Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Janice. Looks like a nice, quiet place for someone to take a much needed break. She can fill us in on the details. 🙂
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Wandering Views
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Wandering Views 
Morning all. Fall is my favorite season and October is beautiful. Our Grass Valley schools have a week off in October so there is time to explore.
Also lots of family birthdays: my dad, my daughter and her husband and her daughter.
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It’s beautiful in the mountains in October.
😦 Harbinger of winter.
I got up at 6:00 this morning and said that we need to get into our routine. So we got ready for the Y.
I got ready and told TSWITW that I would wait for her in the truck.
“You’ll have to wait a while because I can’t find my face powder.”
She’s not going anywhere until she finds her face powder.
I told her that if face powder is that important, she should have an emergency supply.
She does. She had an unopened face powder in the drawer.
Life can be fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
The face powder is somewhere. It always is.
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Kim settles on her house today?
Kim gets her inheritance back?
🙂
It’s springtime for Jo.
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I love the color of the sky in October. There should be a crayon called October Blue.
What I don’t like is all the Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Yes, I had an aunt who died from breast cancer and I have another who is a breast cancer survivor, but what about all the other cancers that kill people? Maybe if it were just Cancer Awareness Month I would like it better.
I also hate to be such a curmudgeon about breast cancer.
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On a more positive note we are supposed to close on the house today at 1pm. The house payment will be about $100 more than the rent was for almost twice the space. After 11 years of being a gypsy I can dig my toes in and unpack all of my stuff. I can look through EVERYTHING and see what is worth keeping and what needs to be freed for someone else to love.
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Kim, no matter how much you throw away, if five years your house will be full of junk.
It happens that way..
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When I saw the QOD, I quickly double-checked that it is still September, and it is.
In 2011 the World blog had a question of the day, “What is your favorite month, and why?” I listed June, and gave lots of reasons, including the long days, the warm weather, the things that are in bloom, and my birthday. Overall by late June I find it hard to stay inside. I didn’t mention–since I hadn’t yet mentioned my beloved on here–that June was also going to be the first time I got to see him for two visits in the same month. (We’d only met in person in mid-April, and mostly our visits were three weeks apart.)
But most people ended up saying that October was their favorite. Now, I love the exquisite colors of October, but it just feels like “winter is coming, winter is coming” and i cabn barely even bring myself to tolerate it, let alone enjoy it, half the time. But when so many people said October, I finally said something about “October can be quite nice too; the colors are lovely.” But I didn’t say, “My man and I are getting married in October!” since it wasn’t “official” yet since I hadn’t met his daughters. (But quite a while before I had a ring, the church was booked, the honeymoon cabin was booked, and I’d bought a clearance wedding dress–a very basic dress, not cluttered by too many sequins and bling that had to be removed–and the lace to remake it into my dress.)
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Guy wants to know if I plan to come back to work today after we close???????
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A guy went into a blacksmith shop looking for a job.
The blacksmith asked him, “Can you shoe horses?”
The guy responded, “No, but I once scared the heck out of some donkeys.”
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Boooooooooooooooooooooo!
😆
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Ah, hahahahaha — a Wednesday morning joke. 😀
Congrats Kim, how exciting. I forget how the process unfolds (it was very long and drawn out the only time I went through it, as I recall), but do you actually get the keys today?
With all the things that need doing at this house it’s been something of a mixed blessing for me, to be honest. But it is nice to have a place.
Had a very vivid dream right before I woke up that our cop reporter of many years got a new job (at a talent agency) and was giving 1-day notice. He’s probably the cornerstone of our staff, with all his contacts in the cities & a long career of old-fashioned cop reporting. They don’t make them like that anymore.
His stories also get the most “clicks” and readership — everyone loves to read about crime, the weirder the better. People complain that they want good news, but they really don’t read good news nearly as much as they read bad news.
I thought, well, we might as well just close up shop now.
It’s all been eerily quiet at work.
