Page 5320 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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ANGLICAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
DIOCESE OF CANBERRA & GOULBURN
S U B M I S S I 0 N
to the ACT Legislative Assembly
Select Committee on HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution
INTRODUCTION
1. I am grateful for the opportunity to present this submission. I must emphasise that it is a personal response. The Anglican Church does not have an official position.
2. As the focus of the Committees concern seems to be prostitution (per statement authorised by Mr Moore, MLA, as Chairman, referred to hereafter as The. Statement), this submission will first focus on that issue.
THE JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION
3. The Judaeo-Christian tradition has seen prostitution as of two kinds: (a) secular; (b) cult prostitution.
To take (b) first, it appears that upon entry into Palestine (then known as Canaan) in about 1250 BC, the Hebrew people found themselves in the midst of a highlydeveloped system .of fertility cults (common to the middle east) in which the success of the agricultural economy was believed to be dependent upon the satisfaction of gods responsible for the fertility of .the crops. By the processes of sympathetic magic it.was,adcepted that believers could influence those gods. The use of sexual intercourse, as a natural expression of human fertility, was partof that. Both male and female prostitutes were available in the temples for this purpose.
Much prophetic condemnation is delivered against these practices, regarded as idolatrous.
Secular prostitution (a), is recognised .as a common phenomenon in both the old and new testament periods and is sometimes tolerated, sometimes condemned. There is a strong and consistent line of thinking declaring .sexual relationships of this kind as unacceptable for those faithful to the God of Israel.
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