I was in my car yesterday afternoon, heading home after running some errands. NPR was playing and I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to it until this story came on. It’s about a challenging issue that the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, CA is struggling with these days. Back in January, a twice-convicted sex offender came to their congregation, openly admitted to his past offensives and then asked to be allowed to join them. The church is split and in the story they say that several families have already left over this issue.
I find this interesting because at my own church we talk about radical acceptance and making space for anyone who wants to be there. But we haven’t been challenged with something on this level, and it makes me wonder how we’d react. I’d like to think that we’d be able to allow him in, but I wonder what this would do to the energy and openness of a church community.
Any thoughts?
Beverly Dale | 30-Mar-07 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
Surely radical acceptance, or radical love, does not depend upon the degree of severity of the offense/sin. But surely to love one another is also to protect the most vulnerable as well. Thus, if this had happened in my church I would hope we would welcome him generously into our congregation even as we also would be open about putting definitive policies into play that would protect ourselves (and our children) as well.
Jeff Draine | 30-Mar-07 at 8:53 pm | Permalink
Marisa–do you mean your church has been challenged with something like this, or not? SOmething makes me think you missed a ‘not’ in there. In any case–I’m always thinking that I have NO idea how I would react in situations like this. I know what I hope I’d do if I were, say, a German citizen in Nazi times–but there is no way I could guarantee I’d be like Bonhoeffer, no way I could know unless I had the experience of being there… I don’t know how I would react to something like this example in my church, and it really is uncomfortable to realize I do not know this. –Jeff
Marisa | 30-Mar-07 at 9:24 pm | Permalink
Whoops, thanks for catching that Jeff, I did miss a word, which totally changed the meaning of my post. We have not been challenged by something of this magnitude and I was just wondering how we’d handle it.