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Sexual Offenders: Their Risk To And In Your Church

Sexual Offenders Their Risk To And In Your Church

Consider the average size community, what percentage of the population do you think make up convicted sex offenders. You might be surprised if you do your homework.

In one Northern California community there are between 30 and 40 convicted sexual offenders within a 2-mile radius. A community with over two dozen places of worship.

If that doesn't surprise you, perhaps this will. The average urban church has one dozen convicted sexual offenders within a one mile radius of its property.

Consider that nearly one in every ten churches has a convicted sexual offender within its membership, often unknown to its member and the pastoral staff. Consider that while most sexual offenders are required by law - in most states - to register as a sexual offender, they are not required by law to notify anybody else. Not nearby schools, not their employers, not nearby churches.

Consider, despite how scary it may be, how often a sexual offender walks in front of your church on a weekly basis while the children are outside having a good time.

These are all unfortunate considerations that we in ministry need to be aware of, as it is our responsibility to be protectors of those that need protection. It is our responsibility to be aware of whom to pay special attention to. This means being aware of the men and women walking past your church after a youth group meeting. It means being aware of who is in your church. It means, unfortunately, being a watch-dog. It means contacting your local law enforcement agency for a list of known sexual offenders (you DO have a good relationship with your local police department, right?) within a ten mile radius of your church, or going online to you're counties online database of sexual offenders if you are fortunate enough to have a county that can legally do so and reviewing where in your churches neighborhood sexual offenders reside at. Not that we are on a witch hunt, but rather out of protection of those you are responsible to protect.

Our fight against sexual predators is not only outside the walls of our churches!

In speaking with pastors from around America is has become all too alarming that a number of senior pastors are encountering sexual offenders within their own church walls - even within their own staff and lay-staff. If that is not enough to wake up every pastor in American, I'm not sure they should be in ministry!

Every month, and in some regions of American every week, we hear of another church going through the woes of dealing with a staff member who has been convicted of sexual offences. While not always it seems a large majority of the sexual offenders are youth pastors or associate pastors - married and unmarried, both male and female. And while not always the case, a large majority of sexual offenders are never given a background check (a real one, not just a few phone calls to other pastors) to check to see if they have any known convictions. Most states require churches to perform background checks on all of their staff and lay-staff, yet the large majority of churches never do. Who can be blamed for allowing sexual predators into our churches when even a simple and fairly inexpensive background check can solve issues that will haunt a church for years to come?

The large majority of pastors that I have spoken with who have had to handle the issues of a staff member who has been taken to jail for sexual offences never had the slightest idea of the actions being taken. How can this be? How can men and women who serve together have secret sins they hide and live? To me it would seem that if you are in constant prayer for one another, as we should be doing for our fellow ministers, the Spirit of the Lord would begin setting off warning flags. Hopefully you are in tune to these types of warnings, which is all that can be prayed for by the people within your church.

This is not to say that you are always going to know the deepest dark secrets of everybody in your church, and it does not mean that you will always be aware of what those in your church are doing. What it does imply, however, is that we need to wake up, to be aware of, and to pay attention to warning signs, to certain actions, and to good old Holy Spirit guidance!

Not all sexual offenders are men. Let me say that again: not all sexual offenders are men!

Let me be clear about this: The biggest cases we hear of on a national level are when adult men have sexual encounters with juvenile male, however there are just as many cases of adult men having sexual encounters with juvenile females. Why they do not make the public news more often I can only attribute to an attempt to protect the juvenile female from any further humiliation. But let us not forget that a sizable percentage of sexual offenders are women - Adult women who have committed sexual offences against juvenile females and juvenile males. These rarely make the local newspaper or national news, yet they are still a major threat to those we need to be protecting.

As ministers we need to be aware that while most sexual offenders are men, we should never forget that a sexual offender can just as easily be an adult female. Please do not think you can hire a female staff member without the same scrutiny and background check as what new male staff members should be receiving. Anybody anybody! can be a sexual offender and if you do not do your home work, you very well may pay a price that could cost your ministry, your church, and most importantly, a victim within your church, unknown and avoidable hell at the hands of a sexual predator.

