Welcome home?

"Love this guy," Rev. David Pinckney says as he pats his house guest on the shoulder. "He's just a good guy."

The house guest in question is Raymond Guay, convicted for murdering 12-year-old John Lindovski in February, 1973. Johnny was walking home from an after-school square dance when Guay, now 60, picked him up and shot him in the head. The boy was found over a month later, wearing nothing but his socks, underwear, and eyeglasses.

Today, Raymond Guay is out on parole and Rev. Pinckney has welcomed the child murderer into his home. The Rev's neighbours aren't happy. "We were warned," says Pinckney, who has four children living at home. "People wouldn't like it. He's not liked. But at the end of the day, this is what Jesus did. He defended the defenseless. He was a friend of sinners." The Rev refuses to back down. Guay is staying and the Rev won't let anyone near him.

There is definitely something wrong with this picture.

The Rev's naivete shows reckless disregard for the safety of his children and those of his neighbours. If the pastor wants to help Guay, that's commendable, but he should do so without putting children at risk. Instead of minimizing the potential danger, the current house guest arrangement maximizes the risk to children. I can't think of a dumber scenario. Baptizing the scenario with goobly-gook about Jesus makes it surreal.

Jesus cares about kids.

The followers of Jesus should put children front and center. I'm not talking about unborn children or children in far-off Africa. I'm talking about our own children -- the children in our homes, on our streets, and in our schools and recreation centers. In North America, children have been reduced to tax dollar-funded, social engineering experiments. We spend billions on education and child-welfare infrastructure, but we don't have the common sense to keep them out of harm's way from child murderers ... and a multitude of other dangerous situations. In the Pinckney/Guay story, the social-engineering approach to children has made them dispensable potential casualties in an experiment with a pastor and child murderer.

Rev. Pinckney thinks Jesus would do what he's doing. I've got a different spin on the situation. The disciples were always trying to outdo each other. They spent their time arguing about which of them was the greatest -- who did the right thing, said the right thing, etc. Finally, Jesus sat them down, took a child into his arms and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me" (Mark 9.37).

Kids come first for Jesus. Forget wacky religious stunts like high-risk hospitality. Think about the kids.

That goes for Raymond Guay as well. Jesus said, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea" (Mark 9.42). Instead of hiding behind Rev. Pinckney, Guay should be front and center, admitting he has no right to be around kids, let alone living with them. Guay needs to get out of Pinckney's home. And he needs to find a new pastor ... someone who will help him walk the road of recovery, not tell him he's already home.