I've got no problem with it. *shrugs* Especially since the guy is completely honest about it.

The church is doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing. They shouldn't tolerate it(as in, not keep him from doing it again), but they should let him in to be forgiven. Honestly, how do they expect him to be forgiven if he has trouble staying in a church?

I think he should be welcomed, but watched very closely in situations involving youth. Similar to not allowing a three-time divorced man to lead marriage counseling classes or a convicted money launderer to be on the budget committee, this guy should be limited in situations where he's proven himself untrustworthy.

We have one in our church, and he goes to a special grown-men's only bible study. If they geniunely repent, I don't have any problem with it.

Most churches are conveniently contradictory that way.

It sounds like most of you don't understand the incredibly recidivistic nature of sex offenses. Although I sometimes lurk in P&C these days, I almost never post, but reading some of your responses made me want to point out that if one counts on religion, repentance or a change of scenery to control a sex offender, they are taking an incredible risk.

Given time, this guy will find another child to victimize, and it'll likely be the child of an "enlightened and trusting" church member.

These people don't change. EVER. Respectully, anyone that would let this guy within a country mile of their child needs to be a tad more realistic.

Well now, I can agree with most of that, but not the doves part. A commitment to non-violence ends when someone poses a real and present threat to your kids. Then it's time to get medieval.

There's also a passage in the good book about those that would harm a child. All fine and well, but even if there was such a thing as divine justice I wouldn't be for waiting on it in cases such as this.

The guys that work in my division often talk about the depraved behavior of sexual criminals and we have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for these people to contain what is the most powerful human drive, the sexual one. They just can't, short of chemicals (which they seldom stay on unless it's observed therapy) and incarceration, which on deters when they are locked up

Sorry, I knew I should have elucidated there. That verse is Jesus speaking to the disciples, whom He is sending out to preach in hostile places. The idea is that it's a dangerous world, and we are to be both careful and gentle. In this case, that means letting him in, but using care to make sure he never has the chance to hurt children.

I looked at that briefly, It would have been difficult to comment on most of what I read without being impolite, so I passed.

I agree that people should not be prosecuted if they engage in relations with someone and there is less than a 2 year age difference. Anything more than that, the older person is taking advantage of a troubled child. That said, some of the comments I saw were troubling.

Welp....

Without touching the whole thing off again, sometimes when I see more liberal ideas about our system of jurisprudence being voiced by people whom as far as I know don't have intimate dealings with both victims and offenders I get preachy.

In most things I don't really get worked up about people's opinions being different than mine. But stuff like that I tend to, which makes the discourse unrewarding.

wordsmythe: Let's just let that water lay where Jesus flung it, shall we? It was another recent thread on this board about sex offenders. I wasn't abandoned. But I definately didn't carry the prevailing opinion and I tried to state it while not turning it into a frag-fest.

Augghhhhhhhh!!!!!

I love the gopher.

This may shock you to hear this from me, but I couldn't agree more. If there is one thing that churches do well, it is instilling a sense of community. If there is anything that any lawbreaker needs, it is a communal support network that provides both encouragement and accountability. One of the saddest costs to the individual in modern American society is the loss of community in the pursuit of freedom and privacy. I half suspect that this void explains a great deal of the appeal of religion and the rapid rise of it.

I got thinking more about this thread last night and a book I recently read about churches being relevant in their communities. The statement I quoted from Paleo above is really what I was thinking last night...kind of odd, but in a cool way.

The Book of Acts describes what churches should look like and we are so far away from that standard as to be laughable. So many today are focused on buildings, gyms, numbers in attendance, and other incidental crap that it's sad. When we drive by a "good" church on Sunday morning, how many brand new SUVs are in the parking lot while a quarter mile away a family of 6 goes hungry in the projects? I don't know, I'm kind of rambling, but the outspoken "leaders" of the church today seem so far off of Christ's message that it's no wonder people are so skeptical of Christ. If His own followers don't act any different than the rest of the world, what's the point in even taking the time to find out more about Christ? We're so casual in our faith now that those living "Christian" lives are pretty well indistinguishable from everyone else.

The sense of community Paleo described is what every church should strive for. Why would anyone bother to darken a church's door on Sunday morning unless it was relevant to their life? The "important issues" of the day seem to be railing against homosexuality, abortion, and evolution. While all of that has its place, where are the churches that put feet under their faith, go out and work to improve their communities, and make a dang difference in an individual's life?

Let me ask this genuinely. For those here that are skeptical, doubtful, non-believing, or even outright hostile toward Christ/church/religion, what would it take for you to even consider visiting a church, whether it's for a special event or a Sunday service? Or on the other side, what is it keeps you from the idea? I don't ask this as a trap or to convert you anything like that, I'm just trying to figure out where Christianity has messed up, which it clearly has, and why it turns so many people off. Please be honest, you won't hurt my feelings.

Bass,

Truth be told, I visit churches pretty often, though I find that the sense of community I get from close friends and collegues is a deeper connection than I am likely to find in church. That said, I could very easily see how a sex offender (who is, by nature of his crime, ostracized from society) would benefit from a community to belong to.

If the sex offender is a true believer in the church doctrine, he would probably have far more in common with that community than I would. What, after all, is a church other than a group of people united in a particular religious belief? If I fail in the single most important prerequisite (ie: belief in deity(ies)), I hardly see that there would be much I or the others could gain out of my attendance.

My fiancee happens to be a regular churchgoer and has struggled mightily with my skepticism. I have humored her with the occasional appearance and find the whole grovelling and human debasement (it is a Korean megachurch and may not be representative of mainstream Christianity) pretty distasteful. I've heard it said that the way one worships god(s) says more about the worshipper than the one(s) being worshipped. If that is the case, I'm not convinced the relationship is entirely healthy from my observation.

In short, I find the community I get out of my rotary club sufficient for the task.