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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:29 am Post subject: Should sinners be allowed in church? |
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If this is not the height of hypocrisy!
Churches grapple with whether to welcome convicted sex offenders
By Adelle M. Banks
Saturday, July 3, 2010
"All are welcome" is a common phrase on many a church sign and Web site. But what happens when a convicted sex offender is at the door?
Church officials and legal advocates are grappling with how -- and whether -- people who have been convicted of sex crimes should be included in U.S. congregations, especially when children are present:
-- Last month, a lawyer argued in the New Hampshire Supreme Court for a convicted sex offender who wants to attend a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation with a chaperone.
"What we argued is that the right to worship is a fundamental right and the state can only burden it if it has compelling interest to do so, and then only in a way that is narrowly constructed," said Barbara Keshen, a New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union attorney for Jonathan Perfetto, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to 61 counts of possessing child pornography.
-- On Monday, the Seventh-day Adventist Church added language to its manual saying that sexual abuse perpetrators can be restored to members only if they do not have unsupervised contact with children and are not "in a position that would encourage vulnerable individuals to trust them implicitly." Garrett Caldwell, a spokesman for the denomination, said the new wording in the global guidelines tries to strike a balance between protecting congregants and supporting the religious freedom of abusers in "a manifestation of God's grace."
more at link |
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recessiontime
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Location: Got avatar privileges nyahahaha
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:56 am Post subject: |
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| what happened to judge not lest ye be judged? |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:20 pm Post subject: Re: Should sinners be allowed in church? |
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| bacasper wrote: |
If this is not the height of hypocrisy!
Churches grapple with whether to welcome convicted sex offenders
By Adelle M. Banks
Saturday, July 3, 2010
-- On Monday, the Seventh-day Adventist Church added language to its manual saying that sexual abuse perpetrators can be restored to members only if they do not have unsupervised contact with children and are not "in a position that would encourage vulnerable individuals to trust them implicitly." Garrett Caldwell, a spokesman for the denomination, said the new wording in the global guidelines tries to strike a balance between protecting congregants and supporting the religious freedom of abusers in "a manifestation of God's grace."
more at link |
Seems like good sense to me. If someone is a known sex offender who has committed crimes with children why should they have unsupervised contact with children? |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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The responses from the churches seem more or less reasonably: try to include these men and give them access to worship, but don't blindly trust them in a way that might bring children of the congregation to harm. That seems like a reasonable mix of the principles of their faith and sober caution, and I think it's hard to blame them for that.
The real problem here isn't the churches, its the law:
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| In North Carolina, lawyer Glenn Gerding is representing James Nichols, a convicted sex offender who is contesting a state statute that made it illegal for him to be within 300 feet of a church's nursery. He was arrested in a church parking lot after a service. |
This kind of law simply isn't reasonable. It results in a never-ending burden in the offender's life, inhibits them from living their life in a reasonable, otherwise legal way, and doesn't actually grant society any tangible benefits in return. In some cases, the laws about where previously-convicted sex offenders may or may not be makes it incredibly difficult to find a place to live or a decent job, simply because the incidental locations of these "off limits" areas, and as we can see here, it even inhibits something as simple as going to church. |
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