WITH RESPECT TO SERIAL KILLERS,

AND THE MOST DEPRAVED CRIMINALS AMONG US:

If the wealthiest people in the world were not presently bleeding our economies dry, we'd absolutely have more than enough resources to house and rehabilitate these poor souls.

The very least we can do is TRY to expose them to spiritual principles, to teach them enlightening practices, such as yoga and deep meditation, and to provide the love and compassion which they so sorely lack (and the lack of which, no doubt, resulted in their moral sickness).

How can we call ourselves Christians -- or conscious human beings -- unless we endeavor to respond to a lack of love with a fullness of love? To be a Christian means to consider wickedness as illness, and Christ as the righteous physician, in whom there is no condemnation; but only mercy, pity, and the most awesome compassion.

Sure, to the broken-hearted, -- that is, to the cynical -- this must all sound absurdly idealistic. Certainly, the worst criminals would be the very first to scoff at such a program. Nevertheless, it remains a profound truth, that it is easy to love those who love us, while the hardest to love are the ones who require the most love. Moreover, that we only truly show ourselves to be loving beings when we respond to "the least" among us with compassion.

If I were acquainted with the victims of a horrific crime, I suppose, I might be singing a very different tune; crying, "Good riddance!" when these so-called monsters meet with an unhappy end. Luckily, my distance from the crimes allows me to preserve a more objective viewpoint, and to see them, not as monsters, but as invalids. Still, even then, I do not think I could ever be satisfied with mere revenge. I am only really gratified by seeing these people brought to repentance and converted in their hearts.

I have too much faith to give up on even the most hardened of sinners. We all fall miserably short of the infinite goodness of God, yet, we are all His blessed children; however lost, however broken and twisted by error and circumstance. I cannot help but believe that all things are possible with God, and that the same passions which lead a person to commit horrors may be transformed, by His grace, into equally powerful forces for good.

Saint Paul was the most ardent persecutor of Christians, yet he became the most ardent proponent of Christian love. Who among us is not humbled, softened, and enlightened by that most glorious sign of God's grace?