Be a good pastor; make sure you pray daily for those under your leadership and in your church; perform a background check when you hire a new staff member; perform a yearly background check; finger print all staff, board member, and layleader and if your church can afford it, even quarterly! Consider the cost of not doing it. Consider the costs of not being aware. It simply is not worth the risk!

posted: 02/12/2006 11:46pm by abelajohnb View: Backlinks, Permalink Total Views: 7061 ShortURL: http://christianblog.com/e583 Category: Church Administration	Print This Blog Entry
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Good One John!

I helped our last church put together our youth policy and it was not an easy task. When we began the process the leader told us to to think of it not as "if" we ever run into a predator, but instead look at it as we already have one. There were tears at times as we tried to cover as many situations where we would need to protect a child. One parent, in realizing the exposure to her children, said I'm not sure my children can be completely protected by us at all. It was a dead quiet moment as we all came to that same realization. I would encourage any person to take what John has shared as very serious

and make sure any event your child participates in has a youth policy in place and make sure it makes sense!
Thanks again John.

In Christ,
GreyBear

Posted 02/13/2006 04:56am
Author: greybear

In the line of work I am in, 911 operator/jailer, we have to deal with these birds all the time...also just Monday that teacher from Florida Debra Lafave, has been put on probation and has a "curfew" and she was convicted of having sexual activities with an underage student... if Lafave were a man they would have driven a stake thru his heart... .talk about a double standard, I thought that the judge presiding last time over the matter was acting like Robert Goulet and was going to serenade her... ..and now 3 other female teachers have been arrested for the same thing in the same area... .I cannot understand why these teachers find it worth it to throw it all away for yearning for the dark and lurid side of life... .God Bless Everyone

Posted 04/11/2008 10:58pm
Author: django1960

While sexual predators are often experts in deception, it has been my experience that most often people aren't so much fooled, but refuse to "see" because it is too uncomfortable to confront someone about your suspicions and/or knowledge. Families, who are often well aware of the proclivities of another family member, will often not only refuse to confront, but will actually protect the pedophile.

While I am opposed to the death penalty and I DO believe that all things are possible with God, I still have no understanding of a system that returns these people to the community. It is a proven fact that pedophiles DO NOT, WILL NOT stop offending. They do not want to be "cured". They ENJOY what they do and nothing short of keeping them locked up is going to keep our children safe.

I applaud your efforts and hope that ALL churches will implement the same plan of background checks on their staff and volunteers.

In Christ's love,
Globug

Posted 11/18/2008 02:58pm
Author: globug

This is a good conservative and practical stand. We as the church need to consider carefully what to do about a culture around us that is sliding into more and more permissiveness. When the law of the land moves away from the Bible in describing crime and just punishment, we may have to learn a new application for the meaning of "let them be cut off from among the people".

Keep up the good work.

Posted 11/19/2008 07:12am
Author: bimonics

On his radio show, Neal Boortz was discussing the case of the Halloween Pumpkin Heads or the Pumpkin Dozen. As a college prank, there was a large number (I'm thinking he said around 120) college students who put pumpkins on their head and went streaking (a la the '70s). Of the many, 12 were arrested and charged -- and will be required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

In my home state of Georgia, the Atlanta Journal/Constitution newspaper ran a series that highlighted people who were registered sex offenders. Many were high school seniors dating high school juniors. One case in point was a young couple who have been married now for 10 years and have children -- but because they had sex while they were in high school, he is still registered as a sex offender.

