According to Chester McKinney, the Church of the Highlands is over the current half-way house being run by Willie Simpson and his quarter-century old Outreach Reentry Ministry. There are so many producers in this miasma of outreachings that it could be a major motion picture.
How did Highlands and Outreach discover each other? How did they both uncover Chester McKinney? Why is this mega-church even in the Shoals? We presume to "church" those who just don't fit in with more mainline ministries. That may sound good on the surface, but we've found such organizations to create more problems than they solve. This may certainly be the case with this offender ministry.
How did the formula of 50% sex offender clientele come about? Is this a given, or will we see this ratio change as time goes by?
Yes, we just used the word "change." This is a term that most psychologists say sex offenders don't relate to. Make no mistake, if this were a ministry dedicated to cat burglars, we'd have a great deal less to say about it. Only this is a ministry that seems to be dedicated to those whose crimes have placed them on the registry. Why?
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One aspect of this ministry that we've not seen covered extensively is the "why" only non-Shoals area offenders? Does this ministry seek to separate them from their families, if they have any? That begs a second question: Why a half-way house? Most offenders are paroled to rejoin family, if at all possible. Apparently family doesn't want these men...and there may be a good reason for that.
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We see one foe of this ministry is admonishing others not to make it political by criticizing Sen. Larry Stutts. Yet he and others are criticizing current candidate Frank Williamson. If there is a difference, please explain it to us.
Registered sex offenders are very limited in where they are legally allowed to live. Rejoining even a welcoming family might be legally impossible for them and the family.
ReplyDeleteYou ask a lot of questions here. Have you reached out to the Church itself to dispute or confirm your claims? I surely hope so. If these claims were to be false you have done a great deal to tarnish the reputation of an organization who seems to want to serve others.
ReplyDeleteThis church appears to be almost a cult. But Im intolerant of this church because they have the police stop traffic and let them out of their parking lot and this always burns me up.
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