So, what is your favorite religion? Let’s include Atheism, not believing in God, and Agnosticism, which is not really knowing what is true about spiritual things and possibly keeping an open mind.

Among all the possibilities, what is your favorite?

A religion is usually a community of people who are organized around some ideas, and those ideas are usually about spiritual things, and also about moral and ethical principles; what is spiritual truth, and what is right or wrong?

We all know the concept.

Now, in your favorite religion or community, who is qualified to belong? Who can be one of them? Are some people just so wrong that they can never be in the community of believers?

For example, what if a terrible person, in history, suddenly decided to become a sincere believer, in something? After all the terrible things that he or she did, could that one become a Christian? Would you sit beside them in church?

That is all abstract and theoretical, but there are some stories that make us stop and think.

Do you remember the news about serial killer, the “Son of Sam” whose real name was David Berkowitz? He is convicted of many murders, and apparently he has confessed to killing more than seventy people, mostly in the area of New York City.

The police think the number of dead victims may be more than one hundred. This criminal was so famous that a Hollywood movie was made about his story “The Summer of Sam.”

You could do an Internet search, to learn more. Here is one example:

READ: David Berkowitz 

He is a terrible man. If you want to know more, here is a video of the Son of Sam killer, reading a favorite passage in the Bible. Apparently, these words are important to him:

If that man was speaking in a public place, like a church, many people would go there to hear him speak. Imagine him telling other people how they should live their lives, and expecting them to make changes so they could start living right.

This brings up many questions. If you want another example, here is that mass murderer, serial killer, talking about a new life, with Jesus:

I am writing as a Christian. We have to decide what to do with a person like David Berkowitz. Can he be one of us? I’m sure, the answer from some believers, would be “No!” Only people who are good enough can join. Some people have moved so far away from the correct truth, that they are lost.

The Son of Sam story brings up two questions:

1)  Are you good enough?

Probably most of us don’t know the name Sam Shoemaker. He was a Christian minister in New York City, in an Episcopal (Anglican) church and a member of the Oxford Group, an evangelical Christian community.

He is credited with formulating most of the ideas for a famous movement, “Alcoholics Anonymous” or AA. The basic concept is not “Are you good enough to be one of us?” but rather “Are you bad enough?” AA is a movement for people who are lost in addictions and who need to find a way out.

2) Who is with you?

There is another famous story, from the Bible. A man named Saul, who certainly was bad enough, made a living by persecuting Christians. He was responsible for the deaths of many believers, who were executed with his help.

Saul’s life changed when he met one person. He claimed that he had a spiritual meeting with Jesus, as he was traveling to the city of Damascus, to persecute more Christians.

He became known as Paul, and he wrote a large part of the Christian New Testament. He did not join a movement, he met one person, and his life was changed.

A large part of the Christian “religion” is based on Paul’s teachings, and he entered the community by being bad enough, and then meeting one person. That is very different from being good enough to join a great movement. 

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and I am the worst of them! But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1: 15 and 16)

So, can a serial killer find religion?

But it is possible to find that one person who can change us, and then to start a new life. That would come from the need for a new beginning, and from the One who can forgive and give a restart. This is very different from most religious thinking, in the world.

There is a lesson for all of us, in the Son of Sam story, and we may be challenged in what we believe. We are not being asked to join a philosophy club, for polite people who are good enough already.