Baptist Leaders Discuss Steps for Handling Sex Offenders in Church Context

When someone who is a registered sex offender shows up at church and wants to participate — even in such a simple way as attending worship — what should church leaders do?

Two panelists at a workshop titled “Grace vs. Law: Should Churches Welcome Known Sex Offenders?” offered a five-step process for pastors and lay leaders to consider. The Aug. 26 workshop was part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 2021 virtual general assembly.

While there are some possible ways to allow participation by some registered sex offenders in some circumstances, the number of successes will be extremely low, according to Jay Kieve, CBF’s global abuse prevention and response advocate, and Carrie Nettles, an Alliance of Baptists-endorsed chaplain at the Julie Valentine Center in Greenville, S.C.

They acknowledged the desire of most churches to welcome all people to worship as a good impulse. However, they warned that protecting congregants — and especially children — from predatory behavior must take priority.

“I would much rather apologize for taking too much precaution than to apologize for children being harmed,” Kieve said during a question-and-answer session.

One of the foremost barriers is the manipulative personality of true sex offenders, according to Nettles, Kieve and others participating in the virtual conversation.

“With this population of people, start by assuming they are lying,” said Nettles, who works with rape victims.

Even if they try to explain that a past situation wasn’t really as bad as others reported it to be, church leaders should beware, she explained. “That is the MO of most perpetrators, to use a known truth to come across as genuine. There’s usually a drastic difference in what really happened.”

This is an urgent issue for church leaders to think about in advance, Nettles said, because sex offenders like to come to church. She reported that 93% of sex offenders identify as “very religious,” and, “the ones who are more religious have more offenses and more victims.”

Kieve and Nettles offered five steps for congregational leaders to take when considering if and how to allow a known sex offender to participate in church activities.

First, never allow a known offender into the community with their victims. “The church isn’t the sanctuary for people anymore if they are forced to worship alongside their offender,” Nettles said.

Even if a repentant offender wants to attend church, they should not be allowed to attend alongside the person or persons they offended, she said. One loving response is to help such offenders find other communities that could welcome them and

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