Thangaiku Theriyaamal Amma Magalai Oothen
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My Career On The Line free porn video
There is no sex in this story. It is instead an exploration of the double standards and hypocrisy that exist in today’s society towards those people in the sex industry, the prostitutes and brothel owners who see themselves as participants in a service industry that sometimes caters for those who would destroy it.
I am aware that I’m going out on a limb with this story, but it is something that has been on my mind for many years and I feel that I have said nothing for far too long.
Feel free to pass comment one way or the other, the longer this problem is ignored the worse it will get. Tolerance is not the same as legalisation. C.
*
The Gospel choir was reaching the end of their opening set and it was fast approaching the time that I was dreading, the moment that would define whether I still had a job or not. My mind drifted back to the rumour that started it all, the rumour that spread like wildfire throughout the several hundred strong congregation: ‘Pastor Bryant was seen emerging from a brothel, what would his wife think if she knew?’ the rumour that I would have to silence if I was to survive.
The fact was indisputable, I had been seen leaving a brothel. But what the rumour didn’t say, deliberately, was that I had a very good reason for being there, and that there was a Scriptural precedence for my being there. But those who spread rumours are usually not interested in the reason behind the truth.
I stood up, the silence was palpable, they knew, they waited for me to deny the rumour so that they could say to each other, ‘See we knew it wasn’t true.’ And go their relieved way back home, safe in the knowledge that I was still the good guy that they loved.
I placed my Bible and notes on the plexiglass ($300 from the Church Supply Shop) lectern and held up my hands in prayer. ‘God, we come to worship you today in the full knowledge that your love is for all of us, without condition, and that our love for you is also without condition. We ask that you guide us in the truth and that we are sufficiently true to each other to understand the truth. We ask this in Your Holy Name. Amen.
I want you now to turn in your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 22 verse 34.’ I waited while they flicked through their Bibles and located the Scripture. ‘Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
I want you all to think about this for a moment. Did Jesus say: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself, but only if he is like you?’ No, he wants us to love without condition, without regard to the colour of our skin, without regard to our beliefs, without regard to what we do, how we earn our living. This love is not a physical love, it does give me the right to jump my fence and have sexual intercourse with my neighbour’s wife, it tells me that I should love and respect my neighbour without imposing my rules on him.
This is the core of Christian belief. This is also the core of Jewish belief. It is also the core of the beliefs of Islam. Where the problems lie is that mankind, that’s you and me, has applied his rules to how we should carry on our lives. Not God’s rules, man’s rules.
There is a distinction between the physical love which is a part of man’s rules, and spiritual love which is the core of God’s rules for us. If we obey God’s rules as set out in the Two Commandments of Jesus, we will do nothing to harm our neighbour in the physical or spiritual sense.
Now in the Gospel of John we have the story of the woman found in adultery who was brought before Jesus by the Pharisees and he was told that under the laws of Moses she should be stoned to death, they then asked the question of Jesus, ‘Now what do you say?’ We have to look past this obvious trap to look at the motivation behind this. Why did the Pharisees bring her to Jesus? Were they concerned for the wellbeing of this woman? Did they bring the woman’s lover before Jesus? No, it was entirely to trap Jesus into making a statement that they could use to condemn him.
Now, it has come to my attention that there is a rumour circulating among you to the effect that I have been seen leaving a brothel. The insinuation being that I have been availing myself of the services of one of the prostitutes. ‘Oh dear,’ I hear you say, ‘what would his wife say if she found out?’ and ‘How could a man of God associate with women such as these?’
Is Jesus not a man of God? Did he walk away from this woman when she was brought before him? Did he condemn her for her actions? The answer is ‘no’.
So, if Jesus could associate with a prostitute, and I don’t mean have sex with her, why can’t I? Remember that Jesus associated with what would have been perceived as the dross of society, the lepers, the Samaritans and similar people, and he was condemned for it by the church leaders of his time.
