You said:
" Many Christians believe that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute."
There is a missing fact. IF Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, she gave up her sinful life to follow Jesus' instructions. Just as later on, one of Jesus' disciples (I'm not a scholar, others will know who) listed those* who will not enter the Kingdom of God, and said something like "many of you were these" but were no longer.
IOW, among Jesus' followers both ancient and modern, there are FORMER - got it? used to be, and are no longer - drug addicts, alcoholics, wife beaters, husband beaters, adulterers, prostitutes, thieves, and homosexuals.
What a person used to be is not important. It's what they are now that is important. God's mercy changes hearts and lives. Since there are many former homosexuals, their stories need to be heard.
*The list included idolators, prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, and more.
You missed my point. BEFORE Mary "gave up her sinful life", Jesus sought to protect her from a hateful mob who who were convinced of their own superior morals and their superior and infallible understanding of God's will. Jesus did not stand there and seek to humiliate Mary nor characterize her in mean-spirited language. He did not tell Mary: "You are a depraved, perverted woman". Jesus did not ask the mob to be silent so that he could heard describing Mary in language used by many who have posted messages in this thread. As merely a brief representative sample: Message #......Language 15..........."threat to society, disgusting" 40..........."lust-driven perverted lifestyle" 93..........."mentally ill" 105.........."mental defect" 119.........."sick, deviant, sick perverts" 203.........."evil pedophiles" 283.........."revolting" 305.........."disordered" 331.........."warped and destructive" 350.........."aberrant, sickening, filthy, vile, putrid" But, oh no! --- There's no "hate" here...Just an exchange of "facts".
Correctamundo, lj. Once one is washed clean by the healing power of Christ, all past sins are forgiven. The mission of the new Christian from that point is to live their lives as close to Godly holiness as possible. In Christ, one is given the ability to reject sin. A "true" conversion is shown in the 180* turn of the heart - away from the sinful life, and towards holiness.
It was Paul, in his 1st letter to the church at Corinth:
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." ~1 Cor 6v9-11 (NIV)
Virtually all other translations say the same thing.
And before the Sodomite Apologists start whining about specific translations - The word "homosexual", translated from New Testament greek is 'arsenokoite' - literally translated as "one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite".