In my last blog, I took the position that the Georgia law that criminalizes all volunteer activities in a faith community by registered sex offenders is problematic because it allows the state to determine how we do ministry. Several of you disagreed.
The state of Georgia is trying to protect its children from sex offenders. To that end it passed legislation in 2006 (updated in 2008) that is viewed as the toughest in the U.S. There is only one problem: the law criminalizes all volunteer activities by registered sex offenders in religious organizations.
International media recently carried the newstory about a Saudi Arabian woman who was gang raped and then sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes after she spoke out to protest the lenient sentences given her attackers.
Why is professional misconduct wrong? Because someone gets hurt. When any of us in a ministerial or teaching role betrays trust, exploits or abuses, we cause harm to another person.
As presidential politics play out, Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has been challenged to answer questions about his involvement in the release of convicted rapist Wayne DuMond after DuMond’s religious “conversion.”
The Fathers’ Day Poll released by the Family Violence Prevention Fund that I discussed in last week’s blog suggests that the majority of men are aware and concerned about sexual and domestic violence.
Twenty-seven incest offenders gave me this advice when I met with them during a session of their court-mandated treatment program. They were mostly Christians and they kept wanting to talk about their faith, so their therapist called me in.
“I’m a convicted sex offender and I would like to attend this church." At FaithTrust Institute, we are receiving weekly inquiries about this situation from anxious clergy and congregations. Some congregations are turning away offenders. This initial reaction may be understandable, but let’s be clear: The identified, self-acknowledged sex offender is the least of a congregation’s worries.