The Monster

A Horror Story

This morning I awoke to read a horror story about a woman who is accused of killing at least 7 of presumably her own children and hiding the corpses in her former home after allegedly giving birth to the babies there. This case has just been opened and there will be many people terribly fascinated with the story and unable to turn away.

This year we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

Yesterday, a 73-year old former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan was arrested after killing 3 people simply because he thought they were Jewish.

That these are despicable acts of humanity's inhumanity is self-evident. However, I noticed something disconcerting happening:  We are quick to denounce these people as not being human at all, but being monsters.

Are they really monsters? What I believe is that each and everyone of us are capable of making such monstrous decisions. We are no more of a monster than this woman who killed her 7 infants. We all have the same capability of hate, but we also have the same capability of love.

Der Untergang (The Downfall)

In 2004, the movie "Der Untergang" (The Downfall) came to theaters. It was produced in Germany, played by German actors and Bruno Ganz (a Swiss actor) portrayed a very accurate image of Adolf Hitler, complete with Austrian accent. In it, people can see a very human Adolf Hitler. This met with some consternation in Germany (1). People were uncomfortable with the fact that Hitler was portrayed as a human being, who loved his dogs, loved his wife, was kind and considerate to his employees, yet could do such despicable acts of horror.

I believe this is what made the movie such a success.

Evil Incarnate

Living in Hannover, Germany, I lived a short distance from the former concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. Nothing remains of the buildings there because they were destroyed by fire when the British troops in charge were afraid that typhoid would spread among the survivors. The German soldiers who were left along with the local rural citizenry were forced to bury the dead. Anne Frank is a famous victim of this camp.

When one walks up to the Memorial, one notices how peaceful it is. There are several small hills where heather grows abundantly. When one walks up to the hills, one sees a sign similar to this:

The inscription says simply, "Here rest 5000 dead. April 1945." There is mound after mound of these graves with similar inscriptions:  "Here rest 2000 dead. Here rest 1000 dead. Here rest 500 dead." In so much beauty, there is so much evil.

The Love of God Triumphant

I saw a terrible "documentary" recently where Ray Comfort went around interviewing people, trying to convince them with arguments that he was right and that Hell was a real place. The documentary was supposed to be about Noah, but contained little to nothing about it. His argumentation with people about the necessity of Hell and punishment were badly done and in poor taste. I don't know of anyone who has ever come to a personal relationship with Jesus through argumentation.

One of his points about Hell was that it had to exist for people like Hitler. I won't get into the various arguments about whether or not Hell exists, but simply to say that our perception of Hell is probably different than the judgment God is giving to us, his creation.

However, one thing that I would like to touch upon is the fact that Jesus' love is more powerful than all of Hitler's hate. His love is so powerful that it overcomes the hate in this world. I believe that if Judas had not have killed himself, that Christ's forgiveness could extend to him as well.

Shortly before his murder in prison, Jeffrey Dahmer (the serial killer who was also a cannibal) apparently accepted Christ as his savior. I believe that the love of Christ is powerful enough to save someone like Jeffrey Dahmer.

That's the issue at hand. Do we believe that God can forgive all sins? I believe that all sins are equal before God, but his love is more powerful than those sins. In the end, Love Wins.