So I’m a fall person, too — love-love-love Oct-Nov-Dec.
January is hard for me — not because it’s cold, it isn’t, but all the fun months are over with and there’s just that long stretch until spring/summer (seasons I only mildly like and sometimes just dislike when it gets so hot).
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Fall — cooler weather, holidays, kids in costumes, Christmas lights!, regular church classes resume (we should be getting back to our Westminster Confession of Faith classes). What’s not to love about fall?
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Donna – What are you talking about?! January is full of fun. Kim & I each have our birthdays in January (a week apart). You can spend January celebrating our birthday month, eating all the cake you can make or buy yourself. 🙂
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So. A question. What does it take for a seventeen year old to get into college? Our seventeen year old is attending BSU but none of us signed anything for her, including a student loan type thing. Do they just let minors sign for something like that? We could certainly just ask her, but she has not exactly been honest with us in the past. And we do know she has practiced forging husband’s signature for years. Something is bothering her, but we don’t know what yet.
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My favorite thing about October is the fall foliage, of course. I’m not a fan of Halloween, except for the candy. 🙂
Have you seen the different flavors of Candy Corn that are now available? Emily bought one that was Caramel Macchiato Candy Corn. Pretty good, actually, but very sweet.
Oh! Pauline’s birthday is the day after mine. (I miss seeing her here.) And Peter’s son & I share a birthday. Did I forget anyone (probably did).
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Mumsee – That doesn’t sound good. Can you call the college & ask? I’m guessing that since she is still a minor, they’d have to tell you. Unless she lied about her age. But doesn’t one need certain ID or something to enroll? (I really don’t know. I forget what Emily had to do.)
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How is Pauline? Haven’t seen her on FB in a long time … maybe she’s migrated to one of the other sites.
I saw a glass dish with some corn candy in it at work near the lunch room yesterday — ah, yes, fall is here. That’s the sure sign. Candy corn.
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Seems like you’d need up-front money to enroll. Aren’t semesters/quarters paid for in advance? It was that way when I was in college.
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Mumsee: And you and Mike check all your financial records.
Among other things I have noticed that it takes money to get into college.
Every time.
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🙂 Donna and I were thinking the same thing at the same time.
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I spent all day yesterday chasing a story about alleged fraud in a local nonprofit, but now no one who talked to me wants their name used & they can’t (or don’t want to) provide me with the name of the attorney whom they’ve contacted.
Sigh.
Oh well, guess I’ll have to move on and find something else to pursue today.
Maybe a feature about the enduring popularity of candy corn …
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Mike keeps pretty close tabs on the finances. Maybe I should not have sent the blank check to that Nigerian prince?
I did send an email to the school. Have not heard back. We know she has bills and not a lot of money. Certainly not enough to be for a semester of college. She does not qualify for government help. But there is a scholarship option for those who were at least a year in foster care in the Pacific Northwest, but she refused to apply for it or any other scholarships. Bizarre.
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It is possible somebody took pity on her and paid her way. But I am still trying to figure out how a parent’s permission is needed for an aspirin but not for an abortion or to go to a college.
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I can’t see the header photo but I assume it is one I sent of the atrium area connecting the hospital and the medical buildings. I told husband it is the perfect place to sir and read or write if you have a lighted screen since it is a little dim. The setting is so peaceful. If you have to do a hospital in Atlanta, St. Joseph’s is ideal. My brother has a doc here, and I never realized where he was going.
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I went out a bit ago to do errands and Art said Miss Bosley sat in the chair by the door the whole time I was gone. She did get up on his chest this morning for a purring/cuddle session which she usually reserves for me. Since he is home more she is being generous with affection toward him. He has been pretty down today thinking about the business. I am so thankful that Miss Bosley cheers him up and makes him laugh.
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I found some beautiful golden rod plants out by the fire station where I take cardboard for recycling. I sent AJ pictures of large bees getting their flower time in this a.m.
