wfn.org | Church supports sex offenders to make communities safer

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 27, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{435}

By Kathleen LaCamera*

MANCHESTER, England (UMNS) - At a time when the public naming of convicted
pedophiles has created what some have called a "lynch mob psychology,"
British Methodists have vowed to support sex offenders.

The decision follows an extensive process of consultation with experts and
laypeople from around the United Kingdom including police, probation
officers, counselors and survivors of sexual offenses. The church believes
that by supporting sex offenders it will help keep others from becoming sex
crime victims as well.
 
A frenzy of finger pointing, and worse, against suspected offenders has
resulted in individuals and families being harassed, physically attacked and
hounded out of their neighborhoods. 

One of the most bizarre cases occurred in August, when a pediatrician's home
was attacked and spray-painted with obscenities because the mob seemingly
did not know the difference between a pedophile and a doctor specializing in
children's medicine. In another incident, a convicted pedophile committed
suicide because he feared his name would be published in the national press.
 
The Rev. Andrew Corday, a Methodist chaplain and sex offender therapist,
believes the current climate is unhelpful and dangerous for both sex
offenders and their potential victims. 

Corday, who works full time at a prison exclusively housing sex offenders,
is the first pastor to run a sex offender treatment program in the United
Kingdom. He was also part of the committee that produced "The Church and
Sexual Offenders" report for the British Methodist Conference, released in
July. 

In Britain, all convicted sex offenders are required to register their
whereabouts with police on a confidential national sexual offenders
registry. Because of the climate of suspicion and vigilante action,
offenders are more likely to go underground, according to Corday, who added
that those isolated from support networks are at a higher risk of committing
new sex offenses. 

"Our churches need to be informed, and not naive in their understanding that
the sex offender is vulnerable to re-offending," he said. "We're not talking
about just opening our arms wide and saying 'Come on in'. ..." 

But Methodist deaconess and sexual abuse survivor Sue Jackson wonders if
churches are really up to the task. 

"There is a profound lack of ability to handle power, manipulation and abuse
in healthy ways in the church," she explained. "We are very bad at dealing
with the reality of what really happens to people." 

As a teen-ager, Jackson was sexually abused by a church youth worker who was
later convicted and sent to prison. She said the only people in her church
who ever talked to her about the abuse, let alone admitted anything bad had
happened, were people who were not around when the incidents occurred.
 
"A very high percentage of sex offenders are churchgoers," she said.
"Congregations can be terribly naive, wanting to see things in black and
white. Churches need to look at themselves and how healthy they are before
they look at the role they have to play in this kind of abuse."
 
Guidelines for churches include the recommendation to work with local
professionals such as police, probation officers and social workers.
 
"The evidence is that that there is a lower risk of re-offending if the
offender has therapy while in prison and if he or she continues to receive
appropriate support once they are out," explained the Rev. David Gamble, who
headed the report committee. "But where do they go? How do they rebuild
their lives? The church can be an important part of this settling process."

Local churches are being encouraged to create small, specially trained
pastoral teams that will support and accompany a sex offender in worship and
at other church activities. In consultation with prison chaplains, pastors
may even decide to visit offenders who will be settling in their communities
before their release from prison. 

Gamble said that being a Methodist means living in a tradition that says no
one is beyond the possibility of being changed by God. "In practice, that
means that there are people who have been abused and have done the abusing,"
he added. "The church says people have to find a way to live together, but
not by putting anyone at risk." 

British Methodist Church policy states that offenders are not allowed to
work with children or young people in any capacity and are barred from
holding any official church office. Despite these safeguards, many who have
suffered sexual abuse find the church's decision to "welcome" sex offenders
a difficult theological and personal pill to swallow. The idea of forgiving
an offender seems too much like forgetting what has happened. 

The church youth worker who abused Jackson has never admitted to her any
responsibility for his wrongdoing. She said she still feels responsible at
some level for the abuse and that the church's support for offenders will
probably always reinforce her feelings of being at fault.
 
"Offenders cleverly put responsibility and guilt onto everyone else," she
added. "They make other people responsible. Christians, with an
over-developed sense of duty and responsibility, can get sucked into that
too." 

Prison chaplain Corday believes the last thing that churches should be doing
is offering blanket forgiveness to sex offenders. 

"Offenders have to accept responsibility for what they have done, and to
naively forgive them undermines their need to take responsibility for their
actions," he said. "We have no right as a church to offer that kind of
forgiveness. Forgiveness is costly; it has to be costly for the sex
offender."
 
# # #

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org