Posted on 02/27/2012 12:01:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Lord may be forgiving. Sex offender laws? Not so much.
A Baptist church in Jacksonville has hired a registered sex offender as its new pastor, but because a court has ruled the he's not allowed to have "unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old," the church has decided to ban kids from its Sunday services.
Back in 2009, Darrell Gilyard pleaded guilty to charges of lewd conduct and lewd molestation according to News4Jax.com. At the time Gilyard was a pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church. His victims were female members of his congregation under 18. He molested one 15-year-old girl and sent a lewd text message to another.
Gilyward was released from jail on December 28 and began preaching at the Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in late January.
As part of his three-year probation, Gilyard cannot have any unsupervised contact with children. However, even any supervised contact must be OK'd by a therapist. He must also enroll in a sex offender therapy program before supervised contact is allowed. Gilyard says he's enrolled in such a program, and his attorneys have filed a motion seeking to clarify the terms of his probation and to allow children in the church while he's at the pulpit according to Jacksonville.com.
In the meantime, the church has decided to ban all children from Sunday service.
"Somehow I will prove that life isn't over when one has committed a crime for which he receives this heinous label," Gilyard told a Jacksonville.com reporter through text message. "You don't have to languish on the fringes of society."
Oddly, Gilyard's arrival at the church has caused a spike in attendance. Before Gilyard joined the church about 10 members came to service. Now the numbers are between 150 and 200.
WTH is wrong with that church? Do the elders not find a moral conflict with installing him as Pastor?
Has he repented of his sins?
The article isn’t clear on that point, but if he has, then I find the attitude of freepers here puzzling.
Since when is repentance not part of Christianity? Since when is forgiveness not part of Christianity? Since when is putting your past life behind you and returning to the narrow path not part of Christianity?
The article is fuzzy on whether he has repented, but for the sake of argument let’s say he has (a fairly safe assumption, since the church has hired him). What would you have the the church do in that circumstance? Say “We know God has forgiven you, but we won’t,” or “God may give you a second chance, but we won’t”?
You can forgive someone without making him your pastor.
“You can forgive someone without making him your pastor.”
Unless you also hire Bernie Madoff as the church treasurer at the same time.
/sarc
Repentance & forgiveness do not require that wisdom & common sense be thrown out.
That does sound like its made up.
Maybe a FReeper will look into it deeper.
Oh.. its a “black” church. This ain’t going nowhere.
I see they still have a Youth and Young Adult Pastor
Gilyard doesn’t seem to be mentioned on this site:
http://smbcjax.com/AboutUs/Staff.aspx
Look to 1st Timothy for requirements for Elder .
We are not talking about his salvation, which is what repentence deals with, but whether he is qualified to be a Pastor. If you read 1 Timothy chapter 3 you will see that he is clearly not qualified to be a Pastor - no matter how repentent he is.
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