Sex Offender Registry - Who Belongs?

Last night, 20/20 had a special about a guy who went on the sex offender registry because at age 19 he slept with his 15 year old girlfriend. He had some legal issues over this and as a result, was not allowed to see his girlfriend until she was older. As soon as she turned 18 and they could see each other again, they got married.

While I don't really agree with 19 year olds sleeping with 15 year olds and think that it is wrong, I'm not sure if in cases like this, a lifetime sex offender registry sentence is appropriate. I know that I'm not worried about him hanging around the park and trying to pull my daughter into the back of some van for the purposes of molesting her. He's not interested in young children, he's not interested in hanging out in dark alleys waiting to attack the unsuspecting young lady walking by at night, he's just a guy who fell in love with someone who was at the time too young for him.

We had a guy on the sex offender registry that was on our street. I'm not sure if he's still there anymore, he might have died or something. He was a level 2 offender and did something with some preteens. That's all I know about him. Those are the guys that I'm worried about. I'm worried about guys that break into people's houses in the middle of the night. I'm not worried about a guy who had an underage girlfriend when he was 19 years old.

I might not go so far as to say that this guy should not have been punished at all, or that maybe putting him on the sex offender registry for a while wouldn't have been overdoing it, but perhaps we should think about reviewing certain sex offender cases after a certain length of time. Perhaps in cases where the "victim" was a consenting and willing participant, review the case in 5 years and take them off the list if it seems appropriate (like in this case). There probably should be a few more parameters, like if the victim was 12 or under they stay on there, but shouldn't we have a way to take people off the registry in certain cases?

There are other silly reasons that someone might get on the sex offender registry. Such as... a kindergartener kisses another girl in class and she claims sexual harrassment. Or a few 9 year olds are playing a game where everybody is slapping their friends on the butt. Or a teenager accidentally downloads child pornography on the computer without knowing it. I don't want to know about these people. They're not dangerous, and I don't think they belong on the sex offender registry. Review the case after a while and take them off.

Having non-dangerous people like this on the sex offender registry cheapens the whole registry. If you look at a map of sex offenders in my area, there are tons of them. Are they all dangerous criminals? How many of them do I need to worry about, and how many of them just ended up on the registry for being stupid and impulsive? I only want to know about the dangerous ones.

Unless they take him off the list, when he's 90 years old he's still going to be punished, in a way, for sleeping with his wife before they got married and because she was so young. I find that to be a little ridiculous.

HSLDA Needs You! Please sign their petition.

If you are a homeschooler or a friend of homeschooling, please sign this petition at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association web site. Currently, the Supreme Court of California plans to publish the appellate court opinion that I commented on earlier. The ruling basically stated that it was illegal to homeschool without a teaching certification. If that happens, any court in California could use this ruling to prosecute other homeschooling families in the state.

Depublishing the opinion is what HSLDA recommends at this point.

Although I don't live in California and many people do not, the rights of homeschoolers everywhere should concern us at least a little. Please take the time to sign the petition. Thanks!

This Makes My Blood Boil

Have you heard the story about the firefighters suing the city of San Diego?

Evidently, they were ordered to march in a gay pride parade, against their will. They were ordered to go to the parade, and were made to believe that if they did not comply, they would be fired or suspended.

While at the parade, some of the spectators taunted the firemen with vile sexual comments. This article goes more into that. Also there were anti-homosexual demonstrators, thinking that the firefighters were going along willingly, who were making negative comments towards them as well.

This whole situation makes me so angry, I just want to spit. Not at the firefighters, but at the people that thought that they had the right to force someone else's morality like this. And not only that, but putting them into a situation where it was likely that people would make comments like the ones they heard. I hope they win big time. If I was on the jury, this is one case where I'd feel like awarding the big bucks. Normally I think that juries award way too much.

I don't think that I could have marched in that parade, no matter what my boss said. I would have probably disobeyed the order, allowed them to fire me, and then I'd sue their pants off for religious discrimination. But I really can't blame these firefighters for wanting to keep their jobs and doing what they were told. I feel so bad for them. I really hope that they win in court.

Don't know what the world is coming to these days. Some days you just want to pray for the rapture.

The Unjust Judge

Bill O'Reilly's program has been reporting for the last couple of days about a judge, Katherine Savage, who let a pedophile off on a technicality... because after three years they supposedly couldn't find an interpreter. Never mind that the guy that supposedly needed an interpreter went to both high school and junior college in the United States. You can find more information on what happened here.

