Dennis Rader's pastor has come to know a living Satan

A common criticism of preaching is we don't hear what the Gospel has to do with our daily life. In this interview by Bill Tammeus with Rev. Michael G. Clark, pastor of the congregation to which "BTK Killer" Dennis Rader belonged, Rev. Clark has found one connection.

I have heard in Scripture in the last six months things I have never heard in the last 20 years of my ministry.

Q. What would an example be?

A. When we were going through this, it was the Lenten season. I remember the text where Jesus gathers his disciples in the Upper Room, and he washes their feet and serves the bread. Finally he comes to Judas and he says, "The one who dips this bread in my dish is my betrayer." We hear that. That's very clear. But what we don't hear is the next line: "And Satan entered into him."

I had never heard that. Or never understood it. ...

Through my experiences and training I depersonified and I justified Satan or the devil as an object we need to project evil onto because the source of evil is within us.

I have changed my theology. I never thought I would. I'm here to tell you, Bill, that if on Feb. 24, 2005, a day before Dennis was arrested, someone had suggested that I would be talking the way I am today, I would have told them they were just plain crazy.

But I am convinced from what I have been through that there is definitely an evil force out there that is viable, and it's something we need to know about.

(via Knight Ridder News Service, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)