To address the rumours: Was I seen leaving a brothel? The answer is ‘yes’. What would my wife say if she found out? The best person to answer that is my wife.’ Darling would you come up here?’ I held out my hand.
Mel stood up and mounted the steps to the stage. Taking my hand, she stood next to me and, taking the mike from me she said in a clear voice to the congregation. ‘I am fully aware that Tom was in a brothel, and it wasn’t the first time that he had been there. The reason that I know this is that I invited him to be there, and the day that he was seen leaving that brothel, I was inside. I was inside talking to the girls who work there. One of them had approached me and asked if I could come and talk to them because they had a problem that was causing them a great deal of anguish, and that Tom and I were the best placed to help them.’
She handed the mike back to me. ‘A question, and I want you to be honest here. How many of you have ever read a book that contains pornography?’ Several hands went up. ‘Okay you can put them down. How many of you have read a book where there has been a description of the sex act, or the act of sexual intercourse was implied?’ Several more hands went up. ‘You may put your hands down. Now how many of you who didn’t put your hands up for the previous questions, have read the Bible? Apart from those who had already put their hands up, all of the congregation raised their hands. ‘You hypocrites! The Bible has many examples of descriptions of sex and implied sex, of adultery, and yet you sit there and claim that you have never read any salacious material? What could be more salacious than a King who, on seeing a beautiful woman not only committed adultery with her, he also conspired to have her husband murdered? And this is the King whose line Jesus was from, I’m talking about David here. And what about Solomon? The marriage laws at that time permitted one wife and no mistresses or concubines, yet Solomon had hundreds of both. And it was implied that he had a sexual relationship with the Queen of Sheba, and you say that you have never read a salacious book. If you applied your standards to what constitutes pornography, then the Bible should be sold in a plain wrapping from under the counter of some sleazy bookshop.’
How many men here have been divorced and remarried?’ A dozen or so hands went up. ‘Put you hands down if you do not have a sexual relationship with your current wife?’ No hands went down. ‘You men, according to Old Testament Law, are committing adultery. The same applies to any of the women here who have been divorced and who are having a sexual relationship with their current husband. Can you not see the hypocricy of this? I am not go
ing to ask the men to put up their hands if they have ever visited a brothel, I am sure that I would not get an honest response. And the hypocricy here is, that without men, without clients, brothels would not exist, the sex trade would not exist. If we all lived in a perfect world where the relationship between men and women was perfect and where there was no desire in men to seek extracurricular gratification, brothels would not exist, there would be no prostitutes, no need for prostitutes. And yet you people are condemning those who work in an industry that provides a service that, in your Utopian, and perfect world, should not exist. But the reality is it does exist.
Should we, as Christians, look down on these sex workers, should we shun them, should we wish harm on them, should we wish harm on those who exploit them, and should we wish harm on those who use the services that they provide?
This brings me to the rumours and the reason that I was seen leaving a brothel. I was getting lunch for Mel and the girls who work there. If the person who saw me leaving that establishment had stuck around long enough, he, I know it was a he because I saw him, would have seen me come back, go back inside loaded down with a whole bunch of take away food, it was Indian that day, another day would have been something else. I know who saw me on that day and I know who it was that started that rumour. I’m not going to identify that person in public but I will be speaking to him soon.
This sermon today would not have not been necessary if that person had come to me and asked me to clarify the situation, but he decided that he could gain some sort of influence over me, to coerce me into maybe leaving this church and this ministry, and to undermine my standing within this church community. To this person I say, ‘do your darnedest because I have nothing to hide.
I would like at this point to introduce you to Annette Jenkins. Annette, would you come up please?’ A neatly and conservatively dressed middle aged woman, not dis-similar to the other middle aged conservatively dressed women in the congregation stood up from where she was seated, right in the middle of the auditorium, where she had gone un-noticed, and walked to the stage. I handed her the mike.
