A friend forwarded me an email with a Web site that allows you to enter your zip code to see if any sex offenders live in your neighborhood. Normally, I delete forwards. But for some reason, on this particular day, I decided to open it. I entered the zip code for the apartment I’d be moving into in only five days. I clicked on the lone green square and almost jumped out of my chair when I saw … my new landlord’s face! He was a sex offender! And when I clicked deeper to get details, I found the numerical clause that defined his bad behavior. I Googled it and learned that my new landlord was a pedophile.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I move in or find a different apartment? On one hand, I wanted to be fair; people change, and maybe he really was walking a more righteous path now. On the other hand, he was a pedophile; all it took was a little research and a few quick conversations with my therapist friends to learn that pedophiles have a very high recidivism rate. The chances of him doing something again were highly probable.
It might not have been such a big deal if he didn’t share part of the apartment. During the tour, the roommates mentioned that he entered the apartment every day because he used the kitchen and did a lot of maintenance. At the time, I thought it was odd, but I forgot about it until his face popped up on my screen.
Those next few days were agonizing. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, and my stomach was in knots. I sought opinions from anyone who would listen: my family, my trusted friends, my coworkers, and even a waiter at a restaurant. The consensus was roughly 60/40—60 percent thought I should go ahead and move in and trust that everything would be okay; 40 percent thought I was crazy to even consider it.
I was brought up to believe in forgiveness. What kind of person would I be if, during an important opportunity to show grace, I showed none? Who was I to judge? I’d certainly not lived a perfect life. People had forgiven me and now here was my chance to do the same for someone else.
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