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Hmm, turns out an underage student can get a federal loan without parental signature because the ‘defense of infancy’ does not apply to federal student loans. Convenient. I guess that helps to clarify something, not sure what.
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I like October because hot, humid summer weather is over! And there is football.
Kim- I think there is a general cancer awareness month in the Spring. But I agree that there is an overemphasis on breast cancer
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Micheele- In answer to your query about when we posted some of Drill’s writings, it was August 29. I typed “anniversary” in the search function above the list of posts and found it.
Mumsee- Please write drill and ask him to return to the friends he left behind.
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I wrote Drill, but he’s so mysterious, there’s no telling what will happen.
“Defense of infancy,” interesting concept. I wonder if that means she can’t claim innocence when the loans come due. Remember, student loans are the ones that survive bankruptcy and never go away. 😦
Meanwhile, in fire related news, it’s mostly contained now just north of us and the discussions have begun about rebuilding. nearly 1300 homes were burned. In a small article on the front page of the back section of our paper this morning was a very interesting bit of information, warning about scam artists.
Since looting took place, no surprise there.
But what I found fascinating is that a government agency will haul away all the rubble from your property for free–just make sure you know who you’re working with. Or, if you can’t wait that long, you can hire your own contractor to do it.
You cannot, however, clear it yourself. And if you do clear it yourself, you will not be given a permit to rebuild the house.
The reasons are plausible. There is no dump in Lake County to haul stuff to; special attention needs to be given to dealing with asbestoes and other hazardous wastes. But still, if you wait for the government to do it for you, how long will that take with 1300 homes and 2000 buildings, total, lost?
Also, if you have fire insurance (remember in the Jerusalem fire the month before 85% of people burned out did NOT have fire insurance), they will be billed for the clean up costs.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned we have 97% occupancy of homes and apartments in Sonoma and Napa counties. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those poor people, though someone is organizing an RV loan for the season for folks to be able to stay up there.
And of course, with the El Nino forecasted to come, heavy rains are expected.
This disaster may continue a lot longer to a very poor county than people hope. 😦
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Didn’t see the QOD. Loved the colors when we lived in New England, the cooling nights, fire and MacIntosh apples. Always love our anniversary next week–38 years! We’re going back to Carmel and Monterey where my husband is speaking at an energy conference boondoggle. I get a massage for the effort– a very necessary one. My back and neck are a mess from all this typing!
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Oh, I guess I never answered the question of the day: the pretty colors, and our anniversary.
If October stood on its own (say as a break between July and August), I’d like the month. Because it stands as a warning “winter is coming,” I have a hard time liking it much. In Phoenix it wasn’t pretty. In Nashville it was, and over my years in Nashville once I learned that winter in the South is nothing to fear, I learned to enjoy fall. But I’m back to a land where trees go leafless fully half the year or more, and the primary month that the trees lose their leaves has a hard time registering as a positive.
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I’m with Cheryl, I have a hard time enjoying the fall colours, the lack of insects even on nice days, because I know what’s coming. Sigh…
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I love winter. And Fall. And Spring. And Summer, And Idaho because it has all four.
Sixteen says seventeen did take out a student loan. Apparently, that is easy to do if you are underage and have little, if any, credit record. He warned her it would follow her for a long time and was not the best choice. Especially with full scholarships available and rarely taken, for those ever in foster care.
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Yikes! That is terrible. That debt will not be nice to have in the long run.
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Some people have to learn everything the hard way.
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October has beautiful, crisp, cool days. They are great for walking, cleaning gardens and raking leaves. They are wonderful for baking pumpkin and apple desserts. The leaves can still be beautiful. I like each season for different reasons. Our winter could be shorter, but I would dislike not having it at all.