People hear of this case and they think that it is horrible that this judge let the guy free without even trying him. The judge is unjust! people cry. There is even an attempt to impeach this lady. And perhaps that is necessary... if she is not doing her job as a judge, she shouldn't stay that way.

We all have an appointment with a Judge someday, in a Heavenly courtroom. How do you think that you should fare in this courtroom? Let's see. Here are the laws, to see if you've broken any of them:

1. You shall have no other Gods before me. Maybe you haven't bowed down to a wooden statue, but has God always been first in your life? Did you ever decide to sleep in on Sunday morning because you didn't feel like going to church? Do you watch television every day, but neglect reading the Bible? Do you have any favorite movie stars or musicians that you esteem more highly than God? If so, maybe you have broken this commandment after all.

2. You shall not make any carved image, to bow down or serve them. Do you ever make up your own God? Do you come up with your own ideas about God, whether they agree with the Bible or not? Do you believe that there are "new revelations" about Jesus that came out after the Bible is written? Do you ever say "well, God is like this..." without any Biblical proof? Maybe you are guilty of this one.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Ever use God's word as a swear word?

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Many people think that this was part of the ceremonial law that was done away when Jesus died on the cross, and does not apply any more. If so, maybe God will let you off on this one. But you better keep the others!

5. Honor your father and mother. Have you always listened to your parents, even as a little kid? Did they ever have to tell you to clean your room more than once? Have you always said nice things about them and to them?

6. You shall not murder. Here's an easy one, right? Wait a minute. Jesus says that if you are angry at someone and hate them, you are guilty of murdering them. Oops. I know I'm guilty of this one.

7. You shall not commit adultery. This one seems a little more difficult, but a lot of us haven't cheated on our spouses, so we're okay, right? Not quite. Have you ever looked at someone with lust? If so... you guessed it, you are guilty of this commandment in your heart. That's what Jesus says.

8. You shall not steal. Ever downloaded a song off the internet? Ever take a pen home from the grocery store? Did anybody ever give you too much change and you kept it? Ever take a cookie from mommy's cookie jar without asking or when you were told not to? Guilty!

9. You shall not lie. Do you tell your kids that Santa Claus is real? How do you answer the question "does this dress make me look fat?" Ever tell a lie to get out of trouble as a kid? Ever tell your parents that your sibling did something that you did? This one is easy to be guilty of. My baby is guilty of this one. He can sit in his crib and wail, and nothing is wrong with him.

10. You shall not covet. Ever want something that wasn't yours? Ever want the raise that your coworker got, or the new car someone else came home with? Ever look through magazines and want what the celebrities have, or you just have to have that new Wii all your friends have?

So if you're guilty of any of these crimes, should a just judge let you off? Give you a warning, tell you... it's okay if you broke the law? People don't think it's great that Katherine Savage let the child rapist off.

But doesn't God forgive? Well, you have half of the story right. Jesus did come down to earth to pay our fine for all those crimes that we've committed. That's why he died on the cross. The penalty that we would have to pay for all these crimes that we've committed is eternity in an awful place called hell. I know that I don't want to go there.

But Jesus didn't just die on the cross and say "go live your life the way you want to now, I've got you covered." In fact, one day he was talking to a man. The man asked Jesus if he was going to go to Heaven. Jesus asked him if he kept the 10 commandments. "Oh yes... I've kept the commandments from my youth." Well, if you look at the commandments you know he probably didn't obey all the commandments all the time. So Jesus told him to go sell all his stuff and give to the poor... something that he didn't want to do. In a way, that kinda proves that he was breaking commandment #1 right there, because his money was more important than God. So we shouldn't be like that guy... we have to recognize that we have sinned first.

You also need to repent. Jesus forgave the adulterous woman, but he told her to "go and sin no more." Did she sin again? I'm sure that she did. But she was sorry for what she had done, she probably was grateful that Jesus forgave her and didn't want to continue sinning. That is what repentance is all about... feeling bad for your sins and not wanting to sin any more. It would probably be a good thing to say that we're sorry.

Then you have to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, because he already paid for your sins in full when he died on the cross. Trust in Him for what he has done.

Unlike Katherine Savage, God is a just judge. He won't let you off on a technicality (and he speaks every language, so you can't use that excuse). Someone has to pay the fine. Jesus will if you let him.