October 18, 2012
Be Alert
A damper was put on a recent get-together when I learned that one
estranged family member was a registered sex offender. Although I don’t know
the specifics of the offense, I kept him at arm’s length - both mentally and
physically. I can’t say that it was a relaxed social visit, but by being on
guard I found an interesting sense of control and power. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like
a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him,
standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the
world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV)
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3 comments:
Gail;
-----Maybe I shouldn’t be this way, but I Corinthians says love is patient and kind and not resentful, and that it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. When Jesus was asked how many times one should forgive, He said seventy times seven. He went on to say that we must forgive, not might ought to, but must, or our Father will not forgive us. That’s difficult.
-----Neither is that to say registering sex offenders is particularly wrong. One thing rather noticeable about sex offenders is that some do it again. But how many is some? Two percent? Twenty percent? Forty percent? Ninety eight thousandths of one percent? I know those kids on the street are precious, but if only fourteen percent of sex offenders repeat (a study in Scientific American,) then how abused have been the other eighty six percent of them by their scarlet letter “A“? And if our attitude is that our children are so precious that humiliating so many people is important enough to save a few, then why are we legally murdering over a million of those precious little children before they ever get out of the womb? Something is not adding up here?!
-----I know a registered sex offender. I like this person. My wife and I play parlor games with him and his parents. None of us ever talk about it. I can only suppose there is deep and abiding shame felt there. I’ve heard only scant description of how he wound up with his scarlet “A”, and it didn’t seem that bad to me. Which leads my mind to another question: exactly how minor a misunderstanding will honor that registry with your name? Some very pure and affectionate expressions to a child will quickly add a person to the list. So let’s all be careful about expressing our love out there! Do we really want that kind of frost creeping down our streets? Well, maybe to avoid an extra couple kids being tragically abused we might consider some chill.
-----Which is why I am so sure we all live in Alice’s rabbit hole. Nobody is rushing off to register women and young girls who take their babies while in their own wombs to be torn apart by a murder specialist calling himself a doctor. And they get away with this moral crime scot-free and lawfully blessed over a million times a year! Now I agree this is a darned callous way of saying something about which many regretful and sorrow filled souls wish they had never done. But maybe those precious repentant ones receiving our sympathies and forgiveness are in a better position than are we to understand the torment of the registered sex offender’s scarlet “A”.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Steve,
I’m with you. However, for me this is not a forgiveness issue, but a ‘be alert’ issue. In the case of my estranged family member, his sex offender designation did not stop our visit, nor was it ever mentioned. I don’t know the particulars of his offense, but I do know that court restrictions apply to offenders. Had my grandchildren been present it would be incumbent on me to have more information…again, to be alert.
I’ve always been intrigued by the cities of refuge that we find in Scripture where offenders could flee to those particular cities. Most offenders would likely not re-offend; however, they were still restricted and could not leave that city. In a sense they too were branded.
Gail
Gail;
-----You're right. It is about being alert. This world is full of tragedy. I didn't say it was wrong to register sex offenders. Read the opening sentence of my second paragraph again. But I pointed out the tragedy to which most sex offenders are subjected, often over mere misunderstandings. Being alert is about avoiding damage. Sometimes alert will guard your children. Other times alert will need to guard the feelings of someone carrying a brand nobody needs, because they feel as abhorrent about sex offenses as do you. Yet they remain branded and imprisoned in shame. I think we must also be alert to not cast them headlong into the dirt the Lord has saved them from. There is no legal way of retrieving them from that list. But there is person to person and heart to heart love that can help.
Steve
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