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I wonder why. Was it just easier to sign for a loan than fill out paperwork for a scholarship? Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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I’ve been following this story for a little bit, yet another patriarchal dictator (Doug Wilson) who seems to have good reason to resign, but seems to be willing that the whole world burns as long as he keeps his “ministry.” This may or may not be the best source, but is a good summary with lots of links, including court documents: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/scandal-in-moscow/
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Summary of 4:35: it seems that many in the patriarchy crowd may not think much of women in some ways, but they think women are miracle workers in terms of offering transformation to someone in gross sexual sin. In the case of Bill Gothard’s brother, marrying him off would solve a long-term problem of his isolating, grooming, and then seducing his secretaries. But Doug Wilson would seem to believe that a few years of serious predation on very young children proves that a man has sexual urges that can be satisfied (and remedied) only by marriage; thus, encourage the judge to give a convicted pedophile a short sentence and then marry him off quickly to a young woman in your church, approving their plan to have lots of children and have them quickly as all good Christians must do. And then when it turns out the man is a danger to his own infant son? Launch into full-scale “I’m being persecuted for believing in the grace of the gospel” mode.
It’s a trainwreck, but it would seem fairly predictable when someone places himself outside any accountability to anyone, and believes (and creates) his own press. May God have mercy on His church, and on the men, women, and children in this man’s net.
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We closed!!!!!
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Congratulations, home owner!
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Yeah for Kim and Mr. P. Wish I could come help you move. Maybe I will go look at the house pictures and again and visualize you there.
Blessings on your new home.
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Good day to close, Kim!♡!
I enjoy the crisp weather of the fall, the different angle of the sun and color that casts, the glorious tree leaf colors, the crunch of leaves undrrfoot when hiking, the scurrying of wildlife to get ready for winte, the layering of clothes which gives an outlet for creativity, the resuming of baking and cooking more, and fall is the best time for planting things in the yard that will be a welcome surprise in the next year.
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Wow, that Wilson story is disturbing.
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How is it disturbing? Disclaimer: I was raised in Moscow and know a bit about Christ Church and some of the people who attend. I was mentored in my early years by Doug’s dad and a friend of his sister.
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Mumsee, are you saying you’re not sure that it is disturbing or you’re not sure that it’s true? (I think the only “unknown” in this process really is exactly what it was that so disturbed the court that having his wife present when he’s with the child isn’t enough. The other stuff all seems pretty well documented.)
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🙂 Kim is a homeowner!
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Michelle or anyone: Do you know of a trusted publisher for self-publishing? A client is asking. We have a couple of names, but honestly other than to tell him “steer clear” of a couple, I don’t have direct experience with this, since I work on the editing side.
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Yes. We closed. We hauled a couple of loads each to the new house this afternoon. We unpacked some in the kitchen. Mr. Organization has it down to monthly, weekly, daily on how you arrange the kitchen. Have at it Bud. Baby Girl picked her bedroom and started moving some things in as well. I brought home some empty boxes and will pack them up. We took enough boxes that I will have plenty to do tomorrow while he goes to a doctors appointment in Pensacola, FL and then in Pascagoula, MS. I hope to have a lot done the next two days so that we can have the movers do the heavy lifting on Saturday.
As a side note, please pray that the right thing will happen. My Monday night Bible study will be looking for a new home mid-October. I will have the room and the seating and am seriously considering opening our home to it.
I really want to be settled Saturday because I am the proud new owner of a jacuzzi tub and those of you who remember know that I would spend my life in a soaker/jacuzzi tub if I could while reading a book. I have big plans for Saturday afternoon/night while Mr. P watches football.
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Self publishing, I know some but can’t say yes or not on quality or anything else. Most people I know use the Amazon system, for good or ill.
Mumsee, do you know Jim Wilson, then? USNA roommate of my dear surrogate father in CT? He, of course, is the one who wrote the life-changing How to Be Free from Bitterness.
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House move. YEAH, yeah, yeah! If only Jo and I could be over–I could give Mr. Organized a run for his Navy move money . . . certainly on the unpacking!
