Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

I had always felt that the responsibility of a church was to provide food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes for the naked, and to care for the sick and imprisoned. There is no law in Virginia that requires a church to exclude convicted sex offenders from attending its worship services. A convicted sex offender who "loiters" near a child day care program may be prosecuted, but I doubt that attendance at a worship service will be considered "loitering." There is also no law that prohibits a church from having sex offenders serve as clergy or youth workers (though the public schools are prohibited from having offenders as teachers), though it may or may not be criminally or civilly liable for any injury to children as a result. I have encountered a number of sex offenders, many of whom were not required to be registered, in leadership roles in churches over the years. All you can do is exercise great care about people you allow to be alone with your children.

You may want to visit the Virginia Child Safety website at:

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=713

Ultimately, you and not the church are responsible for your child's safety.