Arizona church is house of prostitution, police say~

Sunshine

Trust the pie.
Dec 17, 2009
19,377
3,398
183
I think there are some on here who might get religion pretty fast! :eek:


A church called the Phoenix Goddess Temple has been accused of being a house of prostitution, and a six-month undercover investigation has resulted in the arrests of 20 women and men who worked there, Phoenix police said Friday.

Authorities are still searching for 17 more people -- all of whom have been indicted -- in connection with the prostitution enterprise, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman. The 20 people arrested so far have been charged with prostitution or other offenses, police said.

Arizona church is house of prostitution, police say - CNN.com
 
During a Wednesday search of the Phoenix temple and two church-related sites in nearby Sedona, police seized evidence showing that "male and female 'practitioners' working at the Temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary 'donations,' all on the pretense of providing 'neo tantric' healing therapies," Phoenix police said.


from the link.....

i could see this becoming an issue as pagans and neo pagans are on the rise and believe in many sexual rituals......and all churches accept donations....dont they?
 
It is a shame when churches are prosecuted. It's kinda like handling snakes and speaking in tongues
 
The rub (no pun intended) is that what they are doing is illegal even under the guise of religion. Religion doesn't give one a completely free hand (no pun intended) to do as one pleases. Snake handlers are wantonly endangering, and courts have stepped in to forbid certain sects from denying life saving blood transfusions to minors. Murder would not be legal under the auspices of even paganism even though human sacrifices were a part of the religious sacraments of tribes like the Aztec. Moreover, there are public health issues involved. Case in point, STDs. In Nevada where prostitution is legal, mandatory STD testing is the rule of law.
 
we are not talking murder we are discussing sex....of course to many religions that is as sinful as murder.....and were donations mandatory?

std's are a problem be you paying for sex or not paying for sex i would imagine like most places...condoms are required
 
we are not talking murder we are discussing sex....of course to many religions that is as sinful as murder.....and were donations mandatory?

std's are a problem be you paying for sex or not paying for sex i would imagine like most places...condoms are required

LOL. I try not to imagine to much when it comes to issues of the law. You might want to try Googling HIV and prosecution. If you knowingly give HIV to another person, your charges are not just about sex and 'donations' are completely moot unless they come to you as someone's bitch in prison.

In many countries, the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is considered to be a crime. This is often conflated, in laws and in discussion, with criminal exposure to HIV, which does not require the transmission of the virus and often, as in the cases of spitting and biting, does not even include a realistic means of transmission.[1][2] People who do so can be charged with criminal transmission of HIV, murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, or assault


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_transmission_of_HIV
 
Last edited:
Here is where we are presently as to what constitutes a religion.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first part of this provision is known as the Establishment Clause, and the second part is known as the Free Exercise Clause. Although the First Amendment only refers to Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses also binding on states (Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 60 S. Ct. 900, 84 L. Ed. 1213 [1940], and Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S. Ct. 504, 91 L. Ed. 711 [1947], respectively). Since that incorporation, an extensive body of law has developed in the United States around both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

To determine whether an action of the federal or state government infringes upon a person's right to freedom of religion, the court must decide what qualifies as religion or religious activities for purposes of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has interpreted religion to mean a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to the place held by God in the lives of other persons. The religion or religious concept need not include belief in the existence of God or a supreme being to be within the scope of the First Amendment.

As the case of United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78, 64 S. Ct. 882, 88 L. Ed. 1148 (1944), demonstrates, the Supreme Court must look to the sincerity of a person's beliefs to help decide if those beliefs constitute a religion that deserves constitutional protection. The Ballard case involved the conviction of organizers of the I Am movement on grounds that they defrauded people by falsely representing that their members had supernatural powers to heal people with incurable illnesses. The Supreme Court held that the jury, in determining the line between the free exercise of religion and the punishable offense of obtaining property under False Pretenses, should not decide whether the claims of the I Am members were actually true, only whether the members honestly believed them to be true, thus qualifying the group as a religion under the Supreme Court's broad definition.

Religion legal definition of Religion. Religion synonyms by the Free Online Law Dictionary.
 
Wow, tax exempt and everything...


The first Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" yet they've allow tax exempt status to religions by justifying the equal application of tax exempt status regardless of doctrine as long as it's "sincere" such as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and even "Donations for Sex Sessions" apparently.


Take away the tax exempt status and let's see how long such swindlers thrive...
 
we are not talking murder we are discussing sex....of course to many religions that is as sinful as murder.....and were donations mandatory?

std's are a problem be you paying for sex or not paying for sex i would imagine like most places...condoms are required

Murder and sex are closely related even if people want to pretend otherwise. One takes life, the other gives it.

Is it really any wonder that the Lord wants us to carefully govern what we do that brings into the world and takes out of the world the life of his children?

Regardless, Prostitution is illegal in most states. If you have a problem with that advocate to change the laws.
 
priests are charging little kids now?

hell look at the catholic church and what it has gotten away with


Sexual activity is not a sacrament of the Catholic church. Quite the contrary. Sex outside of marriage is still considered a mortal sin unless something has changed recently.

For some reason, there are those who cannot or will not acknowledge the difference between an organization advocating criminal activities vs an organization that has individuals who are engaging in criminal activities contrary to their instructions.

Criminal activity should be abhorred regardless, but there is a significant difference between an organization advocating activity vs an organization advocating against it with individuals within that organization ignoring what the organization advocates.
 
priests are charging little kids now?

hell look at the catholic church and what it has gotten away with


Sexual activity is not a sacrament of the Catholic church. Quite the contrary. Sex outside of marriage is still considered a mortal sin unless something has changed recently.

For some reason, there are those who cannot or will not acknowledge the difference between an organization advocating criminal activities vs an organization that has individuals who are engaging in criminal activities contrary to their instructions.

Criminal activity should be abhorred regardless, but there is a significant difference between an organization advocating activity vs an organization advocating against it with individuals within that organization ignoring what the organization advocates.

Well said.
 
Sexual rites are definitely part of some pagan faiths. In this case, I think that the suspects were using religion as a cloak to engage in prostitution for hire. However, the rise of new/old religions in the U.S. is probably going to cause a review of some people's prejudices on the subject of religion/sex.
 

New Topics

Forum List

Back
Top