‘Good morning. I am the ‘Madam’ of the brothel that Pastor Tom and Mel have been visiting on a weekly basis for some six months. They came at my invitation, and I add that they had no hesitation in coming, because the girls and I were concerned at way we had lost direction in our lives. We were aware of the stigma that has been attached to our industry, but what placed the most pressure, caused the greatest stress, was that the very people who were applying the greatest pressure we also clients.
At first Pastor Tom refused to believe me when I told him that, but he came to see me one day and sat in my office, from where I can monitor the clientele, and observed several of the members of this church entering our premises.
Pastor Tom sat down with the girls, at first as a group and then individually, and talked to them about how they saw themselves, how they coped with the double standards that saw them ,on one hand ostracised, while in the other hand a person desired by some of the very same people.
At the request of the girls, Pastor Tom, and Mel, have been conducting weekly services and prayer meetings with the girls. To witness the improvement in the self esteem and self image of these girls has been a revelation. Not only have the girls benefited, but their attitude towards their clients has improved and our business has increased. We no longer look with scorn at the men who use us, we realise that if they did not have a need they would not be there, so we treat them as equals, just as Jesus would have us treat them. The only thing that we ask in return is that those who use us, those who condemn us, think about what Jesus said about loving your neighbour. We are not offering these men the love that a wife could give, we are not trying to take the men from their wives. We do not sell love, we sell a much more basic product, sex.
We are a business in the service industry with a product to sell like any other business. What we do is, in theory against the law, but it is tolerated by the law. We are no more guilty of breaking the law than those businesses who indulge in questionable tactics to sell a product, you know the ones, they jack up the price of their product way beyond the regular price and offer a ‘huge’ discount that does nothing more than bring it down to the original price. This practice is tolerated, everyone knows that it goes on, but it is illegal. Where’s the difference? I will tell you where. In our business there is no caveat emptor, no buyer beware, you get what you pay for.
If you read the Gospels you will see that Jesus never turned anyone away, never turned his back on anyone with a need, and I thank God that Pastor Tom is following the example of Jesus. We, the girls and I, had a need and when we contacted Pastor Tom he came to find out for himself what that need was. He has ministered to us in a non-judgemental way, he didn’t tell us that he would not attend to our spiritual needs unless we abandoned our lifestyle and sought to become ‘born again Christians’. He placed no conditions on his ministry and for that very reason we, the girls and I, have taken time off to come and see how you guys live. I know that there have been some people feeling a little uncomfortable when they recognised the girls, let me reassure you, we will in no way identify any of you.
Given the position we are asked to adopt on more occasions than not, I suppose you could say that we are Christian missionaries’. There was a self-conscious chuckle from some of the congregation followed by the glares of those seated around them. Annette handed the mike back to me.
‘Thank you Annette. Now if there is anyone here that objects to what we are doing, then I will be quite happy to discuss it with them both here and now , or in private, it is up to you. I am giving people the opportunity to express there viewpoints, but let me warn you, if you are merely going to throw Scripture at me about the sin of prostitution, fornication, adultery or whatever, let me remind you that there is no-one here who has never sinned, even if all you have done is think about it, you have sinned. God never made us to be perfect, so he makes allowances for our imperfections. He gave us a free will and the opportunity to exercise that free will and if we make the wrong decision, it is not the end of the world.
If no-one sinned, if we were all perfect, we would have no need for God, we would have no need for the church of God, but this is not the case. What we do need is for the church of God to be the church of God, not a commercial organisation where you can buy your way into heaven. If that was the case this church would be a commercial enterprise that pays franchise fees to a parent church for the right to sell the product called church. I see the role of a church of God to reach out to the disenfranchised in the community, to help them to find a peace in their role in society, not to ostracise these people just because they don’t fit into our idea of what a good Christian is. Because to do that is not acting like a good Christian, it is not showing the unconditional love that Jesus would want us to show.
