It is essential that registrants have access to church services because for some registrants the ability to worship at a church is more important than food, shelter and clothing.
In the words of North Carolina attorney Glenn Gerding, “Given….residency and employment restrictions, as well as societal discrimination against and vilification of sex offenders, churches are often the last hope for many sex offenders who need the stability and guidance a church pastor and church family can provide.”
Why is it then that some churches place outright bans on registrants who wish to worship there while others restrict registrants’ activities to such an extent that registrants choose not to worship at all?
One answer may be the publication, “Sex Offenders in the Church”, recently issued by ChurchLawAndTax.com which provides erroneous statements and inhumane guidelines regarding registrants. This publication harms registrants’ ability to worship because it repeats many myths about registrants as well as spreads fear to both the churches they serve as well as to church leaders.
The publication includes a few accurate facts about registrants such as that the number of registrants in America is both staggering and rising. In addition, the publication accurately states that the growing number of registrants includes many who want to attend church. Further, the publication accurately states that registrants have been convicted of a wide range of offenses including those that are not violent and do involve physical contact.
The report takes a wrong turn, however, when it states that although there are registrants who attend church because they have a “genuine desire to meet spiritual needs,” there are also registrants who attend church because their motivation is “a desire to have access to potential victims.” The report continues down the path of misinformation by repeating myths such as that some registrants “will always pose an elevated risk” to a church that elects to allow them to have access to church services and activities.
The publication takes another wrong turn when it focuses upon pedophilia, a medical diagnosis and not a crime, and states the following myths: pedophilia is incurable and very difficult to control. The publication goes on to falsely state that pedophiles have a high recidivism rate, that is, more than half of pedophiles who are convicted of a sex offense are re-arrested for a new offense.
The publication continues down the wrong path when it spreads fear by warning churches that they could be found liable if it becomes known that a registrant is worshipping there. It then adds another fear by warning church leaders that they could become personally liable for a registrant’s behavior.
The greatest harm done by this publication, however, is the shame it projects on to church leaders who are compassionate and understand the spiritual needs of registrants. Specifically, first the publication recognizes that “there will always be those in church leadership who will urge mercy and restoration” for registrants. Then, the publication issues a false warning that such feelings are contrary to an unknown Bible commandment that “speaks to….protection of the innocent.” The publication continues shaming in its question: “How can church leaders even begin to think they are taking this commandment seriously if they allow a convicted sex offender to have unrestricted access to the church?”
The false statements in this publication are compounded by the inhumane recommendation that registrants should only be allowed in church if they enter into a “conditional attendance agreement.” One term of such an agreement is that a registrant “must always be in the presence of a designated chaperone while on church property for any reasons, including….restroom breaks.” In addition, the chaperone must “meet the offender at the entrance of the church, and accompany him or her on church premises until returned to his or her vehicle.” Given that no one else in the congregation must be accompanied by a chaperone, this restriction alone brands registrants who worship in a church with a Scarlet letter.
Because this publication is provided to both churches and church leaders, it is imperative that this organization devote resources to the education of those who have published it. That is, ACSOL will provide that organization with truthful data from both government and academic sources. ACSOL will provide that data with a hope and a prayer that the organization and its members will educate themselves about the real facts regarding registrants. However, if they choose to ignore those facts, it may be necessary to educate the organization and its members utilizing a different method – a lawsuit in a federal court.
In order to succeed in court, ACSOL needs to learn about the experiences of registrants who have attempted to worship at a church and been denied that opportunity. Please send a brief description of your experience to service@all4consolaws.org. Thank you.
Hmm.. Let’s see:
“In 2016, the Pennsylvania Attorney General initiated confidential grand jury proceedings to investigate:
–allegations of child sexual abuse by individuals associated with SIX of the eight Pennsylvania dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church,
–failure of church officials to make mandatory reports of child abuse,
–acts by Catholic priests endangering the welfare of children, and
–obstruction of justice by church officials, community leaders, and public officials.”
