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| Jesus with the woman caught in adultery |
And we are not alone. In the Bible, even the patriarch Abraham shamelessly lies about Sarai being his wife and makes her available to another man in order to save his own life. His nephew Lot offers his virgin daughters in the same inexcusable way.
King David is guilty of both voyeurism and outright adultery with Bathsheba, then arranges to have her husband die undefended in battle in order to cover up his reprehensible behavior. And both he and his heir to the throne, King Solomon, used their power to gain and to dominate multiple wives and mistresses. These are dark and troubling stories.
The other side of the Biblical narrative is about God's mercy and forgiveness. Thank God that whenever there is genuine repentance there is also amazing grace, grace not only to erase sexual and other sins sins from our record but to keep us from repeating them.
Our legal system is seldom so forgiving, and in the case of offenders not turning away from their wrongdoing, it shouldn't be.
But can people committing even sexual wrongdoing get the help they need to experience genuine change? Does the 19 year-old who has sex with an underage 15 year-old girl friend need to be branded a terrible person for the rest of his life? Must everyone who sexually misuses or abuses another be forever considered unable to return to some kind of normal life if they do everything necessary to become transformed into decent human beings?
Or are sexual sins in a category totally different from others, out of the reach of God' grace and others' help?
I vote for grace, but not cheap grace. I support forgiveness, but not forgiveness as in "let's pretend this never happened". True forgiveness is God's kind of response to a demonstration of a 180 degree about face and a commitment to strict and ongoing accountability, one that insures that everyone is safe, including the former perpetrator.
If that is never possible, there is no hope for any of us.
4 comments:
Thank you for this. It is encouraging to see that some religious people "get" the unfairness of these laws. They've been wildly popular politically and based on erroneous beliefs, i.e. sex offenders always re-offend. The FBI stats show it's actually quite low . But people believe what they want to believe and drama-driven "news" such as Fox, unscrupulous politicians and overly-zealous prosecutors wanting to make a name for themselves all have used these laws to whip up anger, hate and fear. The mob mentality has been part of America, unfortunately, too often... you don't know if there's a murderer out of prison living next to you...but you could have a sex offender who downloaded so-called "child porn" that really was bundled porn with a Tracey Lord type of teen and the police have used these laws for stings to go after lots of men who do something stupid (but not dangerous) about sex. Helps fill up the private prisons, keep Americans scared and people who are afraid are easier to manipulate. We should be cautious with our children but not unnecessarily fearful...that's the gift of these laws.
Count me in among those who oppose such laws. I've met, I think, a few thousand people during my lifetime, and I happen to know four people personally who are on the sex offender registry -- one from high school, one I used to go to church with, one who's a former co-worker, and the other being a neighbor down the street from us.
The reasons I oppose the registry are as follows:
1) 95% of all sex crimes are committed by someone who, at the time of the offense, was not required to register, which suggests a very low recidivism rate.
2) 93% of all sex crime victims know and, up until the time of the crime, trusted the perpetrator, with said perp often being a family member, close friend of the family, or someone else in a child's life, such as a teacher, coach, or (God forbid) pastor. Very seldom are children sexually assaulted by complete strangers.
3) According to the FBI's own numbers, a full 20% of all sex crime convictions or confessions are false, with as much as possibly another 20% being doubtful. On a personal note, with statistics like that, even though such inappropriate behavior is not a temptation for me, it has driven me to decide that I will no longer allow myself to be alone with any of our nieces or great-nieces. I don't think any of them would falsely accuse me, but at rates like that, I just cannot afford to take that chance.
4) Think about the guys on there all because of a teenage romance that went too far. Just how in the ham sandwich are such guys enough of a threat to warrant being on the sex offender registry? Washington politicians, I've got two words for y'all: THEY AREN'T!
5) Women whose bosses have discovered that their husbands are on the sex offender registry have forced them to choose between their jobs and their husbands, threatening to fire them if they didn't divorce their husbands.
6) Think about the children of sex offenders. Such children are frequently bullied all because of their (usually) dads' registration requirements, never mind the fact that the children either had nothing to do with it, may have been assaulted themselves, or their births may havd been caused by the act that landed their dads on the registry. And sometimes it may have even been due to something that happened before they were born. Or, worst of all, suppose their dads were falsely convicted or pressured to falsely confess.
Those are just a few reasons I find the registry to be completely and totally uncalled for. In fact, the very people who originally called for the creation of such registries have since realized what a mistake they are and have since gone on record calling for their repeal.
Wow, what a refreshing post! Even the comments are a breathe of fresh air. Finally, a few people are beginning to see how useless the sex offender registry is and yet at the same time extremely harmful for the registrant and his/her family. For 15 years I have lived with "The Look" people give me and my husband when we are in public places as he has been on the registry that long. Somehow people think that when a person is registered they are no longer human, but have morphed into a monster. This hatred extends to the registrants family and friends as well. Some people do act like monsters, and they should pay for their crimes whatever they are. But to register anyone once they have served their time is in-humane and a violation of civil rights. The world always has and always will have dangerous people in it. We all need to be careful but not live in fear all the time. Especially unfounded fear that has been whipped up by the media with an agenda. As for the body of Christ, we are to listen to Him and obey his commands. Only His wisdom and His love can sort this out. We just need to trust and obey Him. Just imagine a world where everyone is defined by the worst thing they had ever done. That world is not worth living in.
Its important to tell people this...
Just because your life has worked out and you are taken care of dies not mean others lives are the same !
The excuse or lie the public needs protect themselves by putting a REGISTRY TOGETHER is Corrupt and a lie...look below
High recidivism, they do crimes again is MAJOR FALSE INFORMATION.
Registries make people safe, FALSE.
Registries are needed and just/fair....THIS IS A LIE, MIST PEOPLE ON REGISTRIES ARE NOT DANGEROUS OR DESERVE LIFE LONG PUNISHMENT !
The Law is Protecting Citizens with the Registry, FALSE, THE REGISTRY VIOLATES CIVIL, CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS !
The Sex Offender label is FALSE, BECAUSE 95% OF OFFENDERS ARE NOT HIGH RISK AND THE LAS IS CORRUPT BY LYING ABOUT DANGER !
The Ex criminal had their day in Court...FALSE, MOST SEX CRIMES PROSECUTED ARE/WERE/IS UNJUST, CORRUPT A D INVALID, FOR USING, INTIMIDATION, HUMILIATION, HARASSING AND BULLYING TACTICS, WITHOUT DUE PROCESS, AND SPECIAL COURTS TO ASSESS AND PROFESSIONALLY DETERMINE TRUE VIOLENT OR DANGEROUSNESS
The Supreme Court and Other Jurisdictions have used DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE AND SO FORTH EX POST FACTO AND ARROGANTLY EXCUSED THERE ABUSE UNDER THE FALSE PRETENSE OF VIOLENT/PREDATORY GROUNDS WITHOUT RESEARCH, PROOF, FACTS, EVIDENCE OR STATISTICS TO BACK UP ANY CLAIMS BESIDES 1 CONVICTION...
THAT IS ALL...
Good Day !!!
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