‘Dennis was influenced by some kind of demonic force’ - Exorcism was sought for BTK killer

County sheriff politely refused pastor’s request

By ROBERT A. CRONKLETON [link to www.kansascity.com]

The Kansas City Star


Dennis Rader’s pastor sought permission to perform a jailhouse exorcism on the BTK killer but authorities wouldn’t allow it, the Rev. Michael Clark told an Overland Park audience Sunday.


Clark believes demonic forces drove Rader to murder 10 victims in the Wichita area, he said at Holy Cross Lutheran Church.


In response to an audience member’s question, the Lutheran pastor said he spoke at length with the Sedgwick County sheriff about performing the exorcism. The sheriff politely refused to allow it, Clark said.


“Dennis was influenced, I believe, by some kind of demonic force and that played a role in the choices and decisions he made,” Clark said earlier in his speech, adding that Rader still had a choice in how to react to the demons.


Being possessed doesn’t mean Rader is some type of monster, said Clark, the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita. Instead, he said there was something inside Rader that drove him to kill. Rader even recognized this when he wrote to the media, saying there was a monster inside him that he couldn’t control, Clark said.


When the media and psychologists tried to explain what drove Rader to murder his victims, they only looked at answers that could be measured and tested, Clark said. They overlooked the spiritual forces.


A year ago, Clark said, he would have chased anyone out of his office who suggested that demonic possession was possible. He did not believe in that line of theological thought. Clark believed that Satan was the “personification of evil of the human condition.”


But his dealings with Rader, who had become the congregation’s president not long before his arrest, have dramatically altered Clark’s belief in evil.


Clark first found out that Rader was a suspect in the BTK murders after a detective showed up at Clark’s office in February looking for evidence. Rader last year confessed and was convicted of killing 10 persons between 1974 and 1991. He is serving 10 consecutive life terms. Rader called himself BTK for his preferred method to “bind, torture and kill.”


Clark said Rader’s evil was not only felt by the victims and the victims’ families , but by Rader’s family, those who knew him and the church’s congregation.


“There were and still are a lot of people still in pain — there is no question about that,” Clark said.


Clark accepted questions from members of the audience, one of whom asked if Rader had shown any remorse.


“I can’t go there,” Clark answered. “I would be betraying confidentiality.”


In hindsight, nothing indicated Rader was a serial killer, Clark said. He was a respected member of the congregation and a church leader. Clark often would turn to Rader if something needed to be done.


When asked why God let Rader prey upon his victims and cause so much pain, Clark said God gave us free will to make choices.


“There are times where demonics enter our mind and our soul which causes us to make bad decisions,” Clark said.