Sex Offenders & The Church
Let’s be honest, sex offenders are definitely not treated nice in prison; as they are considered the lowest of the low. And many times they are treated equally as bad by their neighbors/society when they are released. Their names are placed on a sex offender registry for the rest of their lives and neighborhoods can pass out fliers and post signs notifying the entire neighborhood that a sex offender taken up residence in their neighborhood.
There are over 728,000 registered offenders in the U.S.; Texas leads the nation with well over 63,000 registered offenders, and Florida is a close second. Most Christians will tell you that they are uncomfortable around and even scared of sex offenders; especially when it comes to their children. Let’s face it, insurance companies even have exclusionary clauses for churches that hire or allow sex offenders to volunteer; in other words: no coverage.
The church must play a critical role in helping sex offenders develop a relationship with Christ and become disciples of Christ. These are the true ingredients that will allow their lives to truly be restored, for them to rebuild severed relationships and for them to have freedom from the bondage of certain thoughts/behaviors/sin. The truth of the matter is that this same process can apply to each of us and our sinful nature!
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So many false profit Christians for example Christ Fellowship. I attended that church in the early days when the only location was Northlake Blvd. they knew i was a good person they knew i would never harm anyone and the second they found out about my charges they said the only way i could attend church was online which was impossible because until my trial date i was banned from using the computer. So not even convicted and they dropped me like a bad habit and there are so many so called “Christians” out there just like them. I talk to God in my own way every day and ask for his protection and forgiveness
There doesn’t seem to be a link on the website to the author. I did email asking for a email address.
@Bwj
This information about the author was at the bottom of the article. FAC, please let the email address through.
Scott Williams
http://www.bigisthenewsmall.com/
Scott Williams served as a key leader and Campus Pastor for LifeChurch.tv. He is the Chief Solutions Officer for Nxt Level Solutions, a consulting company he founded to help businesses, non-profits and individuals with both internal and external growth. Scott is speaker, strategist, consultant and developer of leaders. He is an avid blogger at BigIsTheNewSmall.com, and leverages Social Media to make a Kingdom impact. Scott is passionate about leadership development, organizational growth and diversity. He is the author of “Church Diversity – Sunday The Most Segregated Day Of The Week.” Scott is married, a father of two, and lives in Oklahoma City, OK.
“Christians” who claim to follow Christ but have no forgiveness are not truly born of the Spirit. Imagine if Jesus shunned the 12 disciples.
Amen. You are so right. Christians no matter there past. Must forgive abd show the real love of God. Even to Sex Offenders. If they can’t forgive Sex offenders. Then they are not truly a Christ like follower. Look at King David. He committed adultery and murder and God forgave him abd made him King. I love King David’s story.
It’s more about protecting themselves and their kids.
From those that rarely re-offend? Mr. D if you want to protect kids, it’s those in the church in positions of leadership or familiarity with the family and NOT on the registry that are way more likely to offend against a child.
@No end
Christians are not perfect, and we all make mistakes. It is sad but all Christians are human, and humans are fallible. Some would call that being a hypocrite, but the church is not perfect either, neither is the pastor, priest, or any kind of clergy.
“Sex offenders have a high propensity to re-offend…” (from the article) Man, we have a real challenge getting this lie out of people’s heads.
We suggest writing to the journalist who published this. We need volunteers for our Media Committee!!!
Will do!
I emailed them. As a Christian myself, that article is BS!
Yeah, I found that line to be utter nonsense! Where did the author get that idiocracy from?
Religion is rarely the answer.
Ben
💯 agreed, don’t suddenly become Religious to wash away your sins.
This is what the article says “Research reveals that sex offenders have a high propensity to re-offend, which tends to put everyone on red alert. Again, that’s why sex offenders are all in a national database and are required to register upon their release.”. I hope FAC reaches out to the author and publisher and enlightens them to the true fact.
We suggest writing to the journalist who published this. We need volunteers for our Media Committee!!!
Well I got news to tell them. My case is do different. The girl lied to me about her age. She looked like she was older then her real age. And I fell for it. And next thing you know. Someone in the family reported me. And I got arrested. If I woukd have known her true age. I would have began to talk to her at all. In my case. I definitely will tell you truly I will not Reoffend. I Approach things differently. I love my church. It was easy for me to get back in church. They realy showed my love. And allowed me to volunteer.
Travis, my case is similar. I had a girlfriend who was younger than me by a little more than 4 years. I missed the romeo and juliet by a couple months 😢 that was in 2007 and have never reoffended.
Travis
Great to hear you found a church that is accepting and welcoming of all. That reminds me of the opposite of that, that happened to me regarding something crazy.
On the tv they have been advertising free legal services and advice for everyone and all are welcome. So I called them up and guess what? “We do not take cases related to sex offenders”. Why put out an ad stating, “We welcome EVERYONE”, then turn around and say, “Oh sex offenders are not people”. (Although they did not say that directly, that is how they made me feel by lying in their ad then dismissing me.) Didn’t even give me alternatives just said, “We can’t help you”.
Free legal services? That’s hard to believe.
Sure, if you call a personal injury firm that takes cases on contingency, but what law firm advertises free legal services. Please share their info with [email protected]
Why not just contact the public defender
Jacob
Because the public defender did not go on tv and offer to “Help all with free services”, but the service did. When I called them, apparently, they state they help everyone but do not mention until you call that they do not help sex offenders. I sent FAC the name of the group as they requested but no follow up.
If there are services that they normally provide that you need, I imagine they would be able to discuss those with you.
I just don’t think they’d be in a position to handle niche services that are outside their normal area of legal expertise (such as registrant-specific services offered by the Ron Kleiners of the world).
No follow up is necessary. You provided the info for Legal Aid. Legal Aid handles only certain types of cases for the indigent and the types of cases were listed on their site. I’m quite sure it’s not that they don’t help sex offenders, but that they don’t handle sex offender issues. If an indigent registrant had an issue with domestic violence they would likely not exclude them. Similarly, if a non-registrant had an issue involving commercial litigation they would not take that case either.
Respectfully, Cherokee, many of your posts get deleted because it seems you consistently write inflammatory comments where it seems you personalize things too much. Your complaint about legal aid is analogous to going into a hardware store and asking for a turkey sandwich. You would write that the business refused to serve you because you’re on the registry, when they probably just didn’t make your sandwich because they are a hardware store.
CherokeeJack
I’ve heard of free consultations, but think that any “free legal services” must require one to hire their services for them to sign off on anything. *Well, some free services might be let someone know the steps in a will, what forms are needed for a marriage certificate, etc.
Now, did you call the “free legal services” folks up because of the sex charge, for something not related to your conviction, or what? After my “special knock,” I called around various law firms; some only handled marriage, civil, or traffic tickets, while a few dealt with felony charges.
The fact is the SO Population is the least likely to reoffend. But think about this… the overwhelming majority of those on the registry were first time offenders. Which literally means none of the laws baring registered people didn’t pertain to them as they were not registered at the time of offense. And further more the overwhelming majority of victims knew their offender.. which means all this stranger danger is crazy and ineffective just like the rest of it. So if all these restrictions were so effective then they should apply to everyone to keep our “kids safe”, right? Cuz the restrictions and the registry do not really prevent anything but if we believe it does expand it to include every person. Ok so now all of the population regardless of registry status cannot live within a restricted number of feet, or work in certain professions, or go to school, or raise your children, I can go on.
Please let me know how that’s working for you.