Efforts to provide support to sex offenders are indeed ongoing in a number of churches, but the "witness" is conspicuously absent. As last summer's violence shows, when the glare of publicity over sex offenders arises, most Christian officials slip quietly into the shadows. Why is this?

The answer is not far to seek. At the same time that last summer's violence was taking place, the Catholic Church in England and Wales was undergoing unwelcome publicity: news reports that various child-molesting priests had been permitted to keep their jobs and had then gone on to abuse more children.

The Catholic Church reacted by mixing apologies with protests that it had done what seemed best at the time. Yet the publicity only increased people's distrust, not only of the Catholic Church, but of churches in general. Too many people have been lied to, angry members of the congregation reported. How could congregation members believe anything that the churches told them about child sexual abuse?

This, then, explains the churches' silence last summer. Partly, it seems, the silence was due to pure cowardice: a desire to avoid the spotlight of publicity over a sensitive topic. But partly too it was humility. How could the churches tell the secular world to clean up its act when the churches themselves have yet to deal properly with decades' worth of cover-ups and neglect of abuse survivors? Churches that may have unwittingly assisted clergy to commit child abuse are in no position to wag their fingers at the general public and tell it to treat sex offenders humanely.

This is, of course, a vicious cycle. As long as the churches feel that they must remain quiet on the topic of the inhumane treatment of sex offenders, the more likely it is that child sexual abuse will continue. Dangerous offenders will go underground, potential offenders will be reluctant to seek help, and most of all--this is an aspect of the matter that has not yet occurred to the churches--the churches will be deprived of the gifts of minor-attracted adults who are at little risk of offending but who do not feel welcome in their congregations.

Somehow, a way to break the cycle must be found. Ironically, the penchant of English citizens for rioting may have forced this problem to the surface in a way that cannot be ignored in the future. It may be that, in the years to come, victims of vigilante violence will echo the words of the Orthodox Church's Easter liturgy--"trampling down death by death"--and speak of how even the deaths of sex offenders and suspected sex offenders became a sacrifice that was not wasted.

Heather Elizabeth Peterson is a religion journalist. She edits the online magazine Philia, which carries interfaith news for adults who are attracted to minors.