Wednesday, January 17, 2024

A SERIAL KILLER'S DAUGHTER: MY STORY OF FAITH, LOVE AND OVERCOMING

By Kerri Rawson. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019.


Great for helping those who have been traumatized but not at prevention.


With honesty, candour and a welcome lack of self-pity, the daughter of the BTK killer tells her autobiography, including her childhood, her life and the fallout and personal consequences of learning her father was a serial murderer.


This book was enjoyable and edifying, but I felt it was missing one crucial point. The question is naturally asked by anyone who hears of the BTK killer how an upstanding member of a church who in all likelihood would have called himself a Christian if asked could also bind, torture and kill ten people, displaying character faults that go along with such a person.


The answer, I think, is this. BTK did not deal with his sins. Rawson mentions how her dad had admitted publicly after being arrested to having dark thoughts and fantasies since boyhood, as well as admiring criminals. 


The lesson for anyone who is a believer here is that we must deal with the hidden things. If your thoughts, fantasies and feelings do not line up with God's Word and you are thinking about the types of things this man was, get help. Talk to a pastor or a trusted brother or even sister in the faith. Join an accountability group if you are the type of person for whom that will work. 


Most importantly, take these deepest parts of yourself before your Lord and Saviour. He already knows you are thinking them so you can't hide anything from Him. Don't even try. Be truly honest with Him as the loving and perfect father God is and that will prevent people from asking the same questions about you one day.


I am of course not saying everybody with twisted thoughts and desires becomes a serial killer but we are never static with God. We are always either growing in Him or backsliding from Him so choose to do the former and allow God to search you and know you intimately.


Purchase the book here. 

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