What a bunch of hypocrites.
Well it’s outrageous. It reminds me of this NPR story: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9213698
I see very little point in going on when the God of my savior allows this to happen. I looked at a bad picture. I guess according to what I read here I will see you all in hell…
Hey Everybody,
This is a subject I’m very passionate about. Unfortunately, most pastors and leaders are in a way like politicians (choosing the peoples voice over rationale and grace). For the last 3 years, I’ve had many conversations with pastors and leaders who are being forced into signing agreements with insurance companies as it pertains to having registrants attend worship services. In essence, if they don’t agree with the insurance company it will cancel the policy. I address the issue in detail in my book, Evil On My Pew: The Hysteria Around Sex Offenders In The Church. There are still many great loving churches out there. My goal is to compile a list in 2019 that Im calling Green Churches (Safe Havens) for registrants and their loved ones. STAY ENCOURAGED, YOUR SUCCESS IS NECESSARY!
amazon.com/author/pastorlarryanderson
From what I read and see on TV you have a better chance to be shot and killed then assaulted by a registers citizen in church.
I am a member of the Roman Catholic Church and until my convection for ATTEMPT 288(a) as the result of a sting; I was active in my Church leadership. My crime was restricted to the Internet and there was no one that came forward to make accusations of physical contact at any time. When I was released over 15 years ago I was welcomed back into the Church community by about 95% of our members. BUT, I am not allowed to participate in any religious or social activity in the Church. The Catholic church has a program called VERTIS that is required and also fingerprinting. I am allowed to sit in the pew and can still write checks to support the parish and Church. Other than that I am not allowed to work at fundraisers or even take up the collections during Mass. All of the priests have told me they cannot allow me to do anything more then sit in the pew. Other religions are more open then the Catholics .
Anyway that is my story and I do love God and Jesus Christ as my Savior and am still a Practicing Catholic in spite of the administrators of the CHURCH.
Most churches separate the little kids from the main congregation since they can be disruptive during service. To access the children’s area you have to give your ID and they check it against the registry. Seems like that solves the problem.
If you are going to a church that has a policy against sex offenders I would say you are going to the wrong church. If the church is buying into a the unfounded worldly views about sex offenders then what other areas are they compromising the truth for emotional hysteria. I could even make the argument that the Bible is against any sort of registry altogether. The registry, and the punishment they continuously heap on, is a form of revenge no matter how they want to disguise it. We all know what the Bible says about revenge.
Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19
So merely being on the registry subjects a registrant to being banned from Facebook, nextdoor, certain shelters, living in many towns, traveling to many countries, entering many schools, getting government housing assistance, getting many jobs (eeoc says denial and checking registry ok) and participating or even going to many churches.
How many fundamental rights are being trampled on now by being on a list where SCOTUS in connecticut dps v doe 2003 unanimously said lists are ok and dont affect those on the list because the list does not infer dangerousness?
Due process guarantees that there is a fair process before subjecting a person to restrictions and disabilities by our government, yet the registry is mandatory and for an arbitrary mandatory duration out of the judge’s control. In no case is the list used as just a warning that a person needs to be under extra scrutiny before being allowed to do something. Instead it is a blanket denial because why would any church, business or other country spend time and money and take on liability to research someone every time when our own judicial system cant do it just one time during a fair Trial?
…and in total contrast to all these false statistics and fear mongering, I have received the same message from every counselor, therapist, case manager, PO, and specialist at every turn of my years in the justice system and they all say the key to success is having a stable home life, close interaction with friends, steady income, healthy interaction with civic groups, and a degree of faith and spiritual growth. Basically everything that contrasts with this article and everything that is in direct conflict with the registry.
Well, my husband and I attempted to go to a local church. His counsler at the time told him he had to inform the pastor. Well, the pastor told the elders, and then the info started to leak to the congergation. He found out from the lady across the street who after 5 years is now our friend.
