Outcast9428 wrote: ↑November 11th, 2021, 10:05 pm
Was the Protestant reformation a good thing though? Look what happened afterward. Medieval Europe had been stable for centuries, and only grew more prosperous and peaceful as time went on, until the reformation happened. The reformation absolutely tore Europe apart and traumatized Europeans so badly that Europe has still not really recovered from the trauma inflicted by conflicts like the 30 years war. By this, I mean that Europe has forever remained suspicious of religion due to the bloodshed of those years. From 1700 forward was when the first waves of liberalism began in Europe. Religion was being questioned, libertinism was practiced by the aristocracy, arranged marriage became seen as outdated, and then the French Revolution essentially became the first communist revolution in human history.
Its astonishing considering how stable Medieval Europe had been for centuries, just how quickly everything started changing for the worse after the reformation.
I'm not saying Catholicism is the only legitimate form of Christianity. But honestly, Catholicism does have a better track record in terms of societal stability then Protestantism does. All the former Protestant nations seem to be where liberalism is the strongest.
Perhaps the differing opinions on prostitution is one reason for higher levels of Catholic stability? If you try to ban everything, you risk a backlash in the opposite direction. There is no way you're ever gonna create a society where everybody marries as virgins and men never try to pressure women into sex. Humans are not Christ himself. However, I think a society where virtually all extra-martial sex takes place in brothels is significantly preferable to a society where everybody is having casual sex with everybody.
Basically, if you ban prostitution, then you risk people not respecting laws that are just common sense like outlawing abortion or adultery. Its kind of like with a kid, you need the people in your country to understand that if something is banned, its because its a big deal and that law needs to be respected. With kids, if you don't give them any leeway with anything, they will simply break all your rules. You need your kid to respect every rule you set for them.
What the Catholic church, or any of its Christian offshoots, say is irrelevant. Having sex outside what is socially sanctioned has been a man's need since the dawn of civilization. Societies that were traditionally prudish and condemned prostitution were, behind the surface, allowing it to flourish to even farther extremes. Popes all the way down to country priests all secretly had their, more or less private, cohorts of courtesans, common prostitutes or the occasional simple-minded girls who were forced to have "a close contact with Jesus".
Prostitution has never, really been banned. Even when it was, it only flourish in the underground, which made it more degenerate and potentially more dangerous.
In Italy, prostitution was legal up until 1958. When brothels, or "pleasure homes" were legal, prostitutes were employees who got regular salaries, went through periodical health checks and paid taxes. The better ones had lounges and cafes where men of any social status, from writers and politicians to blue collar workers, military staff to students, were free to sit and talk.
Fast forward to today and yes, the legal landscape is a mess. Brothels are illegal. Prostitution per se is legal but "exploitation" of prostitution is not. This means that a prostitute advertising herself on a street or on an online ad out of her own volition is not breaking the law, but anyone who gets an economic benefit from her services, i.e. a pimp, is breaking the law. The law is so vague, though, that effectively criminalises
anyone engaging with a prostitute, so not just pimps but punters as well.
Prostitution going underground also means pimps who exploit illegal migrant girls with violence and threats can do whatever they want and do whenever they want. We went from prostitution being a dignified job and social service, to illegal migrants ridden with STDs who get beat up if they don't have sex with a certain number of customers per day.
Of course there's always high-end prostitution, so girls who run their own business off luxury apartments, but for each one of those high-end freelancers there are probably 10 or 20 illegal migrants with no rights to a normal life.