I traditionally did it in a day with paintings hung by day 3! 🙂
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Michelle, could you come spend some time doing remedial unpacking with us? After ten years most of the photos that should be hung up are still in boxes. 🙂
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Michelle – we moved 13 times in 10 years and I always had the pictures up the 2nd day!!
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Michelle, I think the ones he mentioned are probably better for authors than the amazon one, but I told him that my research into who is good deal with different genres. So I basically told him one or two that don’t look good (too many horror stories, backed up, when I googled one this afternoon, by bad reviews), said that the ones he mentioned seem to have a good reputation, and that beyond that I was past my experience.
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Pictures … I wait forever on those. Some I still haven’t hung — 15 years. But I like the look of not too many wall things maybe now.
mumsee & cheryl, hasn’t Wilson changed over the years though?
After we did a story on a pine tree crashing down on a guy’s house, I called my gardener and am trying to set up a meeting with him in the next couple days to discuss the massive tree trimming job I have to get done. Groan.
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Yeah. I’m toying with going indie with the contemporary novels I’ve written that probably won’t pass muster in this publishing climate, but I figured I’d just go with Amazon through my agency. Randy Ingermanson or James Scott Bell on their websites might have something about who they use. Mary DeMuth also does indie publishing and is pretty knowledgeable about publishing trends. Off my head, not much.
Packing–if we were in the neighborhood, Kare and I could get you squared away in no time, but it would be better if Kim went through and got rid of stuff beforehand. 🙂
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Okay, Kim, when can you come? Kare and Michelle, I’ll be in touch… 🙂
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Michelle, I’m toying with working through amazon for my kids’ fiction, too . . . but reading their contract scares me. They claim all rights to use the material not excluded by copyright (um, the only thing I could think of that would be “excluded by copyright” if you sign over all rights is that they can’t use the material as theirs; but they can print it and sell it in China without reimbursing you, if they choose) and the rights are in perpetuity and cannot be withdrawn. I don’t think they’d have a leg to stand on if authors got contracts on books from mainstream publishers and wanted to stop publishing with them, but since the author signed the contract of her own free will, it’s hard to know how that might play out legally. My hunch is they don’t take advantage of all the rights you are giving them, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing so. Of course, the way I was looking at publishing would make amazon the distribution agent and not the publisher . . . but it’s hard to imagine they would claim fewer rights as the publisher.
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Michelle, Jim is the one who performed the marriage ceremony for us. And, yes, a most excellent little piece. He brought my step mother to the Lord through that book as she suffered with bitterness for years. Over? An abortion.
Cheryl, the question was probably that I did not read the article closely enough. What I got out of it was a guy did some pretty vile stuff, criminal. And he went to prison and paid the legal price for his crimes. And he was released (why so soon with a life sentence?) where Christians offered him grace but they did it carefully with close monitoring as dictated by the law. Working with the judge, there was some agreement that having him married would be of benefit to him and to society. They allowed it and continued to follow the probation requirements. His sin was, of course, disturbing. Is the article saying it was wrong to allow him in church? To allow him to get married? To perform the ceremony? If so, where do we draw the line? If the guy served his time and was living according to his felony requirements, or whatever the State said, including having a chaperone around at all times, where is the trouble?
I have dealt with many troubled children. Many of them have troubles that well may follow them through life. Is it not important for the church to do what it can to help them stay on the straight and narrow, realizing there is risk involved?
What I saw of him and his wife was not some view of women as lesser beings. Different but equal in the sight of God. Women and men are not the same. It is good to notice that and appreciate it. I am confused about how Wilson or the Christ Church are at fault here. But, as I said, I may not have read the article thoroughly.
