I wrote this piece at the beginning of my faith-deconstruction faze. I had been wrestling with the fundamentals of my faith for a few months when I read this story in the Washington Post. For me, this story get’s to the heart of the gospel and what it means to “be a Christian”: Is it enough to pray a prayer, or is there more to Christian spirituality than mantras? Is “being a Christian” about saying a prayer and escaping hell, or is it broader and deeper than that? I hope this re-posted piece will spark some thoughts in your mind about people who identify themselves with Jesus and the live heinously or do acts of un-love toward their neighbors.

What will happen to Edgar Ray Killen? I mean post death, as in what will happen to Edgar Ray Killen in eternity? Will he go to hell for his crimes, or might he still have an address in heaven, a small pup-tent though it may be? Who is Mr. Killen and why do I ask (or care)? Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was convicted Tuesday, June 21 2005 of the 1964 “Freedom Summer” killings of James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24. The victims-one black and two Jewish-were beaten and shot by a gang of Klansmen, and their bodies were found 44 days later buried in a red-clay dam. Witnesses said Killen rounded up carloads of Klansmen to intercept the three men and helped arrange for a bulldozer to bury the bodies. The killings made headlines across the country, exposed the depth of Southern resistance to integration, and helped speed passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964; the case was dramatized in the 1988 movie “Mississippi Burning.”At the age of 80, Mr. Killen was sentenced Thursday to serve three consecutive twenty year sentences and will not be eligible for parole until twenty years into his 60 year sentence.

“OK,” you may wonder, “an ex-KKK member was rightly convicted of racial mayhem. Justice was served, so why should I care who he is or where he is going to spend eternity? Surely a pup-tent in heaven is not his eternal address, but the licking flames of hell!” Well, I’d agree accept for two pesky words: Baptist Preacher.

You see, Edgar was (I’ll assume the Baptists somehow revoked his preachers certificate!) an ordained Baptist preacher in Neshoba County, Mississippi. He pastored several churches in this sleepy Mississippi county for nearly fifty years. Look at these words from “The Preacher” about a possible last minute repentance by segregationist and former Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice :

God accepts all who repent. God will not accept you, unless you accept Him through Jesus Christ. You have to repent, ask God and get right with God. God will not force you to ask Him. You must ask Him of your own free-will. He’s standing with outstretched arms and saying, “Come home, through faith.” If Fordice had asked for forgiveness, the blood of Christ would have washed his sins away. Olivier will have to account for missing a great opportunity.

So clearly, Mr. Killen believes in “salvation by grace through faith” and trusts in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross as an atoning sacrifice for his sins. Certainly, this was true before Edgar was ordained as Baptist preacher, during his racially motivated blood-lust rage, and even now as he faces the prospects of dying in a cinderblock cell.

But perhaps he repented, perhaps he confessed his sins of three murders and received God’s faithful forgiveness. Perhaps, but read this account in the Washington Post:

On Thursday, Killen wore a big gap-toothed grin as he was brought into court in the wheelchair he has used since he broke his legs in a logging accident in March. He was not breathing through an oxygen tube, the way he was when the verdict was read.

The judge asked Killen if he had anything to say.

“None, your honor,” he said.

Hood said Killen has expressed no remorse.

“I know at some point he’ll get to that realization, you don’t get to heaven unless you admit what you’ve done and ask for forgiveness,” Hood said.

And yet the same was said by Killen of Gov. Fordice in September, 2004 after he died of leukemia. So I wonder what God will do with this man. You may think it is just silly for me to dwell on this, but I wonder the same for our friend Pastor Fred Phelps, famous for his “God hates fags!” placards at gay parades and hotspots throughout the country (in fact, the website for the The Westboro Baptist Church home page-the church he pastors-is www.godhatesfags.com!).

It matters a great deal to me to know the character of God, and I think questions about what he will do with two “pastors” who murder and hate-two sides of the same coin, really-reveal this character. Are they “in” simply because they prayed the sinners prayer? Are they “in” because they are pastors? Certainly, Jesus’ “depart from me, for I never knew you” words are instructive, but I wonder who is closer to Hell: the preacher who speaks words of hatred and venomous anger toward those enslaved by the homosexual lifestyle, or the one who struggles with issues of sexual identity. And if the whole “eternal security” thing is real (which I think it is, by the way), then what does that mean for these “Christians” who clearly are enslaved by sin?

Anyway, these general thoughts have percolated in my mind ever since learning of Mr. Phelps, and boiled over after reading the heinous crimes of this other “preacher”. I intend to post some more thoughts on sin, judgment, and eternity soon, but this should get the conversation started…

be His,