A registered sex-offender who was arrested after attending a Baptist Church in North Carolina is challenging a law that would give him the right to go to Church without restrictions.
Twice convicted James Nichols, 31, says he is now a Christian after ‘finding God’ while spending a month and a half in jail for indecent liberties with a teen girl and attempted second-degree rape, according to the Associated Press.
Police say Nichols was arrested at his home after he attended the services because the Baptist Church he chose to worship at has a nursery. Under state laws, sex offenders are banned from coming withing 300 feet of any place used to care for children.
Georgia, which passed legislation that prevents sex-offenders from living or working in places near schools, bus stops, places where children congregate and child care facilities, has been sued by the Southern Center for Human Rights behalf of Georgia’s 16,000-plus registered sex-offenders because the law there prevents offenders from volunteering in places of worship that has child care. The lawsuit, Whitaker v. Perdue, is pending in federal court.
“Criminalizing the practice of religion for everyone on the registry will do more harm than good,” said Sara Totonchi, policy director for the Southern Center for Human Rights. “With these laws, states are driving people on the registry from their faith community and depriving them of the rehabilitative influence of the church.”
Nichols agrees and is getting some help fighting his case from an organization that may come to no surprise to many, the ACLU.
Lawmakers like state Sen. David Hoyle (D) who sponsored the bill in North Carolina says people like Nichols should have thought about the repercussions before they committed the crime.
“I’m not denying him the right to go to church. He denied himself that,” said Hoyle. “If they are a convicted pedophile, they have given up a lot of their rights.”
Joseph Green, pastor of the Baptist Church that Nichols attended just prior to his arrest, let him know that he is welcome but added he’s also careful to protect the congregation from harm and those criminals who want to exploit the Church.
“I told him as long as he’s honest with me, then we’re willing to embrace him and help him focus and get his life back on track,” said Green. But, “The Bible talks about wolves coming in in sheep’s clothing, so I’ve got to be watchful over everyone coming into my church.”
Church members tended to agree with their pastor. “God turned my life around,” said Baptist church member, Shawn Cox. “I’m not saying that you bring the guy in and put him over the youth program or the youth ministry as soon as he walks in the door. But there’s no way he can overcome these things without help and support.”
Texas Voices Response
In the 2nd paragraph of this article it states that Nichols (now 31) was convicted for “indecent liberties with a teen girl” and “attempted 2nd degree rape”. Down near the bottom of the article Senator David Hoyle states: “I’m not denying him the right to go to church. He denied himself that,” said Hoyle. “If they are a convicted pedophile, they have given up a lot of their rights.”
Nowhere in this article does it indicate that Nichols is a pedophile. All we know is that his offense involved a “teen girl”. The article does not say how old she was at the time of the offense, nor does it say how old Nichols was at the time of the offense. Was he 19, or 25, or 30? Was she 13, 16, or 18? All we can safely assume based on the limited information provided, is that the girl must have been at least 13 years old at the time to qualify as a “teen” and Nichols must have been at least 3-5 years older for it to be a crime (depending on the age of consent laws in that state). So it could have been that she was 13 and he was 16 or 17 at the time. The article leaves out this pertinent information.
The article also states that Nichols spent a month and a half in jail. Does committing an act of pedophilia in North Carolina only result in a month and a half in jail? A pedophile is one with a specific pathology that involves sexual attraction to children, not teenagers. There is simply no evidence offered here to indicate that Nichols is a pedophile.
This is just another example of how lawmakers, instead of investigating the truth and making sound decisions based upon facts and evidence, perpetuate the fear mongering and disinformation about sex offenders by erroneously linking all “sex offenders” to “pedophiles” and as threats to public safety. Texas Voices supports and encourages factual news reporting and lawmakers who investigate the truth and verify the facts before making inflammatory statements to the public which do nothing to solve the problem, in fact they do everything to make the problem worse. We support laws that differentiate those who are dangerous from those who are not. For more information please visit our website: http://TexasVoices.org