Offenders, Registered and Unregistered

I have a brother who is a registered sex offender.

He has done time in prison, 8 years of hard time. His family has done eight years of hard time, as well. It is a miracle that they are still a family in fact as well as in name. My brother was released within the last year- puportedly to re-enter the outside world and to rebuild the life his offenses demolished. But we have come to realize that he can never really re-enter normal life. He will always be an outsider, branded with a label he must wear for the rest of his life. He will never be treated like everyone else again, and no one will object very strenuously if he is discriminated against, scorned, verbally abused or marginalized. None of us, popular wisdom says, should ever be allowed to forget his offense; he must never be allowed to earn our trust again whether he repents and makes an aboutface or not. He is only getting what he deserves, many Christian friends have told me.

And yet, I can't help but wonder how many of us would like to be permanently labelled acording to the worst thing we have ever done? How would we all feel about wearing the Scarlet letter? I'm not saying an offender registry is necessarily a bad idea, (though I suspect it probably is); that's not my point. I'm just trying to level the playing field a bit. How would it be if we all showed up at church one Sunday wearing placards that announced the most shameful thing we've ever done. We could look around the sanctuary and see Internet Pornographers, Adulterers, Fornicators, Child Abusers, Tax Evaders, Thieves, Wife Beaters, Liars, Racists, Drunkards, Drug Abusers. Gluttons and Gossips all around us. I'm not sure which of those labels I would have to choose for myself, how to rank my own transgressions, but I could qualify for at least five of those. Wouldn't you like to know which ones. I don't have to tell you, though my brother does.

But I wonder how we would feel in that situation. Would we all feel shame? Would we feel any less shame knowing that everyone else was wearing an ugly label as well? Would we feel any more compassion for others once our own secret sins were exposed? Would we be more likely to encourage each other, to weep together, to pray with one another? Would we feel like we have more in common with one another, or less? Would confessing our secret sins give us a commonality or drive us apart in our fear and loathing of what others have done? I don't even know the answer to that, but it would be a fascinating experiment, wouldn't it.

Now, I am not trying to suggest that all sins are equal in their consequences. Clearly, they are not. No one equates murder with gluttony or adultery with envy. (Though Jesus did equate hatred with murder.) Some sin chiefly damages our relationship with God and our personal peace, while other sins have a more direct influence on others. But in another sense all sins are the same; breaking one commandment makes us guilty of breaking the whole law, so none of us can claim to be more righteous than anyone else. In that sense we are all equally condemned and deserving of equal recompense. Most evangelicals would give lip service to this doctrine, but we find it hard to live it. Although God speaks of one unpardonable sin, many of us have a longer list in our own minds.

In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul warns the church against continuing to segregate a sinner who has repented. He fears that the individual who was, incidentally, guilty of a particularly egregious sexual sin, may be "overwhelmed by excessive sorrow" if the church continues to punish him indefinitely. "Now instead," he advises, "you ought to forgive and comfort him. . . . I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him." In another letter to the same church he strongly condemns a lengthy list of sins, but he reminds his readers that 1)many of them used to do those things and 2) those who commit such sins can be washed, sanctified and justified . No sin can place one beyond the grace of God.

So what do we do with the truly repentant sex offender? (The question raises another question: How do any of us know who is truly repentant?) Do we drive him off into the desert (at least 1000 feet from any place children congregate), like the ancient Israelites' scapegoat? Do we make him the symbol of all our own sins and thank God we are not like that man? Or do we receive him into the church in loving, appropriate ways, helping him to create a new, holy life. Do we dare to say, "Go and sin no more"? Jesus did.