He stopped going, since he felt uncomfortable. They never treated us badly. He left the church and so did I. We haven’t stepped foot in a church since eventhough he is no longer on porbation.
After he got off porbation and the internet restriction, I got a smartphone which I love. I happen to have a production job that allows you to listen to music. I listen to praise and worship music. Then I either listen to a KJV audio Bible, a Bible Study, and/or preaching I have downloaded on my SD card. I basically can have my own church at work every day, especially if I have a 10 hour day.
Don’t Tread On Me, you are missing the point if you think it is all about attending Church. The whole point is Jesus, your salvation, your walk with him, and leaning on Jesus in hard times. Attending church won’t get you saved, and won’t help you especially if it is a bad church. A bad church can actually hinder your walk with God instead of enhancing it whether you are a registarant or not. My husband actually got kicked out of a church before he even got on the regestry. A whole other story.
Don’t base your walk with God on hyprocritical church leaders. God didn’t allow that to happen. God did give us a free will, and unfortunatly that free will includes people being able to sin and shun others including church leaders. The church has been infested with bad things since the time of Jesus. I agree with CL, and Jesus was no where near nice.
There is a phrase I always heard NOT in the Bible but elsewhere. Bad things happen because good men do nothing. Maybe try to do something good. Maybe it would be possible to start a small group Bible study with other sex offenders, and/or people who know your situation. This can be done with or without the internet. Right now my church is talking with my mom about the Bible, Jesus, and encouraging each other.
May you have peace, and I pray you continue to walk with Jesus. Let not your heart be hardened. Let God give you a peace that passes all understanding.
I would not be sane and where I am today without Jesus. Yes he is that important.
Being banned from churches certainly has an impact on family and ones own children. My former church had very strong negative policies against gay members too. Hard to “educate” church policy makers. My kids and their spouses left the church because of these policies. It seems most sins are forgivable accept sex things; and every sex thing points towards pedophilia.
Just a related note: Lots of SAA SA SLAA SCA 12 step groups are held in churches. In groups I’ve attended, 15% to 20% have been registered. Probably 80% or more have done something that could have conceivably gotten them on the registry. (more than peeing in public). I expect these places will slowly be made off limits to us.
In light of recent events, if these churches are so persistent in congregational safety, why don’t they focus their efforts on the immediate threat of people walking in off the streets and shooting up the place? I mean, isn’t that a “no brainer?” I would say there’s a higher likelihood of being killed at the hands of an assailant with a gun in church that one of “those people” snatching a kid from Sunday School class.
Dumb question maybe, but: How is a church always going to even know you’re attending services?
Many are huge with hundreds, even more than a thousand, seats. Worshippers walk in, they attend services they leave. No one fingerprints you at the door. Just to be clear, I am not a catholic, so maybe that works differently, I don’t know. Maybe some churches require membership, I don’t know. But contemporary churches are springing up everywhere to try to attract those who don’t attend, which I think is something like half the population, and to my knowledge there is no requirement that you “join”. You just go.
What would prevent me from attending incognito if “membership” is not required?
I attend church, I don’t give my address, not do I attend any social events, I never did prior to my conviction. It was hard while on probation because my probation officer told me that I couldn’t go, period.
Check out in the book of Isaiah in chapter 10 about those that write evil decrees.
I’m a pretty committed Christian who lives in Texas and goes to a very conservative Calvinistic Presbyterian church. When we started going to this church I let my pastor and elders know about my offense and status as a registered citizen. Since my offense was almost 25 years ago, they didn’t seem too concerned. I did tell them that I could never be involved in any kind of ministry dealing with children, and they seemed to understand. It is amazing to me how wonderful this church is. There is a guy who is a former prosecutor named Boz Tchividjian. His ministry is called GRACE, which is an acronym for something like gracious response to something, I can’t remember… Anyway, it has nothing to do with grace. It’s basically a very ungracious and unforgiving type of ministry that goes around telling churches to ignore the facts and statistics about how low recidivism is. I’m not even sure that Boz is really a Christian, because he is a pretty awful and sort of nutty guy. Most conservative churches buy into it, so I was sort of shocked at how well my own church has treated me and my family. This is the most loving and wonderful church that we have ever belonged to. It probably has something to do with the fact that it’s so gospel-centric. Lot’s of teaching and preaching about what all Christ has secured for those who believe though his life, death and resurrection, an, how He imputes His righteousness to us. Very freeing to a person like me who has a sensitive conscience and habit of sort of beating myself up internally. Sundays are some of our best days around the house.
