Marrying a Prostitute

Thought I'd stick this here since it might cause a theological discussion to start.

Would you marry a prostitute or an ex prostitute?

What do you think of the story of Hosea and Gomer? Is it a work of fiction or do you think it actually happened? Is it a some sort of parable? Does is it tell us anything about how we should deal with unfaithfulness in a relationship? Does it say anything about how we should view prostitutes?

For those of you don't know the story, Hosea is a prophet who is told by God~ to go out and marry a prostitute*. He obey and marries Gomer and they have three children^ together. But after some time Gomer goes back to prostitution where she is made to be a sex slave, eventually Hosea goes out to find her and buys her back for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. After buying her back he tells her to stop being a prostitute and be faithful to him, and by all appearances it seems that she leaves her past behind and becomes a good wife.

~ The story of Hosea and Gomer is in three chapters but most of it is taken up by how God feels about his people. It presents Hosea's relationship with Gomer as sort of allegory of how God views his people. He feel they been unfaithful to him and behaved like some sort of prostitute but despite this he won't give up on them, after some time he will buy them back and they will remain faithful.

* Some translations of the Bible don't call her a prostitute. Some use words like adulterous or promiscuous, so it could be that she was someone who sleep around a lot. Whatever the case was she was no virgin and was the kind of women a prophet wouldn't normally spend time with.

^ Some scholars believe that these children weren't actually Hosea's biological children and such views are captured in different translations like this one. If they're correct in the early parts of their marriage Hosea probably didn't see his wife much because she's going out and having sex with countless men, and the only time he saw her was when she wound up getting pregnant.

You can read the story here but be warned there's quite a lot religious language, so if you're not use to such work of literature you might get a bit lost. In this post I've tried to simplify the story.

 

Here's a beautiful silent movie retelling the story of Hosea and Gomer in a modern setting.

 

It's annoying they couldn't put it all in one video, but anyway here's the final part.

 

Personally I never intend to marry, at least not in an official context. I'd happily have a "wedding" or some sort of union ceremony, but nothing on paper. So the short answer: No.

That said, would I get in a relationship with a prostitute? Sure if she was no longer a prostitute at the time of us meeting. I wouldn't judge someone for choices they've made, and I personally don't see anything wrong with prostitution as long as all parties are willing and consenting, so I wouldn't think any less of someone for being a prostitute.

I'm also not one of these guys who wants a "perfect virgin" to love. I like sex, and I'd hope that anyone I dated did too, so I'd in most cases expect my partner to have had plenty of partners before me. So, since I'm not concerned about how many partners she's had, and I'm not against prostitution, nothing would particularly stop me from being in a relationship with a former prostitute.

Now of course, that's just for the prostitution itself. She may have turned to prostitution for other reasons, like a drug habit - something that I wouldn't accept in a partner given my previous history as an addict. So, depending on her reason for it, that reason may be a reason I wouldn't get in a relationship with her.

..but that's less to do with her being a prostitute and more to do with general life choices. There are certain people I would see, and others I wouldn't. Same goes for someone who was a prostitute. Some of them I would happily get into a relationship with. Others not so much.

Hope that's a good enough answer for you.