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Mumsee, the man served 20 months of a life sentence. In talking about the man’s marriage, Wilson (in a piece not linked, but that I read previously) said something like, “It’s obvious he doesn’t have the gift of celibacy . . . ” Well, that’s rather a bizarre way to look at it. What’s “obvious” is that his sexual desires are twisted, and in a way that is likely to cause lifelong problems. According to one source (I obviously cannot verify this) his offenses were to 13-18 children in three states. The specific case I read about was with a two-year-old with her parents in the house. This is NOT a case of a boy who got curious at 16 and touched a little girl to see what the female body feels like (not that I’m justifying such actions, but it wouldn’t be a felony or a huge red flag that this guy can never ever be around children) or a boy who at 18 had consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend; this was a habitual, repeat offender.
If (as is the case with his parole stipulations) he can never be alone with a child, even his own, and his wife is supposed to be keeping tabs on him and never leaving him alone with the child, then it is by definition impossible for him to have a healthy, functional family life. Why? If nothing else, because he cannot ever really be head of his own household. His wife will function as a secondary parole officer if they have children. She can’t ever just run to the store and leave him alone with the child–not ever. In fact, she shouldn’t ever sleep without knowing that he is also asleep and that he will not wake up, or at least without putting an alarm on the children’s doors. It is completely impossible to have a healthy marriage under these kinds of situations, not to mention the very real possibility he might reoffend, and with his own child (which is apparently, on some level, what happened here) . . . and if that happens, his wife is left as a single mother. In other words, having children is a basic part of marriage, but too risky a part of marriage in this situation.
It seems to have been seen that “marriage will cure him,” which is an extremely unkind (and unfair, and even naive) responsibility to put on a 22-year-old wife. But an elder introduced them. It doesn’t seem to be the case that they met and fell in love, and against extraordinary levels of concern and caution, they chose to marry. It seems to be the case (this is speculation) that the elders believed it was better for the community for him to marry, and marriage would cure him, and so they picked out a likely bride for him and encouraged her to consider him. In those circumstances, a young girl who wants to get married is likely to accept the wisdom of her elders, and is likely to fall in love with a charming young man.
He may indeed not have the gift of celibacy. But many people who don’t have the gift of celibacy still remain single. In this case, not having the gift of celibacy might mean that he should submit to some form of castration. Or marry a woman who cannot have children, and get himself fixed just in case. (Problem with that is that children are indeed supposed to be part of marriage–and thus a man who must not have children probably should not marry.) I think it shows an amazing amount of naivete to think there was any possibility of a healthy family life in such a situation, and that’s assuming he was actually fully repentant. Let’s say he never ever reoffended–it still can’t really “work,” simply because it’s impossible to have 10 or 12 children, or however many a couple might have if they start when she is 22 and they choose never to use birth control, and to have him never alone with any of them. In other words, he cannot both “be fruitful and multiply” and keep the terms of his parole. So wisdom would say that the natural consequence of this level of violation is that he will not marry.
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PS I don’t understand why the judge said (or was quoted by Wilson as saying) that marriage might be a good idea. His probation officer was absolutely ballistic at the idea, though, especially when he heard that Sitler planned to have children right away. Those involved (from outside the church) seemed to be 100% agreed that if he married, it must be a childless marriage (or that he could not live with his wife and child), because legally he wasn’t allowed to be around children again, period.
I believe that God can forgive anybody, can change anybody. But there are hard cases in which people must be extremely cautious. One of those would be a man who lived as a homosexual for 20 years and contracted HIV/AIDS. If he comes to Christ, would we say, “He obviously doesn’t have the gift of celibacy and he should marry”? I would hope that we would want to be extra-super cautious to ensure that a wife entering such a union knew what she was dealing with. But in some cases, staying single is the better option.
What about the man who lived as a drunk and on the streets for 30 years? He becomes a Christian, sobers up, accepts the job a church member offers. I think wisdom would say we won’t encourage him to marry until he has had some years of living a sober life. He doesn’t yet know how to live as a mature adult, let alone a mature Christian, and putting on him the responsibilities of a husband may be more than he can take. If you find out that the man courting your daughter had a problem with alcohol ten years ago, that is a whole different matter from hearing he had his most recent drink yesterday and was last drunk three days ago.
