Can a Pedophile go to Heaven?

Message / Question : Theoretically child predators can go to heaven. But do you HONESTLY believe that this will happen? Can and do these people become pastors?

Response:

I doubt that there are many people who have a great deal of sympathy for child predators / abusers other than those who engage in such practices themselves, so I fully empathise with the sentiments expressed in your question and the implied hope that all such people would spend their eternity in hell rather than heaven. Having said that however, I somehow have to balance my distain for the actions of these people with my understanding and appreciation of the amazing grace of God. First, let me say that paedophile priests and their like, won’t go to heaven just because they happen to be a priest; they are the same as anyone else before God.

Now, here’s the issue. Jesus said that anyone who hates another is a murderer. He said that anyone who looks at another with lust is an adulterer. Obviously, anyone who has ever told a lie is a liar and anyone who has ever stolen as much as a pen from the office is a thief. The bottom line is that all of these are guilty of sin and sin is what keeps people from going to heaven. So whether we appear to have missed going to heaven by a little (our sins have been “small”) or a lot (our sins have been “huge”), the result is the same, we still miss out. That’s why God, who loved the world SO much, sent His only Son so that WHOEVER believes in Him would not perish (in hell) but have eternal life (in heaven). That offer of salvation is made to every man, woman and child on the planet regardless of the nature of the sins that they have committed. Jesus, when He gave His life on the cross, paid the price for ALL sin, our responsibility is to come to Him and admit our sinful status and need for forgiveness, and then to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour, accepting that the shedding of His blood paid the price of our sin, the price that we should have paid. When we do this, ALL of our sin, no matter how big or small, regardless of how abhorrent or acceptable it is to everyone else – all of our sin is taken away and we take on His righteousness as our own. This has nothing to do with our race, gender, social standing, our good works or our bad deeds or anything else that we have done or might do. This is why God’s grace is SO amazing! So, can a paedophile be forgiven and go to heaven? The answer is yes, if that person truly comes to God in repentance and accepts God’s amazing gift of salvation. Whilst we might see that as “unfair”, we must understand that it wasn’t “fair” for Jesus to have to go to the cross for our sins either. Grace is grace, it’s given to all who need it, including you and I. My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

Now the last part of the question, can and do these people become pastors. My answer is that I would hope that they never had the opportunity to do so! The problem is that people generally are able to keep their sins well hidden and thus it is possible for such people to become pastors without their church knowing about their secret sin. The Roman Catholic Church has been in the forefront of the news on this very issue and many other church groups have also had clergy/pastors fall into this type of sin. There is no excuse for this, they shouldn’t be there, but some obviously have “slipped under the radar” in the past. This applies not only to pastors, but paedophiles are likely to be found filling many roles that we would see as positions of trust, such as school teachers and police officers. Certainly, anyone known to be guilty of any form of paedophilia would be and should be banned from ever filling the role of a pastor – and once found, that would be the action of most religious groups.