No Hope for Redemption?

This week the City of Dublin, Ohio, about 20 minutes away from where I live, enacted an ordinance barring all registered sex offenders from entering their Rec. Center or public pools.  The vote was unanimous, and I'm sure there was a lot of support for the measure.

When I hear of something like this, though, I often wonder if we consider the person being regulated.  We all agree that sexual offenses are especially heinous, and the victims of those offenses suffer life-long impacts. We shouldn't cheapen or trivialize the seriousness of the crimes.

However, as a Christian, I build my life around the idea that there must be hope of redemption for every person.  The idea of permanent registries that bar people from living in certain areas, make gaining meaningful employment difficult, and prohibit the use of public facilities, would seem to lead towards a pit of despair, not out of it.  It is concerning to me that our modern society at once celebrates sexual sin and punishes it more extremely than violent crime, depending on the form it takes.  

For me, though I don't like it, there can be no middle road- I must acknowledge that all sexual immorality is inherently wrong and evil, but that sexual immorality, in all its forms, does not exclude those involved from the hope of redemption and forgiveness.

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