Brothels

We have been visiting the brothels in Athens' Red Light district every Wednesday morning. Teams normally consist of four people - three girls and one guy. The guys don't go into the brothels, but rather accompany the women for safety. They also pray outside. I have been two or three times now, and the brothels always strike me for their anonymity. Only a little white light outside the doorway marks each individual brothel. There are no pictures. There are only men entering and exiting the brothels to see the women. The streets and walls and doorways are so blank. They look like anything else except for the little lights. It is ominous and oppressive.

I am used to sexuality being expressed so publicly via magazines at Walmart or Victoria's Secret or internet pornography. It's strange that when it comes to selling sex as a profession that the business is so anonymous. Both the men and women lose their individuality in the brothels. Sex was meant to be so personal, and yet sin twists it to be outrageously public and therefore impersonal or outrageously anonymous and therefore impersonal. If sin and death are forms of separation, then this is another example of the way sin separates us from ourselves, each other, and God...

I would encourage you to read the posts of some of my female team members. They have actually entered the brothels, so their thoughts touch more on the prostitutes themselves. Here's Mallory's thoughts - "A Blessing in Disguise."