British Methodist report on sex offenders
Submitted by Jules on June 03 2000 17:34:50
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Heather and all, News in the British national press, taken from The Guardian Saturday June 3 2000 With Christian love, Jules Methodists urged to aid ex-sex offenders The Methodist Church is set to defy the “demonising media” and public opinion by advising members to offer help to sex offenders rather than shunning them. A report to be considered by the Methodists’ annual conference in Huddersfield this month will ask them to banish the image of sex offenders as men in dirty macs and instead offer a role in the church to them and their families. In some circumstances, the report suggests informing only a select few churchgoers of a sex offender’s identity – keeping it secret from the main congregation. The report says: “What does the sex offender need? Acceptance, love, a place to worship and join in fellowship, comrades for the journey, and people who accept him as he is and commit themselves to supporting him in his attempt to live a new life.” The church’s working party which drew up the report suggests that although former offenders should not expect unconditional forgiveness or be allowed to hold any church office, they should be accepted and treated with respect. The move is likely to stir controversy at a time when paedophiles are in some cases hounded out of communities. The report says: “Given the tendency on the part of the media to demonise paedophiles and make it very difficult for sex offenders to rebuild their lives … we believe that the church has a significant role to play in offering them and their families pastoral support, to encourage their responsible involvement in church and society.” It suggest offenders should be made known to a select and discreet group within any chapel, and be encouraged to pray and seek divine forgiveness. The working group chairman is Dick Jones, a minister in Nottingham and former president of the Methodist Conference. He said: “We were concerned to get away from the idea that these are peculiar people in dirty macs. These are probably the most extensive guidelines drawn up by any church.” In a survey of ministers, the working party found nearly one in five knew of sex offenders within their churches at some stage of their ministry – a proportion which the report says may well be an underestimate. Some 13% of ministers said they were aware of offenders in their current appointment, rising to 25% in North Wales and 20% in north-west London. A Home Office study in 1995 suggested that 10% of sex offenders are convicted of a similar offence within five years and 22% are convicted of either a sexual or violent offence within the same period. The report suggests that a quarter of sex offenders attend church regularly, compared with 8% of the population as a whole. It says: “They need constant support from other people to help them rebuild and conduct their lives in a way which manages the thoughts, feelings, behaviours and situations which in the past have moved them towards offending.” Forgiveness did not mean wiping the slate clean or forgetting the offence: “If God does this, then God is promoting an unreal world in which history has to be constantly rewritten and in which offended persons are expected to ignore the traumas and injuries they have suffered … the great story of the Old Testament is not like this.” The report warns that churches should not, as sometimes happens, expect victims immediately to forgive their abusers, saying that would be “pastorally unwise, grievously insensitive and unrealistic”. Asked why the church had not first considered guidelines for helping victims, Dr Jones said: “People may be critical but you cannot tackle everything at once. We hope to get on to that next.” |
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