Today is election day. As I’ve been mulling over voter guides and desperately searching for issues instead of rhetoric, one issue stood out. The measure would say that a person on the sexual offender register cannot live within 2000 feet of a school, daycare center, and a few other places.

There are some cities in my state that have passed local ordinaces saying that no one on the sexual offender register can live within city limits. The current law is 500 feet, or just over a block. It effectively means that an offender cannot live next door to a school, day care, etc, etc.

The reason that stood out to me is because of a map where I work. It is a street map with every school in the city marked. Thinking about 2000 feet as half a mile, I tried to figure out where a person could live if this law took effect.

A person could live in some of the most dangerous parts of town. An offender could also live in the poorest section of town. Okay, poorest section of town is not a big deal in the sense that it’s not a bad thing to live in a poor neighborhood. However, I also noticed that this person could not effectively live in a middle-class or upper middle class neighborhood. This person could live in some middle class places in the western suburbs, but that would be an iffy proposition because if a school is built, they would have to move without compensation. (I know where the planned schools are being built, and it effectively eliminates the western suburbs.) Oddly enough, if an offender has enough money, he or she could live in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods. Odds are though, that if someone found out, a new daycare would spring up overnight.

The result is that a person on the register can live in limited parts of the city. The other option is to buy a parcel of farmland and build a house, hoping that a development won’t move in 10 years or so. Again, once a daycare or school is built within the allotted distance, they are forced to move on their own dime.

What does this have to do with the category?

Simple really. I believe that a church is sooner or later going to get into the business of helping offenders find a place to live. When that happens, the reaction of many so-called God-fearing men and women will be severe. I imagine that if a church began doing something like this, the membership would leave in droves. After all, do you want to help a registered sex offender? Do you believe that whatever shunning and difficulty they have they brought on themselves? Shouldn’t they have thought of all this before they did what they did?

Many Christians, including myself, talk about being a friend to the friendless. We read about Jesus being a friend of tax collectors and sinners in Luke and Matthew. Do we think of the registered offenders as sinners? Yes, but we also think of them as untouchable, unreachable, and unimaginably evil. I think many of us know that God has paid the price for their sins as well, but it is not a comfortable thought.

more later.