Should We Offer Grace Or Castration?

As I was watching the news last night, once again I was horrified to learn that another married couple had been involved in the molestation of a 12 year old girl.  When the husband was interviewed by police back in June, according to an affidavit, James Woodcock admitted that his "urges" are getting stronger and he sees a "pattern" to his behavior. He told police he wanted help, because he didn't want to hurt anyone.

Funny thing is he told the police this back in June, but he failed to show up for court on December 4th.  I don't know about you, but this guy's actions don't quite meet up with his words.  In other words, he might have said he wants help, but in all reality does he?  I would think that if he really wanted to get help, then he would have shown up to court to get some.

And let us not forget his wife, Jennifer Woodcock, 55, was charged with permitting child sexual abuse and failing to report child sexual abuse, after police said she walked in on an incident, but allowed him to continue to be around the child and never reported it to police.  So, she is just as guilty of the crime as he is in my opinion.

Which brings me to the point of my blog, should we offer grace or castration?  The Bible is very clear on the fact that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23).  We have all done wrong, no matter how good we think we are.  And the one thing that I understand about God, is that there is no degree of sin with Him either.  For instance if picking your nose was considered a sin to God, then in the eyes of God it would be no different than murdering someone.  If it is something that separates you from God, it is sin.  It's us as people that tend to assign a degree of evilness to each sin, not God.

Yet I can't help but think (my opinion only here) that there is a special level of hell reserved for those who abuse children.  Remember what Jesus told the disciples about causing a little one who trusted in Him to fall into sin?  He said it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around his neck.  (Mark 9:42)  Yes, and for those of you who are Bible scholars I have taken that out of context to fit my blog.

Years ago there was a young man who had been involved in satanism and through that had murdered his mother and stepfather in cold blood.  He was arrested  tried, convicted and placed on death row.  While in prison, he was born again, and truly made every effort to bring as many people to Jesus as possible telling his story from his cell.  He truly had a prison experience with the Lord, and a lot of people thought that he would be released because of that.

He was never released, and subsequently was killed by lethal injection, the form of capital punishment the state of Oklahoma meets out for inmates convicted of heinous crimes.  In an interview with this young man's grandfather he was asked what he thought about his grandson paying for his crime with his life, to which he replied, "Sean has given his heart to the Lord Jesus, but his body belongs to the state of Oklahoma."  You see in this instance both grace and justice were served.

So in order to answer the question of my blog this morning, I think we can offer both grace and punishment.  To this couple I would say, please accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, give Him your heart and accept the grace His sacrifice offers, but understand that you have committed a crime that must be punished by the state of Oklahoma, so you will have to be jailed for this, and if castration is an option on the table to prevent him from doing this type of thing again, then perhaps that is what he needs in order to stifle those "urges" which he said are getting stronger in his life.

Well there's that...strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!