Congregation Shema Yisrael

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Mark 2:15-17

There are a lot of churches and Messianic congregations who forget what this means. If our congregations are populated with people from mainly middle-class backgrounds, or otherwise are people free from a “shady” past involving felony convictions, among other things, we don’t really understand the depth of what Yeshua (Jesus) is saying here. All of us; all of humanity has “sinned, and fallen short of the expectations of God”, but as human beings, we have a tendency to think that some people have sinned worse than others.

Why am I writing this? I just read an interesting article I found at NPR.org titled Pastor Offers Sex Offenders A ‘Miracle’: A New Start. Please click the link and read the article before continuing here. What fascinated me about the story was that 76 year old Pastor Dick Witherow, a former Private Detective, has opened up a church and a living community…to dozens of homeless, convicted sex offenders. What?

Yes, this is a venture fraught with trapdoors and pitfalls. According to the article:

Jill Levenson, an associate professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, says it’s possible that clustering so many sex offenders in one place could increase the risk for nearby communities, like Pahokee. But, she says, research shows that there are also benefits from placing sex offenders in shared living situations like Miracle Park.

On the one hand, you have an entire residential community of men who have performed heinous sex crimes, some against children. These are men who can be very dangerous and you probably wouldn’t want one living anywhere near your neighborhood, let alone 30 or 40 such men. Yet, if they aren’t allowed to live anywhere, where do they live? Unless you intend on executing them, or housing them in prison for life, what do you do with them? Where will they go? Where will they live? What will they do?

If Pastor Witherow’s program works and these men are given basic housing, hopefully some means of honest work, and continual spiritual guidance, isn’t this what Yeshua was talking about? Aren’t these the sinners he came for (because they certainly aren’t righteous…but then again, are we)?

None of this means that all these men are really seeking forgiveness and have really turned away from their criminal behavior. Chronic sexual offenders are notorious for their risk of re-offending. For decades, the treatment model for dealing with these men has been one of recovery, not cure. This is something like an alcoholic who is never really “cured” of the disorder, but can only continue to abstain “one day at a time” and remain under some form of support (and in the case of registered sex offenders, supervision by law enforcement).

This is not only a terrific problem in terms of how to practically manage a very dangerous population of men, but a challenge of faith. If we really seek to be like the Master, and to emulate his grace and mercy; the grace and mercy he’s shown us, how can we turn around and condemn those who may also be sincerely seeking rescue from their sins and their past?

I don’t have a pat answer for you. I have human feelings just like anyone else, and if I discovered a sex offender was living in my neighborhood, my first reaction would be concern for my family and the women and children living in the area. So I put the question to you: is Pastor Witherow doing a good thing? Is he obeying God and the will of Yeshua HaMaschiach (Jesus Christ) in what he’s doing, or is he only amplifying the danger these men represent by collecting them in one place? Is Witherow keenly in tune to the mercy of God, or is he being gullible and naive in his hopes and prayers? I hope the former, but I fear the latter, at least a little.

One the one hand, we have the list of sexual sins God outlined in the Torah as abominations, culminating with this verse:

Everyone who does any of these detestable things – such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Hashem your God. -Leviticus 18:29-30

On the other hand, we have this:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” -Luke 18:9-14

I welcome any input here. I wrote this blog because I struggle with Witherow’s mission and it’s potential results. With Yeshua having forgiven our own sins and having washed us clean on the one hand, how are we to consider Pastor Witherow and his community on the other?