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Edited on Mon Feb-28-05 01:49 PM by lonestarnot
Arrest in Killings Stuns Church Mon Feb 28, 7:55 AM ET Top Stories - Los Angeles Times By P.J. Huffstutter Times Staff Writer
WICHITA, Kan. — The faithful gathered at Christ Lutheran Church early Sunday morning, bewildered and overpowered by a sense of betrayal. • Latimes.com home page
Just a week ago, Dennis Rader, president of the 400-member congregation, had been a welcome and familiar face in their midst. He had recently dropped off spaghetti sauce and a salad for a church dinner, the pastor said. On Friday, Rader, 59, was arrested and accused of being the long-sought BTK killer who tortured and killed 10 people in the Wichita area from 1974 to 1991. "I don't know what to feel other than pain, agony," Pastor Michael Clark said after delivering his sermon Sunday morning. "They didn't teach me how to deal with anything like this at the seminary." ... For many of Rader's friends at church, the headlines have become numbing. They repeat the same thought — the news cannot be true. "I keep hearing the same thing, over and over: Dennis is BTK," said Paul Carlstedt, a church member who has known Rader since 1975. "But the man I know is not a monster. He just can't be." As congregants walked into the two-story brick church Sunday, bundled in warm coats to ward off the chill of an overcast day, reporters and television crews blocked their path, peppering them with questions about Rader and his family. ... "I needed to be here," said Carol Jones, a longtime resident of Wichita, who was seated in the pews. "I needed some explanation of why this is happening. I needed some help understanding how we all could have missed this, and how he could have possibly done something like this." "We grieve with you," Mansholt said. "Words fail us at times like this…. The very foundation of our faith is shaken."
"The events that have unfolded over the past 48 hours have the power to destroy, to devastate us," Clark told the congregation. "These events have the power and energy to be a wedge that drives us apart, or they can be a force that will hold us together in these trying times. 'It makes no sense!' 'What has just happened?' MY INPUT.....same type of people being "fooled" by bushitler
Describing this as a "soul-shattering experience," Clark said the Rader family was "trying to come to grips with this. Paula was in a state of disbelief. Her voice indicated she was suffering." At least one member of the congregation said members had begun to feel that somehow they overlooked a tip or a hint of the man police say was their friend. "Were we used? Did he use the church and all of his friends as a cover?" said Kevin Smith, 52. "Were we all fooled? Could we have done something?"
Hell yeah they were used and still being used by bushitler!! Only on a more massive scale!
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