When sex offender laws were introduced and the registry began, old cases were pulled and called and required to register. I wonder how many would have entered into plea bargains or the like had they known they would be caught in ever-increasingly restrictive registry requirements. In Georgia, where a person had a record which someone deemed them to be a sex offender, they first were required to register and notify the authorities when they moved. Later, the laws were strengthened so that now these same people cannot live in the 'proximity' of a church, daycare or school. Then they were tightened so that they cannot live with a certain radius of a bus stop. I don't mind telling you, there is no such place in Atlanta. Now most counties are set up such that anyone can go to the website and pull up a list of names and addresses of registered offenders to see where they live.

Poor Pumpkin Heads!

I suppose as the mother of a college-age son, I can identify with those injustices. There but for the grace of God, go we. When he entered college, one of the freshmen orientation sessions my son attended was about women. The young men were taught, just because she says yes tonight doesn't mean she'll still mean yes when morning comes. The very fact that the college administration felt this prevalent enough that this must be taught to incoming freshman underscored to me the fine line young men walk these days. Naturally, as Christians we counsel our children to wait until marriage, but obviously the college does not preach abstinence.

Of course, for some offenders, such action is necessary. For countless hundreds of others, it is not warranted in the least bit.

My point is, this is not Salem and we are not in a witch hunt. Absolutely we must be cautious. Absolutely we must be diligent to protect our children. But remember, our laws are imperfect and not everyone who is registered as a sex offender deserves to be. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be heard, and if you find out that someone is a registered offender, at least ask them about it or take the time to pull the public records to make your own determination from there.

Gracie

Posted 11/19/2008 08:25am
Author: savedbyegrace

savedbyegrace:

On his radio show, Neal Boortz was discussing the case of the Halloween Pumpkin Heads or the Pumpkin Dozen. As a college prank, there was a large number (I'm thinking he said around 120) college students who put pumpkins on their head and went streaking (a la the '70s). Of the many, 12 were arrested and charged -- and will be required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.In my home state of Georgia, the Atlanta Journal/Constitution newspaper ran a series that highlighted people who were registered sex offenders. Many were high school seniors dating high school juniors. One case in point was a young couple who have been married now for 10 years and have children -- but because they had sex while they were in high school, he is still registered as a sex offender.When sex offender laws were introduced and the registry began, old cases were pulled and called and required to register. I wonder how many would have entered into plea bargains or the like had they known they would be caught in ever-increasingly restrictive registry requirements. In Georgia, where a person had a record which someone deemed them to be a sex offender, they first were required to register and notify the authorities when they moved. Later, the laws were strengthened so that now these same people cannot live in the 'proximity' of a church, daycare or school. Then they were tightened so that they cannot live with a certain radius of a bus stop. I don't mind telling you, there is no such place in Atlanta. Now most counties are set up such that anyone can go to the website and pull up a list of names and addresses of registered offenders to see where they live. Poor Pumpkin Heads! I suppose as the mother of a college-age son, I can identify with those injustices. There but for the grace of God, go we. When he entered college, one of the freshmen orientation sessions my son attended was about women. The young men were taught, just because she says yes tonight doesn't mean she'll still mean yes when morning comes. The very fact that the college administration felt this prevalent enough that this must be taught to incoming freshman underscored to me the fine line young men walk these days. Naturally, as Christians we counsel our children to wait until marriage, but obviously the college does not preach abstinence.Of course, for some offenders, such action is necessary. For countless hundreds of others, it is not warranted in the least bit.My point is, this is not Salem and we are not in a witch hunt. Absolutely we must be cautious. Absolutely we must be diligent to protect our children. But remember, our laws are imperfect and not everyone who is registered as a sex offender deserves to be. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be heard, and if you find out that someone is a registered offender, at least ask them about it or take the time to pull the public records to make your own determination from there.Gracie

This country has always been one of extremes. We either go too far left or too far right - seemingly without using any common sense whatsoever. Pranks and situations like the married couple are just the tip of the ice burg and prime examples of not using common sense when applying the law. Releasing pedophiles back into the community is another. The solution is judges who use common sense when applying the law. Unfortunately, that seems to be in short supply.
Glo

Posted 11/20/2008 08:09am
Author: globug

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