A vile business

My church has recently had the opportunity to object to a development application released by the local council, relating to a proposal to develop a brothel in a nearby area.

Writing my own objection letter has forced me to think through the grounds on which I establish the inappropriateness of a brothel. Clearly, as a Christian, I (and, I should hope, those from my church who are also planning on objecting) have chosen to let the council know that I disapprove on the grounds that a brothel encourages and sanctions sexual immorality, in a way demonstrative of the way God has given man over to lustful sin and the depravity which has resulted. As Christians in a sinful society, we are called upon to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) and be distinctive, and I think it is reasonable to say that one way of doing so is objecting to the development application for this brothel.

However, I find myself wondering if the council will dismiss the Christian argument out of hand. Our objection is largely based on a worldview which presupposes a number of things – the fallen state of man, the sinfulness of having sex with a woman (or man) who is not your spouse, the vile nature of building an institution which is permissive of such relations, the sovereignty of God and His anger at our sin. I’m convinced that this, surely, underlies any Christian objection to brothels (and prostitution in general); I am not entirely convinced, though, the council will not demand more evidence from Christians if their objection is to be upheld.

I initially thought that you could move away from a Christian argument and adopt a more moralist perspective, which seems to more or less define those who have objected to brothels elsewhere in Sydney. These people often cite a range of reasons for their opposition to applications for brothels, including the defilement of sex (as a special and private activity, though the reasons for this vary), the degradement of women who prostitute themselves in brothels, the distasteful nature of paid sex, and so on. Moralists may also argue more ‘pragmatic’ reasons for their opposition, including the increased use of substances allegedly associated with prostitution (which, I hear, is not borne out in research – though I wonder if that would be an artifact of the population being studied), increased noise, paraphernalia being left around the area, the possibility of the exposure of children to the activities being held in the brothel, and so on.

But, the more I thought about that, the more the idea stuck in my craw. A moralist position is not based on absolutes (as the Christian position is), but each moralist is speaking from assumptions. What is their view on the nature of sex? Is their problem that prostitution violates the sanctity of a sexual union between…a man and a woman? A man and a man? A woman and a woman? On what grounds does prostitution violate this sanctity? Is it to do with cheapening the sex act? Breaking the bond of fidelity? A pairing of sex with money, and, by extension, a commodification of sex? Without the Bible’s guidance, these presuppositions present to me as being rickety and easily disputed, at least in secular fora.

Of course, I don’t advocate adopting the view of those who approve of brothels on the basis of ‘why not?’. Indeed, I have read the arguments of civil libertarians (a title I use cautiously) who reject the arguments of Christian and non-Christians alike, saying, in essence, that every man or woman has the right to seek pleasure (including sexual pleasure) in whatever fashion he or she chooses. It has even been said that, should the ‘buyer’ and the ‘seller’ in a brothel be consensual and willing parties to the ‘transaction’, then this is no different than the buyer and seller experience we have when we go to the grocery shop. The civil libertarian, depending on the extremity of their stance, would then say that any moral objections to prostitution are founded purely on the idea of what we should consider ‘evil’ as a society. It is at this point that I wonder what disgusts the Lord more – the unifying of a man with a prostitute, or the cheapening of sex and the blatant approval of sex outside God’s intended context by those in this extreme libertarian position.

The essence of my objection to a brothel must be, in some way, religious, moral, and/or ideological – brothels have been decriminalised since 1995 in New South Wales, so I cannot argue that a brothel is, in essence, a criminal establishment. The only solace for any kind of legal argument lies in the council’s restrictions on where a brothel may be built (and, as it turns out, I believe the development application violates several of those restrictions). I can only hope that God’s sovereignty means that the council will consider, in some way, God’s wrath towards all sin, including prostitution, in their deliberations.