Are Churches Breaking the Law by Allowing Sex Offenders to Attend?

Looking at an example with Tennessee law and making sure that we obey it - regardless of whether it is effectively implemented

The evangelical church has prided itself in recent decades on doctrinal purity, arguably to a fault. Often, I have heard ministers preach on Romans 13 1-2, connecting this purity back to the laws of the land and how important it is for Christians to follow them. So I was shocked when our former church seemed, in my layman’s opinion, to disregard Tennessee law by allowing a violent sex offender to attend services in the sanctuary with children present.

I’m not a lawyer, and this post is not legal advice. But, reading the law should be something Christians engage in to comply with Romans 13.

When I looked at the Tennessee law, I read:

(d)  (1)  No sexual offender, as defined in § 40-39-202, or violent sexual offender, as defined in § 40-39-202, shall knowingly:

          (A)  Be upon or remain on the premises of any building or grounds of any public school, private or parochial school, licensed day care center, other child care facility, public park, playground, recreation center or public athletic field available for use by the general public in this state when the offender has reason to believe children under eighteen (18) years of age are present;

My first thought was that whoever wrote this law was undeniably trying to list any place where children congregate without their parents or guardians to keep offenders away from them.

My second thought was - isn’t the church a “childcare facility” on Sunday mornings? It’s available for use by the general public - anyone can walk into church on a Sunday morning. There are many children under the age of 18 present. I put this to a few church members, including elders, and the most common response was, “Oh, that’s not talking about churches. That’s only businesses offering child care”. Or, “The creche on Sunday mornings isn’t really a childcare facility”. I do struggle deeply with the carefree nature of these excuses, especially when I found out shortly afterward that the church itself (along with its awful sex offender policy) also has a policy titled “Edgefield Church Childcare Policy & Volunteer Guidelines”:

Would this church want to argue in front of a judge, in the evidence of this policy, that they are not a “childcare facility”? A prosecuting attorney would have a field day tearing this position apart.

“A lawyer has told us it’s legal!”

I was later repeatedly told that the lawyer the church had engaged had said to them that it was legal. However, lawyers are not people whose goal is to interpret the law in the most faithful manner. They are people paid by clients to advise them on how to best navigate the laws for optimal results. They advocate not for the most honest implementation of the law but for their client’s best interests under it. The system is designed to bring two opposite parties against one another, both of whom advocate for their interests, to bring about outcomes that fulfill the law (although that system is far from perfect).

This is an important note to make when it comes to churches seeking legal advice: the advice they receive will always be designed to achieve the best outcome for the earthly institution of the church in terms of its finances and self-protection. Lawyers hired by churches do not advise churches on how best to navigate the law to fulfill the church’s biblical and moral duties. This doesn’t make them evil, but we do need to bear this in mind as we consider the advice they give.

So, in a church that had already allowed an offender access to the building on Sunday mornings, with children present, under a childcare policy, is it the smartest move for a church to admit they shouldn’t have been doing this? Or, should they look at the state’s failure to implement this law with regards to sex offenders attending churches and instead pretend the law says something else, in the relatively safe hope that no prosecution is ever brought?

That would go against the spirit of Romans 13. It is not acceptable, morally or biblically, to break the law simply because you have a high confidence that no prosecution will result or to continue breaking it because stopping might constitute an admission of historical illegality on behalf of either the offender or the church.

I would also raise the unpassed bill in Tennessee of 2020 presented by Rep. Patsy Hazelwood, attempting to legalize sex offenders in churches. Why attempt to legalize something unless it is currently illegal? Incidentally, the bill never should have been presented and thankfully did not pass: the sole condition that church leaders would have to approve the attendance would be entirely insufficient. How many more decades of sexual abuse do we need to see in churches before we, as a society, accept that church leaders have consistently displayed an inability to handle this issue with wisdom?

But the Bible says we should have grace for sinners!

The Bible also says we should cast out those with sexual immorality that even pagans don’t tolerate (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). Suppose you have a sex offender trying to attend church with children present. Shouldn’t that raise your level of suspicion that they might be attempting to re-offend in the one place where someone is potentially foolish enough to allow them access to more victims? Doesn’t grace for a sex offender include keeping them away from temptation - children - the same way we would show grace to an alcoholic by not inviting them out for a drink in a brewery?

Clinically, there is no evidence to suggest pedophilia can be “cured.” The best we can do is concentrate on therapies that help pedophiles refrain from acting on their desires. The most important of these is to keep them away from children.

It is cheap grace to take only some easy words from an offender and allow them access to children, which is at best legally questionable, just because the leadership of the church is too foolish to exercise discernment or too weak to say no.

But isn’t it a human right for everyone to be able to practice their religion?

This is a common objection from sex offenders: that they have a right to go to church and a right to worship.

We all have lots of rights, but when you start committing crimes against children, you shouldn’t be shocked that those rights begin to be revoked, some permanently, starting with the removal of freedom (aka imprisonment).

After your incarceration, these rights have to be subsequently exercised with two essential conditions:

1. Never with children present

2. Since you are on a registry, your status should be disclosed to the church so everyone can exercise individual discernment and gossip doesn’t spread

Depending on the individual crimes and history, ministering to offenders in private or adult-only services is the only way to do this without tempting the offender and risking the safety of children.

This isn’t hard: bad things happen when we allow sex offenders to mix with children. Everyone knows this and accepts this for every other situation: schools, playing fields, parks… to make church an exception is not grace but foolishness. In her book Predators, Anna Salter quotes a molester who says:

I considered church people easy to fool… they have a trust that comes from being Christians… They tend to be better folks all round. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people… I think they want to believe in people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.

The moment you let an offender amongst children, he has total power to destroy that church through his actions (especially when you describe him as a “token of God’s grace”). Since church leaders will apparently do anything to protect their churches - including pulling the wool over their own eyes - the offenders, therefore, have total power over the leaders.

Every state and country is different.

One of the goals of this substack is to use our experiences in this church in Tennessee to help others elsewhere. So it’s important to acknowledge that there isn’t a prescriptive yes or no answer to the question, “Is it legal to have sex offenders in churches?” Even in Tennessee, it might differ from church to church, depending on whether they are operating child care.

Don’t be afraid to look up the laws in your jurisdiction. Most congregations usually have professional lawyers - if you can’t find the applicable laws or have trouble interpreting them, they could be a good resource for you and your church.

If the laws seem to say it’s at least questionable, bring it to the elders and ask that they do better. We shouldn’t brush off clear intent on behalf of lawmakers with poor and ill-informed excuses just so we can extend cheap grace to a sex offender who, for some reason, has decided to try to attend a church with child care on the premises rather than one without.