The other thing I do not want to hear is that we live under God’s law and that Bible Law takes precedence over Civil law. Before you say that I suggest that you read Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 13. Here we are told that the civil authorities are put in place by God, and that the rules that they enact are therefore God’s rules.
I see the role of the church as more than making you people feel good about yourselves for a short time each week. Don’t get me wrong, that is part of what we do, but it is, or should I say should be, a small part of what we do, it is in preparation for our true role of
doing God’s work. Think about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which role do you think that you play in this life, the role of the Priest who walked right by the mugged traveller without stopping, or the Samaritan who went to his aid? Which player was Jesus criticising? Are you going to be the Priest who was content in ‘doing church’ or are you going to be the Samaritan?’
I could see some of the congregation squirming in their seats, some with serious looks on their face, while a few were nodding in agreement. I signalled for the musicians to come back on stage for their final bracket and closed in prayer.
I was mingling with the people in the ‘Visitors Lounge’ after the service and the feed back was mixed, some where critical of my stance and I told them that I didn’t have a problem with that, while others complimented me on my outspoken views.
I was looking over the decadent choices on the cakes tray when my Associate Pastor Rob Fowler stood next to me and whispered just loud enough for only myself to hear, ‘The Elders have called a meeting for 2:00 this afternoon, and you are required to be there.’
I nodded that I heard the message and, deciding that the cakes had suddenly lost their appeal walked over to where Mel was standing, alone. ‘There’s a meeting this afternoon called by the Elders, I’ve a good idea what it’s about and I don’t think that it’s good news.’
‘That’s okay Honey, you haven’t really been happy here for the last six months, if you feel that you need to take a stand against them, then it’s fine by me, in fact I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.’ She kissed me.
‘What the freaking hell do you think you’re doing?’ It was an angry Rob who led the charge. ‘Do you want to destroy everything that we’ve built up here?’
‘I only said what was in my heart to say. I have had a strong feeling along these lines for some times, we collectively do not do enough for the underprivileged, we could, we should, do more.’
‘What about our mission work in Africa, isn’t that enough?’
‘You’re joking, right? We send someone over there to deliver school uniforms to fifty or so kids along with some school books and our CD’s and you think that that’s enough! How much did that exercise cost us, five grand? And do you know what the biggest component of that cost was? The air fares to deliver the goods, we could have shipped the stuff across for a quarter of the price. And how much did we collect last year? Was it around two and a half million?’
‘But we need every cent we take.’
‘For what? Most of what we’ve taken over the past few months is earmarked for new sound equipment so that the concert sounds good, and a new mixing desk along with CD and DVD duplicating equipment so that we can produce and market these products with a two thousand percent mark-up? For the same money we could provide food and shelter for some of the thousands of homeless people in this city. Why aren’t we doing that?’
‘And you think consorting with sluts will do better?’
‘These sluts, as you so colourfully describe them, are doing more in that area than this whole church, which isn’t saying much.’
‘Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to destroy this church. Do you honestly believe that when the leaders in our parent church hear what you are doing that they will take it lying down?’
‘I really don’t care.’
‘Well we do. We just cannot allow you to undermine our livelihoods like this. If you want to commit suicide like this, let it be on your head, we will distance ourselves from you.’
‘If that is what you choose to do, don’t let me stop you, but just let me say a couple of things before I leave. If you want to know what has motivated me to go down this path then I suggest that you read the Gospels, thoroughly, don’t just cherry pick passages to suit yourselves, and I want you to pay particular attention to Matthew Chapter 23. The other thing is that I am aware that several of you have been customers of that brothel that I was seen leaving. I was seen leaving by someone here, in this room, someone who had an appointment with one of the girls, Grace I think it was, Amazing Grace. When you saw me,’ I looked straight at Rob, ‘you didn’t keep your appointment. Let me reassure you, I have no intention of spreading this information to the world, although I have been sorely tempted to do so ever since I heard the rumour that was circulating, I will leave this up to you and your consciences.’
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