercially sexually exploited often think that legal brothels will protect the women in prostitution from pimps and violent johns. They are mistaken.
In the 10 years I worked in New York City’s sex industry, where the pimps were part of organized crime and could follow through on any threat, I met many women who'd experienced Nevada's legal brothels. They all preferred the New York sex industry.  If we legalize brothel and escort service pimping we'll only be giving these predators more power, while we help them protect their cash. Women who worked in Nevada's legal brothels said they were like prisons where you have to turn tricks. Rimmed with high-security fencing and an electronic gate, they can look like a detention camp. The women live in lockdown conditions and can't leave the premises unless they're accompanied by a male pimp. Living and working in cramped, dark rooms, they're on call 24 hours a day. This is what happens when the law protects people who profit from commercial sexual exploitation. It’s the ideal business model. It's the best way to get a woman to turn as many tricks as possible.”
    Even Amsterdam is rethinking its liberal legalized sex industry trade. The Mayor and Council are planning to shut half of the city brothels and sex shops. Deputy Mayor Lodewijk Asscher spoke of the reasons;

    “Money laundering, extortion and human trafficking are things you do not see on the surface but they are hurting people and the city.”

    New Zealand passed a law in 2003 that decriminalized selling sex, buying sex, and pimping. A Prostitution Law Review Committee (2008) reported what happened after prostitution was decriminalized in New Zealand. Seven years after the NZ law was passed, battles are still being waged about whose neighborhood prostitution will be zoned into. No one wants prostitution next door. Prostitution is zoned into the neighborhoods of people who cannot afford the legal fees to prevent it.

    Germany legalized prostitution with the hopes of gaining control and providing better for the women. Since legal the welfare reforms now state that any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take any available job - including in the sex industry - or lose her unemployment benefit. Things have not turned as first thought. One writer noted in 2012;
    “But in reality, legalization not only increased sex trafficking of women and children but also fail to change the stigma attached to prostitution for the past few years. A study shows that the majority of prostitutes in Germany prefer to "do the job secretly because they still experience discrimination." The same study also shows that even the government agencies are not willing to broker jobs or offer retraining as they do for employees in other industries. Further, the health insurance company does not provide special health provisions for prostitutes. In terms of their rights, many prostitutes in Germany are still live in poor conditions and exploited by the pimps and the landlords who take the majority of the prostitutes' earnings.”

This is what happens when we value money and profit more than human beings.

    Women who are prostitutes are people, not sex paraphernalia, and should be given the respect and dignity all people deserve. They should be offered hope to change and alternatives, education and training, so that they can flee the sex industry trade. They need to experience true love, a love that seeks their welfare, not the evil, pseudo-love that does not recognize their person.
   
    Jesus welcomed repentant prostitutes, loving them and promising them eternal life.  To those religious leaders with a, ‘holier than thou” attitude, who refused to see themselves as having sinned and in need of a Savior he said;

    “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Mt.21:31

    Again, the account of the ‘sinful’ woman who came to Jesus in repentance, washing his feet (ancient custom) with her tears, was loved by Jesus. The Pharisee in whose house this occurred was indignant. But Jesus saw pass her sin to the person, filled with remorse and faith, and He loved and forgave her. He told the Pharisee;

    “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Lk.7:47

    Jesus still invites ALL sinners to turn to Him and find forgiveness. There is an older song by Don Francisco, “I don’t care where you’ve been sleeping,” that beautifully captures the heart of Christ for those who turn to Him. One line reads;

    ‘I don’t care where you’ve been sleeping,
        I don’t care whose made your bed,
    I’ve already gave my life to set you free...”

    To those who wish to legalize prostitution I’m sure you would be first in line to offer your neighborhood block for the brothel. Don’t mind the impact on property values, it’s all legal. And ask yourself, would you want your own wife to take such a ‘legal’ job? Would you encourage your daughter to enter such a ‘legal occupation?” If not, why try to get someone else’s daughter involved?
    Prostitution may be called the ‘Oldest Profession,’ but all that means is that it cannot be ‘fixed’, ‘Controlled,’ or ‘legalized.’ It must be abolished, like slavery.