Alex,
Nice to see you chime in on the thread.
Not only do I believe these two exemplars have merit but intersect and have intersected in their mutual histories.
In Europe during the medieval era, when the Catholic Church owned vast tracks of lands, many of these real estate properties were leased out to brothels or prostitution houses. And it is told that some European bishops would go and collect the rentals from the prostitutes themselves. Should we think that being men of the cloth, or holy men, all that they did when they visited these brothels was simply to collect rentals due to the Church and nothing more?
Author Andrew McCall in his book “The Medieval Underworld” writes “St. Augustine himself said that if prostitution were to be suppressed, capricious lusts would then overthrow society; and this sentiment was reiterated in a latter period by Aquinas who wrote in his “Summa Theologica,” apropos of prostitution that if you were to take away the sewer, the whole palace would soon be filled with corruption. Prostitution was, in other words, a necessary evil.”
McCall writes further in his book that “disputes between religious foundations and lay powers over the revenue from bawdy-houses are no rarity, while in 1309, we find Bishop Johann of Strasbourg building, at his own expense, a magnificent new brothel in that city.”
Which leads me to the conclusion this hand wringing and bible thumping by the fire and brimstone crowd is at its core dissembling, and an act of obfuscation for the furtherance of other ways and means.
It appears at least in some form in certain times they played off one another and still do to this day. While one seemed to profit off one more than the other. Which makes one reflect about the morality of the profiteer in this scenario.
I think both of these activities are fine…..as long as they are not weaponized.
My Best To You,
Bret Maverick