What should we do about our neighbor?

[rainbowbright]

So, we have absolute proof that our next door neighbor in our townhome is indeed a prostitute. We see her clients go to her at all times of the day and they are all well-to-do, middle-aged married men. It maked me so mad- I wish I had their phone numbers so I could call their wives and tell them.:mad:
She has been nothing but nice to us and when her stepdaughters stay with her over on the weekend, they play with our kids.
I know it's none of my business but I just feel like I can no longer let her go on sinning like this. I pray for her very often. My mom thinks we should call the police, but I'm just not sure.
??????????????????????
thanks

[Philothei]

If you pray for her you are doing the right thing...when I read the title of that thread I thought it was about the love for our neighbour .....and that is exactly what I would do. I would just pray and pray she changes her ways. Hating her will not accomplish anything and he devil will be happy that he tempt you to get upset at her. I undestand that you are wondering because you have young children and with all this coming and going ... I would be concerned too.

We live in a townhome too and we have all sorts of people ... I do not know my neigbours yet and I am not planning on meeting them either. I pray for all the people living here.
Christ's commendment is to love them unconditionally. At the same time we have to keep our family safe too. This is why this halloween i do not plan to go out with my daughter, I do not want to have to meet my neigbours and them meeting my child. I know it sound paranoid but the way our society has been it is a challenge to trust anyone. In Liturgy we pray for our town that we are in my mind wonders always to my town and my neigbours. I make sure I include them.

God bless,
Philothei

[rainbowbright]

Thanks Philothei, that does make a lot of sense.

I know what you mean by not wanting to meet neighbors. We've lived here for three years and we are just now having every little boy coming over to our yard to play with our son. This weekend it snowed really bad and we have a ditch behing us, which some of those boys took my son into and he almost drowned in three feet of water

[Mytheodos]

I don't have much to say,but here's a story i hope might give you some ideas.

St Eudokia, Holy martyr

Memory celebrated March 1Eudokia was a woman of Samaria who lived during the second century in Heliopolis. She was a pagan of immense beauty and became very wealthy by attracting wealthy lovers. As a harlot she never considered the Day of Judgement or the state of her soul.
One day, a pious monk by the name of Germanos stayed at a house next to Eudokia. One evening he sat on the window sill reading out loud from a book describing the Last Judgement of the world. From her window Eudokia listened curiously.;) What she heard both frightened her and fascinated her.She heard words that brought her to profound compunction.Tears streamed down her cheeks when she brought to mind her wanton conduct of life.Filled with dread,Evdokia law awake until daybreak. The next day she invited Germanos to explain about the Christian faith.
The good monk spoke to her about the love of Christ for all sinners. Eudokia wanted to believe, but it all sounded too good to be true. "Could she also be saved?" she asked. Germanos told her to remain alone in her chamber and receive no-one for one week, whilst she prayed and fasted. He told her that she would then receive a vision which would assure her of the Creator's love for all human beings, including her.
Surely this came true, and after seeing a vision of Archangel Michael she confessed Christ as the only True God. Germanos Baptised her and became her Spiritual Father.
Eudokia was thirty years old when she gave herself over completely to the service of Jesus Christ. Her first act was to build a monastery near the city of Baalbeck, where she administered the disposition of her vast wealth to projects for charity. In a short time her monastery became a beacon which attracted thousands of spiritually as well as physically starved people, and St Eudokia became famous for the beauty of her soul as well as her face, acquiring in the process of her noble work a proximity to God no treasure could buy.
The stream of suitors to the palace became a river of pilgrims to her monastery, but there was one suitor named Philostratos who was persistent enough to seek her out in the hope of securing favor before her fortune had been dissipated. Eudokia refused to help him, and, when in his anger he seemed struck dead by the Lord, she prayed to God for his recovery. Brought back to his senses, he was easily converted to Christianity.
The continual conversion of so many pagans by St Eudokia brought down upon her the full wrath of the Syrian officials, who had her beheaded on 1st March 107 AD.:crosseo:

[Philothei]

Lord have mercy :( what a terrible thing.... Hope your boy is okay...

