BTK: Child of God?

By now we all know that Dennis Rader, the congregation president of a lutheran church in Wichita, a man who has been described as "devoutly Christian", is also the BTK (an acronym that stands for his preferred modus operandi: Bind, Torture and Kill) Killer. A few days ago, Rader pleaded guilty to 10 counts of murder in the first degree and calmly described the horrible acts that ended the lives of 10 unsuspecting and seemingly random victims. All this, by Rader's admission, was done to satisfy his "sexual fantasies", whatever that means.

The natural response to hearing this kind of news (certainly it was my first response and I'm not sure that I don't still feel the same way) is to despise this obviously sick and disturbed individual as some kind of inhuman monster who has coated the eternal slip n' slide to hell with the blood of his victims.

But how to we reconcile this with the idea that he was an active member of the church and still professes to being a Christian? The other members of his congregation must be going through agony right now, grappling with this question. He has been visited, as well, by his Pastor who said he would not turn his back on Dennis, no matter his crimes and that he would continue to support him as a brother in Christ, while also fully supported the actions of authorities on the case. The pastor also said something to the effect of "nobody is really that much different than Dennis - in the end we're all sinners."

I have to admit that while I can intellectually say with confidence that I am a sinner, in my heart I have trouble putting my own sins in the same category as this brutal serial killer, who routinely killed his victims by tying plastic bags over their heads and letting them suffocate to death.

Pastor Nagle of Wichita had some very interesting things to say:

"..But something amazing happened. Jesus stood outside Lazarus’ tomb and called out his name, and said to the dead man, “Lazarus, come out!” And he did come out. Much to the shock of the sisters, much to the horror of the crowd, much to the amazement of the disciples, much to the delight of Lazarus, Jesus turned everything around and brought the dead back to life.

And here’s a question: if Jesus could and did turn everything around and bring Lazarus of Bethany back to life, do you think Jesus can and will turn everything around and bring life to Dennis Rader, that pillar of the Lutheran Church in Wichita who is charged as a brutal serial killer? "

"..if the charges hold, we have to say that he was a sinner. A really really bad sinner. A sick and savage sinner. And likely, that’s so. But from our childhood, what have we learned in church? What do we sing in our hymns and read in our Bibles? Didn’t Jesus die for sinners? Yes—but (we protest) surely he didn’t die for that kind of sinner! But what does that mean—that we believe Jesus died only for the nice sinners? The little sinners? The clean and undisgusting sinners? It sounds as if what we say we believe and what we really believe are two different things."

Read the full article

It definately makes me think. But hey, apparently Jeffery Dahmer came to Christ before his murder in prison by a fellow inmate. Who knows, maybe Dennis Rader can be redeemed too.

I think Rader's pastor summed it up best when he said "If Dennis has done what they've alleged he did, then he must pay the price. It still does not have any effect on how I minister to him, I still will love him."

The devil Loves (to eat) Your Children

"Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it." Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)

Although the scripture above is several thousand years old, it is perhaps even more applicable today that it was back in the day. I talk a lot about the world system because I have come to realize that it is an extremely cunning and sinister system of control and degradation that seeks to subtly destroy people. It is a conspiracy in the truest sense of the word, started right from day 1 by that old serpent back in the garden, and has continued to flourish in bigger and deeper ways to the point where these days even the strongest of Christ's disciples have trouble distinguishing God's ways from the world's ways.

While in White Rock over the weekend I was talking to Joan (Lisa's dad's girlfriend), who is a kindergarten teacher. She was telling us how things have changed over the past few years in the way that children are being taught.

I remember when kindergarten (and most of the early grades, for that matter) was all about learning how to interact socially, learn how to be creative and get kind of geared up to start learning. It is a very important stage in a child's life and social training is extremely important. I don't think I could read to any great degree, or do times tables until grade 2 sometime (actually I couldn't do those until about grade 6, but whatever), which seems about the right time to really start learning academically in a really serious way.

According to Joan the curriculum has been seriously changed over the past few years and even at the kindergarten level is VERY centred on literacy and numeracy, to the point now where there is no time for social interaction or playing. 5 year old children are now experiencing failure because, as Joan says and I agree with, the majority of children just don't have the mental development at that age to properly absorb the material. Some do and a lot do not - it has nothing to do with the child's intelligent, they simply aren't ready for that yet - and honestly why should they be?

Joan made the interesting comment that it is switch to a more Asian way of doing things. Interesting to note seeing as there are almost more Asian people in Vancouver now than any other ethinicity (including caucasian). Not that I would use a stereotype when dealing with individual people, but taking a look at cultural stereotypes can give a clue about cultural trends. It seems to me that Asian family life in general often characterized by a very unabalanced combination of diminutive, quiet and subservient women who are dominated and in some cases abused by wealthy and ruthless husbands.

This is just one symptom of a society that seems to value business and productivity over ethics and relationships and obviously teaches that to their children very early in life. When a young child's social development is put aside in favour of numbers and grades, what kind of adults are likely to grow out of that? It makes me wonder what kind of leaders we might have in twenty or thirty years.

Its not enough that children are bombarded with terrible messages coming from TV shows, movies, video games and the internet - now the very underpinings of their early education and development are being used against them. More than ever, parents must take an increasingly active and resonsible role in raising children, because if the parents won't do it there is a little red man with horns, hooves and pitchfork tail who is more than happy to teach them everything they need to know . . .

Apparently ..

This is a pretty good survey being done by MIT. Not sure exactly what they are trying to accomplish but anything that gets more exposure for blogging is a good thing. If you are a fellow blogger, click on the button and go take the survey yourself.

What is YOUR Theological Worldview?

So following along with my good pals Ron at The Weary Pilgrim and Casey over at Jacob's Generation , I decided to do this little quiz and find out what kind of Christian I am. I found the results to be pretty darned interesting actually...

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern 86% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82% Reformed Evangelical 54% Fundamentalist 50% Neo orthodox 39% Charismatic/Pentecostal 32% Modern Liberal 29% Classical Liberal 25% Roman Catholic 7% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com