One the other hand, l belong to a church, where most know about conviction and do not care. I have been place in leadership, have keys to building, and was ask to drive and authorized their vehicles. I was just promoted a key position. However, l do avoid children and youth mingling, even though l am not restricted. There are real Christian churches out there.
This is a very disturbing article! I wasn’t aware that Churches do background checks? I would just ignore the article! Churches welcome sinners! I was actually part of Prison Ministries for some time! Ignore.
For those of us who are Catholic we perhaps need to remind the church that Sirach 8:5 reads as follows. “Do not reproach one who turns away from sin; remember, we all are guilty.” And then of course one might also remind them that Christ Himself said, (In John 8:7) “But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” So then the hypocrisy and fear mongered political agendas (to prove that they are “tough on crime”) persist even among those who are religious. I do go to Mass every Sunday and Holy day and am active wherever I can be, but not a penny goes to support the church and my giving is only to those needs that do not end up right there in my parish. Until I am able to be fully a part of the life of the church, my money goes elsewhere while I remain a faithful Catholic. Good luck brothers!
@AJ @Lovecraft
During my 19 years on the registry I have witnessed the slow and painful evolution of more restrictive legislation passed each year. NC has to be some of the worst in the US. Furthermore we won a very important lawsuit challenging the premise restrictions. Within 3 months the legislature held a special session to rewrite the statue changing only a word or 2 and passed it almost unanimously while the original lawsuit was being appealed. Due to the original lawsuit being upheld the new law has taken effect.
So back to another lawsuit. I am very pessimistic. The latest premise restriction lawsuit will probably be ruled in our favor again. Then another law will be written that specifically address the issues stated in the courts opinion against the first re-write. Each time the law is revisited the legislature uses the courts decision and opinion to tailor each new law. Eventually it will come down to a war of attrition. And we know who has more resources. I think this is an issue that must be decided at a federal level before we see any real change.
I only made it through 11 minutes before losing interest, and while my initial reaction is disgust at the notion of a church excluding anyone, as long as the church can be sued, then they have a duty to protect themselves and should hire responsibly. I send my kids to Bible classes Sunday mornings and want to know that the teacher does not have a history of violent crime, whether it is spousal, child, animal abuse or anything else that makes me uncomfortable. (I don’t inquire about church staff backgrounds, but trust HR has done its homework.)
If the conviction is 30 years old and they’ve lead an exemplary life since, that’s another thing. However, if the church fails to screen the driving record of the newly hired school bus operator, and my kid is hurt when that guy crosses the median into oncoming traffic, then they better have damn good insurance.
A Christian church should follow the teachings of Christ and not exclude anyone from it’s congregation unless, IMO, that person has demonstrated an inability to cast out the demons which bring harm to others.
The article is truly disgusting. If you think about it, its almost funny. I wont say what Church I belong to, but (sorry/not trying to offend anyone/its common amongst all religions) there have been some Mormons who marry more than one woman? Its very common to turn on the TV and read about Catholic Father’s being arrested for abuse of a minor/cover ups as well! Jimmy Swaggart defrocked by soliciting prostitutes? There are other stories of Pastors caught stealing, having affairs and one even caught with a gay prostitute! Now, I’m not one who wants to put someone down, but really? How about kenneth Copeland and Pastor Creflo Dollar and his 65 million dollar jet? Really? God loves sinners!
Fight a righteous fight against popular wrongs. Be as Christ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6O5-3pfKc&t=2s