Pimping is like a religion?

I have been seeking religion-blog inspiration in all things around me when I found it in a rather unexpected source. When reading "Beggars and Thieves" an ethnography about the lives of urban street criminals by Mark Fleisher I was struck by an interesting idea. In an interview, Paris, an urban informant, makes the claim that "'Diamonds, cars, physical things don't make a pimp. It's a lifestyle that you live. Pimping is like a religion, something you live, something you think and learn through experience,'" (Fleisher 90). Street crime and its causes has always been an interest of mine. To hear a criminal talk about his participation in deviance as something of a religious nature never occurred to me, but it does present itself as a possible explanation for a potential reason criminals behave the way they do. If we accept what Paris is saying, then crime not only becomes a personal choice for men like him, but a kind of engrained cultural phenomenon that explains why fear of punishment and immoral qualms have little bearing on his actions. This 'pimping' is so indoctrinated into him that his entire life revolves around it. Many people are willing to kill and be killed for their religious beliefs, and Paris can probably identify with this kind of devotion through his so-called pimp religion. The idea of calling this kind of criminal activity a religion creates a seeming paradox. Religion is typically viewed as something deeply moral. Pimping as a practice would typically be considered a very immoral practice.

To broaden the scope of this a little bit and allow pimping to be just one example of a criminal lifestyle we can begin to address not only the religion of pimping specifically, but in general the religion of crime. The general gangster way of life though seemingly immoral has its own set of codes. The G-code, as it is sometimes popularly called, dictates a way of life between fellow criminals that is a kind of honors system. It deems respect as a paramount feature of the religion of criminals. Also, speaking about crime in general, images of gangsters and criminals at times exemplify a societal ideal. Youths at times strive to be like these criminals and embrace their culture. They talk like them, dress like them and want to be like them. Similarly in the Christian faith religious believers strive to achieve ideals. However in this more traditional religion, ideals include things like purity in thought, mind and deed. Though these criminals abide by a very different set of laws there is still the sense that it is a higher law. Their unlawful way of life, according to the laws of society, provides a way out of the daily humdrum monotony that many people face, it allows them to make their own rules and live a life of crime while all the while still keeping to the code.