Pastor John D. White of Broomfield Township, Michigan is under arrest in a bizarre murder of the daughter of his fiancé in fulfillment of a sexual fantasy. The 14 members of Christ Community Fellowship Church knew that White was an ex-con but believed that he had changed in finding God.
White told police that he killed Rebekah Gay, 24, in her trailer by hitting her in the head with a mallet and strangled her with a zip tie. While he then stripped her body, he could not remember if he had sex with the corpse. He does remember that he then hid her body in nearby woods and returned to the trailer to dress her 3-year-old son in a Halloween costume. He admits to having a fantasy of having sex with her corpse.
White is facing a charge of first-degree murder.
White is engaged to marry Gay’s mother and lived in the same trailer park. While police searched for Gay, White contacted his small congregation and asked them to pray for her.
White was released from prison in 2007 after serving nearly 12 years for manslaughter in the death of a 26-year-old woman in Kalamazoo County. The victim was Vicky S. Wall and he was convicted of assault with intent to murder and for manslaughter in the 1994 killing. He was also sentenced to probation for choking and stabbing a 17-year-old Battle Creek girl in 1981. That is a disturbing pattern of violence against women.
One of his congregation stressed that White was “absolutely contrite” and that the murder was the work of the Devil. She noted that “[h]e was doing a lot of good and Satan did not want him doing good, and Satan got to him.”
Source: USA Today
Idealist 707,
You make comments that you believe are definitive and summative on the subject. You are either incurably arrogant to believe that you are positioned to make such final declaratory statements, or you are ill-equipped to engage in dialogue between people of differing perspectives. (BTW, not everyone that believes there is a Higher Power has the same belief about the story of creation, or about the value of athiests for that matter.)
Mike S.,
I don’t believe I do have the situation a tad askew. Fundamentalists of different faiths are not all extreme critics of other beliefs. Fundamentalists of any faith represent a minority of deists world wide, and, therefore, are nothing more than a representative sample of themselves not of all believers.
Fundamentalists who act with intolerance are just that. And so are the athiests on this blog to whom I am responding. I don’t make broad assumptions or statements about all athiests because of a few intolerant people who post on this blog. I am also not taking too much license when I characterize the automated caustic criticism they spew as intolerant. When they espouse an absolute and deliver it with insult and broad stroke characterizations that pretty well defines intolerant.
Can I just agree for once? 😉
What MMW said.
What Mike said…..plus, stop blaming G*d for mans work. G*d gives free will, it is man that chafes at being unable to control outcomes and is unable to control personal desires….. This man did a horrendous thing…..what other information is available to answer why????? Mental illness comes to mind….
It’s quite OK to believe in God. Just don’t go killing anybody, OK?
“I must categorically state that people who believe in “the Devil Made Me Do It” justification of ones acts, are quite frankly idiots.”
No they’re not; they’re smart like foxes. In our culture, you can sometimes get off with “the devil made me do it” and you can sometimes get off with “it was God’s plan” and in fact those are equivalent arguments. The point is, many people believe that we should not be TRULY responsible and accountable for our own behavior. We should be able to assign evil outside ourselves in various ways; we should be able to adopt good from outside ourselves with magical phrases. Etc. It’s pretty elaborate yet it can sometimes be accomplished with the simplest of rituals and the silliest of incantations.
This guy will go back to prison now and get born again. I mean “yet again.”
Too bad somebody had to get died again so he could go get born again. Where was the neighborhood watch when we really needed them?
Joseph Piazza,
Have you sat through many auto da fé’s?
Witch trials, excommunications, churchly judgement sessions, the earth opening up to swallow these sinners, etc.?
Go back to your square—-one!
History proves you wrong. Jesus is still waiting for us to kill off each other in his name.
Why should he come back now? We are not evil enough to start the last judgement?
I think the quote of Epicurus, just prior to your comment proves the non-existence of Dog.
That atheist get upset is for the same reasons as you would when forced to be in the presence of someone as deranged as to believe that the world was created 8,000 years ago. And that we walked with dinosaurs.
Did we eat hamburgers made of their meat. What is the next story to come out of Texas or a church somewhere.
I find the anger about people believing in a Higher Power, whether or not you call it God or some other name, displayed by the atheists above both interesting, disconcerting and intolerant. Why so angry?
There is most certainly irony around this story because it is the absurd exception (on many levels) and not the rule. For those of you who saw this news story as an opportunity to bash the Spiritual beliefs of others is more a reflection of your internal fear and anger than it is determinative about the existence or non-existence of a God, and as an extension your snipes are not determinative of whether or not faith communities help or hurt humankind as a general rule.
You may have supporting points to make about whether or not God exists, or whether or not organized faith communities hurt more than help. But not every story where someone “of faith” goes wrong is evidence that there isn’t a God or that all religion is bad.
My perspective is that those of you with this anger toward “God” and religion look for any post that remotely relates to the topic and make it an opportunity for “God” bashing. This conduct does not make your right, or interesting. If nothing else, practice tolerance for the perspective of other people. Such as, I may believe that it is denial not to believe in a Higher Power, but I don’t criticize or demonize atheists for their perspective. I don’t accuse them of being the scourge of the world, even if I believe that we would all be better off if they believed otherwise.
Perhaps a little counseling on fear and anger may also be of value.
“If nothing else, practice tolerance for the perspective of other people. Such as, I may believe that it is denial not to believe in a Higher Power, but I don’t criticize or demonize atheists for their perspective. I don’t accuse them of being the scourge of the world, even if I believe that we would all be better off if they believed otherwise. Perhaps a little counseling on fear and anger may also be of value.”
Joseph,
i’m not an atheist but a Jewish Deist, so I do believe there is some creative force that informs the Universe. however, I think you have the situation a tad askew. Fundamentalists of all religions have been attacking the freedoms of everyone else in their attempt to impose their particular religious beliefs on others. When atheists for instance, reply in kind, they are proclaimed to be intolerant. “Let he who would cast the first stone…………..”
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
Epicurus, Greek philosopher, 341-270 BCE
And, JT: can you please take the photo of the Pastor creep off of the screen. You are scaring the puppies.
Religion is the root of all evil. In the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. Achmed. I mean Amen. I mean get a life.
By the way, Vote Democrat.
Bruce
1, November 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm
P S
Religion wasn’t the cause the first murder was it
=====================================================
cain v able?
OS:
Yes, that is one definition of a an ultimate punishment. Eric Rudolf can attest to that.
DD
Like Nick said “He was probably pleaded down to manslaughter ”
Thanks Nick.
Creep…
Some pastors are content to keep the flock in a pasture and preach and fleece. Others go astray and abuse children or gamble. Those who need God need preachers. Those who cant preach usually teach. Those who cant teach, teach teachers. Then you have the Principals. Nuns with rulers. Rulers without nuns. Coptic lottery to name that new leader. Russian Orthodox who hate Jobs and the Bite out of the Apple. All in a days work. God did put Dog on Earth to take care of you humans and you tend to go astray and get fleeced or pedophiled, depending on your age and income bracket. Stick with the dogs.
Mike:
“quite frankly idiots.”
I resemble that remark!