As you may know I don’t spend much time reading or following the news. There is rarely anything I can do about what I read and it is mostly depressing. For some reason a headline on the Fox news home page caught my eye. “Sex Offender Banned from Son's Graduation” the headline seemed pretty inflammatory so I read the Associated Press article date lined in St Joseph, MO. As the story is told a man was convicted of forcible rape of a 16 year old girl when he was 17. He served his full 5 year prison term, his debt to society paid end of story. Wrong. Because this happened in 1990 the man was not required to register as a sex offender and report in every 90 days. He is required to adhere to certain other regulations. The story does not tell how it happens that he has 13 year old son who is graduating from the eighth grade. One might guess that he got out of prison got married and started over with his life. I can only speculate about how difficult that has been.

The state of Missouri enacted a good law stating that convicted sex offenders cannot set foot on public schools grounds without permission from the school administration. While it makes sense to attempt to protect our children from known sex offenders there is the common sense provision that there could be exceptions. In this man’s case the school administration decided that rather than risk a mistake in exercising “judgment” on a case by case basis they would just not allow any variance. Bottom line, if this man attends his son’s graduation he will go to prison for 4 years. The sheriff says he will be there watching to protect the children from this man. How hard would it be to require supervision and allow this man to honor his son’s accomplishment?

Now why do I bring this up? Am I interested in showing leniency to convicted sexual predators? Certainly not! For the last year I have been volunteering time to teach convicted felons some techniques for changing their lives in a faith based program called the Entrepreneurial Training here in Fresno. We are teaching basic job skills in an effort to help our clients become productive members of society. Another part of my work is to help build a data base of employers who will take a chance by giving our clients a second chance. I am underwhelmed by the number who will help. The effect is that even after a person has been tried, convicted, sentenced, and has served the allotted time their debt is not paid. They keep paying for their crimes. Many of these folks really want to change their lives and are willing to do the work. One of questions I ask them is “Do you think society wants you to fail?” No, they say. These are folks who have had some very hard times, yet I have rarely heard anyone say yes to the question. I am surprised at the level of optimism I that find.

I get discouraged that the only jobs we can find for our clients are low paying and without much prospect for advancement. I really wonder at times why our clients even try. Why don’t they say just say “why bother?” I sometimes think that we really have de-facto capital punishment for every crime. Maybe if we were to be honest with ourselves we don’t believe that the convict ever really pays their debt to society. That is the way we act. Would we be happier if we were to cut off the hand of the thief or brand the cheek of the sex offender?

A friend recently sent me the address for a website that would show the current addresses for sex offenders in any given neighborhood. How does that help? What about all my neighbors who steal from their employers in one way or another. Or my college professor neighbor who was beaten to death by her own husband in her kitchen? He had no record and no one had any idea how sick he was.

So what is my point? Maybe we should be honest with each other and say that we do not trust God. We don’t really believe in the forgiveness of sins. Perhaps capital punishment is a kinder way. It seems to me that putting some one in prison for five years and telling them that they have paid the price for their crime is a lie. Do we really have a criminal “justice” system?  We merely identify some people who have demonstrated criminal behavior and “protect” ourselves (society) from them for a time while they are in prison. Then do everything we can to make life hard for them. In reality their debt is never paid.

I wonder what would happen if a believer came forward in the community for the guy in Missouri and said. “I will come along beside him; I will attend the graduation and make sure there is no inappropriate contact between the “convict” and any children.” Is anyone trying to help truly rehabilitate the convicted criminal? The government is totally ineffectual in the area of rehabilitation. The recidivism rate is in the area of 75 percent for state operated prisons (75 of 100 convicts who serve their terms will return to prison). Society’s answer is to build more prisons. How smart is that? Faith based programs have a much lower recidivism rate and yet the many liberals cry out that we must maintain the separation of “Church” and state. The opponents in many cases are very ones who protest against capital punishment. Perhaps it is time take on chance of the power of God.