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  Registered Sex Offender to Be Ordained by Louisville Church, Many Concerned

WHAS
September 7, 2009

http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/whas11-topstory-090904-sex-offender-minister.14a21b80a.html

[with video]

Mark Hourigan

(WHAS11) - There is controversy involving a Louisville church ordaining a registered sex offender as a minister.

The church in question serves a predominantly gay and transgendered congregation but one former member says he's concerned that the new minister could be a threat to the congregation's children.

The pastor of City of Refuge Worship Center admits it's the first time he's heard of a church in the United States ordaining someone who is registered for life as a sex offender but he says the man in question has changed and deserves forgiveness.

But not everyone thinks the church should take that chance.

City of Refuge church proclaims that everyone is welcome and that's probably what attracted Mark Hourigan.

Hourigan was charged back in 1998 with sodomizing, sexually abusing and intimidating an 11-year-old boy.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, served time in prison and agreed not to serve as a leader in any church where he would have contact with children.

But Hourigan's probation is over, even if his sex offender registration never ends.

Pastor Randy Meadows says the lord has touched Hourigan's heart.

Hourigan now leads praise and worship at the church and will become an ordained minister next Sunday.

Former church Deacon Kevin Pickerrell says Hourigan was never straight-forward about his past until he was confronted.

Pickerrell left the church after he disagreed with other church leaders over Hourigan's ordination.

He fears Hourigan will be tempted by the children who gather at the church for weekly Sunday school and will reoffend.

“Maybe he's gonna fall in that category of the low percentage that doesn't, but I don't want to take that chance,” says Pickerrell.

Pastor Meadows says Hourigan will sign an agreement not to minister to children.

And he feels the whole controversy can become a lesson for everyone.

“God is a loving and forgiving God and I'm doing what he's telling me to do. And if that's not popular, Jesus wasn't either,” says Pastor Meadows.

The pastor says Hourigan will never be left alone with any child.

That doesn't comfort the former member who says part of a pastor's job is to minister to all people and those restrictions won't allow Hourigan to do that.

 
 

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