A Sex Offender Among Us
Posted on May 11, 2007
Would your church welcome a convicted sex offender? Maybe there’s one in your church and you’re not even aware of it. Would you allow this person to worship next to you? Does your church have the right to refuse to let a convicted sex offender:
- enter your church
- become part of your “church family”
- serve in the church
- be a greeter
- be an usher
- be a worship leader
- lead a prayer
- teach a Sunday school class (adult only)
teach your childrencare for your baby in the nursery
Where do you draw the line? Is a line even necessary? A church in Carlsbad, CA is dealing with this situation right now and apparently the church nearly split. It’s an emotional battle to decide whether a man who was convicted of sexual crimes should be allowed to join their congregation. Here’s the article.
The man is open about the crimes he committed, he spoke to the congregation and shared some specific details of his past and is now wanting to be part of this church family. The crimes he was convicted of both involved children directly and one happened nearly 10 years ago and the other nearly 25 years ago.
Time is not the automatic healer of all sin, but Jesus forgives all sin for those who are repentant, not just the ones that you and I commit that we didn’t mean to get caught doing. Does Jesus forgive us when we’re judgemental?
Clearly, children need to be fiercely protected and a man with a past such as this, especially one where he is open about it, needs to be kept away from caring for kids in any way, shape or form. But should the church run this man off? I think it’s something we, as the church, need to consider before we find ourselves faced with this situation. He is seeking a church family, which makes it seem like he has repented and wants to grow, but there is no indication of that in the article. Maybe he’s positioning himself to be in close proximity to more children.
On one hand, I would absolutely let him join the church and grow and serve and learn with the rest of us, and he would not be allowed to interact with the children at any level ever. However, what happens when he ends up alone in a bathroom with a boy or happens to be anywhere in the church and a child happens to walk in?
It’s a tough call. The article indicates having a separate service for sex offenders. How does that work?
All sex offenders are invited to our sex offender’s worship service, tonight at 6. Clothes required and keep your hands to yourself.
There’s a chance that if you went to FamilyWatchDog and searched your community, you might discover that someone you know in your church is a convicted sex offender. What’s more dangerous, the guy that stands up and openly admits his crimes and wants to move on and grow in your church or the one that is not open about it, yet still intending to move on? In both cases, you could have a convicted sex offender in your church, the issue is the heart of the person and only God knows their true heart.
Security for children needs to be a priority, whether you use a check-in system through your ChMS, such as Fellowship or ACS or a stand-alone system like KidzPro. Many churches ultimately don’t have control of their children and so kids come and go unnoticed. There is no excuse for that really. Size of the church does not matter, there are options that are practical and affordable, even for small churches.
What’s the answer? Do churches need to consider a process of how to handle this kind of situation before it comes up?
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3 Responses to “A Sex Offender Among Us”
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That’s a tough one. Being a dad, I would agree that kids’ safety or security should never be compromised. That’s a pretty clear line. I guess it gets down to asking which sins are unpardonable? What about a guy who has a history of openly opposing the church? Even persecuting its leaders? Even putting some of them to death? Should we ever allow him in OUR church?
I saw an interesting quote recently that said, in effect, we know we have created God in our image when he hates the same people we hate. We need to make sure we are considering situations like this from God’s perspective. It might make us uncomfortable to have that person worshiping next to us. We might be insulted to see that person in any kind of leadership - usher or whatever. But what is God’s perspective?
It’s still a tough question. Good food for thought Jim.
- Wayne
This is an excellent discussion and a tough one. I do not make those choices here, praise be to the Lord! I think it is clear that we need to be inclusive of all sinners. However, such a person cannot be placed in service with or near children. I do think the church has the right and responsibility to be aware of such people. All of this said the person in question must be repentant and in a healing process, hopefully fully engaged in counseling. Our volunteers in the Children’s Ministry must go through a background check. It is sad that it has come to this, but as you say security of our children is a huge priority. Thanks for bringing up such a topic, nothing is ever solved by hiding our heads in the sand.
This is an awesome topic for christians to discuss. Anyone who is trying to turn thier life around needs all the support they can get. I too agree that we need to fiercly protect our children. What my church has done is impliment a program of high accountablility on the part of a particular person in our church with such a past.
If a person is willing, (really willing) to repent and live a new life, then they will accept this kind of thing. Strong boundaries, high accountablity and without telling everyone the nitty gritty and getting them all upset. Our leadership is aware of who is and isn’t allowed around the children. No teacher is alone with the kids. Kids don’t go to the bathroom by themselves. Kids are in thier classes with an authorized teacher or with thier parents. And we are always careful what jobs we ask our friend to do..so that he is never put in a compromising position. And above all, those of us who know about his struggles, love him and pray for him!