The apostle Paul went from persecuting Christians to being an apostle–but he had some years (I think it was three years) of discipleship in between. If I were advising the people discipling this young man, I would not have seen marriage as a first line of defense in his discipleship. I would have said it’s probably better if he doesn’t marry at all. But minimally, he shouldn’t even consider dating for five years. Let the focus be on growing as a Christian. Live a life of repentance; develop new habits of thought. When my husband and I were courting, I asked him about use of pornography, and that had never been an issue for him. But if he had told me, “I used it, but I quit six months ago,” I would have walked away–as hard as it would have been. If he had told me, “Yes, twenty years ago, but I haven’t looked at it since” I would have said OK, he has developed new habits, and this isn’t a problem. Six months before? No, that wouldn’t be enough to show me that he wasn’t that man anymore. Likewise with this man. Maybe someday he’d be a godly man ready for marriage, even ready for marriage with kids–but no way would I be making such a decision in the short term. If it were my daughter he was courting, and the parole said no contact with children, ever? I’d be saying no, even ten years down the line I’d be saying no, unless she was past the age of childbearing. You just can’t establish a marriage under those conditions, even apart from the question of whether he is actually repentant.
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Well, the twenty months on a life sentence was problematic for me. What in the world? What was the point of the life sentence?
But, since he was out…many of the counselors, psychiatrists, etc, that we have dealt with have believed it a good idea for certain of our boys to go to the swimming pool, for example, to see the maturing female form, (which many young women are happy to show them) in the hope of moving them from the fixation on young children, male or female. I don’t necessarily agree with that idea, but I certainly understand it. It goes back to Scripture and the thought of “don’t awaken love until its time”. If children are taught that it is good to be sexually involved with a child, in some of their minds, that idea stays. Helping them to move on to a more appropriate mind set is good.
Being married would have other benefits. A full time chaperone. No, it is not the ideal. Again, why was he released? Why are so many released before their sentence is up?
Quite a bit of your posts were speculation, as was the original poster’s. We don’t know the situation. It is possible the couple are living with his or her parents, for example, giving two more sets of eyes to help. We don’t know. But we do know that Christians are called to reach out to the broken. Perfect people don’t need our help. I suspect a lot of people have fallen into various types of sin, God has reached down, sometimes using His people, to turn those people around and set them right again. Other times, they continue to slip deeper into evil.
Lots of imperfect people get married and fall into sin. In this case, the law stepped in and for whatever reason, it was deemed he had served his time. I suspect the legal people have a better idea of the case than I do. And I know, there is corruption. We can only do our best. I don’t see that, in this case, there was any effort to set the man up for failure or to ruin the young woman’s life or anything like that. But it comes down to, what will the guy decide to do with his life.
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A further comment on sex offenders: a friend of ours has a friend who committed a crime and went to prison for twenty years. He checked the boxes, took the classes, etc while in prison. Friend visited him once a month for twenty years. Friend learned that he was not allowed to visit more than one prisoner in the system as they don’t want folk carrying messages. Makes it rather difficult to “visit the prisoners”. Anyway, they guy got out and has to take the class, same one he took in prison. It will cost him eight thousand dollars, paid partially before each class, and if he misses a class he goes back to prison. He is required to live in an approved home (the home of my friend and his wife) and must get himself to the class, seventy miles away. The class is once a week on a weekday. That makes it tough to get a job to pay for the class or the mileage to the class. He is not allowed to go near children and can stay nowhere overnight. The list goes on and on. My understanding is that the victim was an older teen and he in his twenties. My point being, even after serving time, they are supposed to be closely monitored for a very long time. I suspect that is true in the Moscow case as well. How closely that is followed up by the probation officers, I don’t know.
It almost seems to me, they should be allowed to have a colony of themselves, which was turned down in the South. A Christian couple was allowing them to live in separate units on their property and that was deemed illegal. Or kept in prison. But if not, how is the church to serve them?
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