I have my reasons not to want to hang with my neighbours. I had some pretty bad experiences in the past, with 'friendly' or overly "friendly" neighbours and I would rather not go into it... and after that I would rather keep my distance. You have 4 kids i am sure they can keep company with each other no need for having more children that are also added responisbility. I have never let my daughter on a sleep over playdate... only with my very dear friends that i know over 10 years... I am very selective with her friends as my mother and father were when I was growing up. She was brought up with lots of church activities and close to "my skirt" as possible. Now she is 11 and I am still very strict. My hubby was brought up like that and I do not see any problems with him... he was also an only child.

God bless,
Philothei

[JustinHesychast]

Pray, but don't call the police. Prostitution may be wrong, but I think it's ridiculous that it's illegal. It's her life.

[Orthosdoxa]

I would call the police simply because you don't know what type of men are going to be coming and going into the building. You have children to protect and her selling sex attracts people with perversions. I don't care if they do look "professional".

[rusmeister]

Somehow, I don't think calling in the police would be keeping her from sin, except by force. I imagine the sin of fornication could be replaced by the sin of despair if she were suddenly deprived of her income and even jailed. I don't think the devil cares whether the sins are spectacular and external or internal, hidden out of sight.

How would Christ deal with this woman? (I think they always came to Him - He didn't actively approach those that were not seeking Him)

[buzuxi02]

A Tall Fence makes for a good neighbor.

[Thekla]

I do think its unlikely that law enforcement would respond based on circumstantial evidence. We don't live on the "nicest" block -in some ways. Even when neighbors knew where dealing was happening in our neighborhood, there was not much the police could do. (At one blockwatch yard sale, the dealers in the alley across the street had more customers than we did ^_^)

And if the allegation was found to be in error,
or the woman rather 'fragile', the disruption to her life (and even yours) could be significant. This is something to weigh, as well.

We lived in a well-heeled neighborhood previously. And our next-door neighbor was a sex-offender (there were several in the vicinity). Another flew off the handle (and trespassed to cut down trees he didn't like,and posted numerous foul mouthed signs in our yard when the grass got high while our mower was being repaired). Following our move here, we've had a knifing (next door), several drug busts and a shooting in front of our house. My parents live in a gated community - can't even begin to enumerate what goes on there ... In short, there is no safe place in my view (regardless of appearances). There are so many broken people in this world :(
I think if every infraction were reported and acted on, all neighborhoods would be empty.

But God has shown me so much beauty and love here, too! The loudest and "scariest seeming" neighbors will come together (raising the mortgage 2 months for a neighbor out of work, a collection to cover funeral expenses when a child died, even help with troubleshooting each others car problems, etc etc ...) And one neighbor who was 'busted for drugs' had previously helped to shovel out neighbor's cars.

I'm not advocating what this woman may be doing, and one must be safe. But I have learned there is also a different view to see ...

May Panagia and Christ protect you, your family and your neighbors :hug:

[rainbowbright]

Thanks everyone. I went to bed early last night so I was able to reply last night. But anyways, I don't think I will be calling anyone, even though my momkeeps telling me I should. I just get real sickened most of the time.

[RobNJ]

Does your area, have one of those "citizen groups" that park by these places & take pics of who's going in & out & their license plates? ;)

[SeraphimSarov]

Does your area, have one of those "citizen groups" that park by these places & take pics of who's going in & out & their license plates? ;)
Yikes!

[Jacob4707]

You could mount a live-cam inside your house and pointed at her house and stream it to a Webpage where online viewers could watch who comes and goes to her house.

And you could take digital camera pictures of the license plates of the customers' cars and post those pics on the Webpage, too. :)

[RobNJ]

You could mount a live-cam pointed at her house and create a Webpage where online viewers could watch who comes and goes to her house.

And you could take digital camera pictures of the license plates of the customers' cars and post those pics on the Webpage, too. :)

That's what some of those groups I mentioned do!!

[Jacob4707]

Biblically I don't think there is anything illegal about prostitution, though it's definitely regarded as being immoral.

[rainbowbright]

yikes, I don't think we have one of those groups. I guess I could just stand outside and take pictures, that's a good idea. One guy parked his motorcycle on our grass and I so wished I would've taken a picture of that I'm sure his wife would've recognized it.

[zhilan]

Is she doing this by choice or because she believes she has no other options to support her children?

I think very very few women go into prostitution because it's the life they always dreamed of. Most women do it because they get to a place in their life where they are so desperate, have very low self-esteem and self-worth, and believe they have nothing else to offer but their bodies. Maybe she would like a way out, but doesn't know where to find one?