I have been amazed at the story coming out about the BTK killer. BTK stands for Bind, Torture and Kill, an acronym that 60-year-old Dennis Rader gave to himself after killing 10 people, starting in the 1970’s. (PPT:Here is how he looked in his arrest photo, and here is how he looked in his church suit as he walked into court in his church suit.) He was a city employee, scout leader and the chairman of his local church council, where he and his wife had been members for 30 years. He was a leader in the church, even though his neighbors described him as, “a bully who measured grass with a ruler and who would lure dogs from a fenced yard so he could catch them.” He taunted police with word puzzles, sadistic poems and letters about the murders. He wrote to the local media saying, “How many people do I have to kill before I get my name in the newspaper?”
What were the people of this church thinking? They tolerated a wolf in sheep’s clothing! How did that church become so duped by someone so evil? Because they refused to look at the fruit of his life — his relationships with others, , his bullying and his domineering, controlling spirit — all because he was active in the church and a hard worker. There are many people who mouth the name of Jesus but who do not do what Jesus said.