Associated Press:
A pastor in this quiet, picturesque New England town opened his doors to a convicted child killer who had served his time but had nowhere to go.
But some neighbors of the Rev. David Pinckney vehemently disagree with the pastor's decision — one even threatening to burn his house down after officials could find no one else willing to take 60-year-old Raymond Guay.
"Politicians think they can dump their trash in our small town," said one neighbor, Jon Morales, whose girlfriend and two children live across an unpaved road from Pinckney's home.
Chichester, a town of about 2,200 residents in south-central New Hampshire, has been in an uproar since the weekend, when police announced that Guay would spend two months with Pinckney's family.
About 40 angry residents protested outside the home Saturday, Merrimack County Sheriff Scott Hilliard said. One protester blustered that he wanted to set it on fire, he said.
Town leaders were expected Tuesday night to ask state and federal officials to remove Guay from town.
Guay already had a criminal record when he was charged in 1973, at age 25, with abducting and murdering a 12-year-old boy in Nashua.[...]
Is it against a fundamental Torah hashkafah to assert that there is a sin for which teshuvah is impossible?
ReplyDeleteWe have this problem in our shul. The rabbi's solution was not to allow the person in until he took the "Sex Offender Assessment Pack" that NJ State Law tends to use for these cases and the results evaluated by a psychologist who specializes in these things hired by the shul. Since he has yet to take the test, it became a non-issue.
But I think this idea is great. It minimizes risk while not requiring us to permanently write people out of the community. Does it eliminate all risk? Of course not. But then, the person is less likely to slip through than the odds of there being a dangerous person in the congregation who we don't even know to suspect.
-micha
micha said...
ReplyDeleteIs it against a fundamental Torah hashkafah to assert that there is a sin for which teshuvah is impossible?
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page 83 in Daas Torah - I think this is true of child molesters
Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva 3:14): Concerning the sinners and heretics who lose their portion in the World to Come. … that is only if they die without repenting. However, if they truly repent then they obtain the World to Come since there is nothing which stands in the way of repentance. Therefore, if a person has been a heretic all his life but repents at the end then he has the World to Come…. All the wicked, the heretics and those like them—if they repent either openly or in private they are accepted…
Rambam (Hilchos Avoda Zara 2:5): … a Jewish heretic is not considered a part of the Jewish people and he is never accepted back even if repents…It is prohibited to talk with them or reply to them in any manner…
Resolution of contradiction
Rambam (Letter #615:8): …concerning the apparent contradiction [between Hilchos Teshuva and Hilchos Avoda Zara] as to whether a heretic can repent and obtain the World to Come. In fact, there is no contradiction. The statement found in Hilchos Avoda Zara that his repentance is not accepted means that he is always presumed to be a heretic. His apparent repentance is to be assumed to be from fear or to fool people. The other statement from Hilchos Teshuva that their repentance is accepted is referring to the case where they have in fact genuinely repented—in their relationship to Gd. That is why they obtain the World to Come. It is specifically dealing with their relationship to Gd. The first statement from Hilchos Teshuva is describing their relationship with other people—and in that case, their repentance is presumed to be falseLesser of two evils - advise?