“We deserve to die for our crimes,
but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
—Luke 23:41-43
Jeffrey Dahmer was an inspiration. (To some, that is. Not me in particular.) But Dahmer was also inspired, by the likes of John Wayne Gacy, although for a different reason than you’re probably thinking.
Jesus.
Yes, a man who raped and strangled 33 young men was the inspiration for a man who killed and ate 17 young men in finding the Lord.
Weird.
(Spoiler alert for the docuseries ending.)
The dramatization shows Gacy on television discussing the artwork he’d been working on while on death row, designed to “bring joy into people’s lives,” when he mentioned being at peace with everything he’d done because of his relationship with God. This sparked Dahmer’s curiosity in finding the Lord.
Initially doubtful that he could ever be forgiven, the biblical scene above was the one revealed to Dahmer by the prison reverend, giving him hope. It was explained that of the two criminals crucified alongside Christ, after the first one mocked the Messiah, the second one acknowledged him as the Son of God, and that’s all it took to secure a place alongside him in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Apparently, Gacy was executed on the same day Dahmer was baptized, on the same day of a solar eclipse.
Weird.
The following scene depicts Dahmer’s neighbor, who tried and failed numerous times to get the police to investigate the abnormal sounds and smells emerging from her neighbor’s apartment. She was speaking to the pastor of her own church, struggling to find any forgiveness in her heart for the man who disturbed her life in numerous ways.
This sparks my question for today’s post: Could you forgive Jeffrey Dahmer?
And if you were one of the victim’s parents, Could you forgive the man who ate your son?
That’s a heavy question to weigh.
After being baptized, the pastor tells Dahmer, “Congratulations, Jeff. You’re saved.”
If that’s the case, eternity seems like a long time to spend in the company of Dahmer and Gacy…
#SeeYouBoysInHeaven
#MullThatOver