Anthony Sowell

Went to church today. We had a great guest speaker, Andrew Harvey. He's a controversial for some, but I dug his passion and his five point plan for what he calls "sacred activism." Sacred activism is when your passion for God and your passion for justice explode in your soul and you are motivated to make the world a better place. I can dig that.

The first point was simple and at least as old as Deuteronomy: Love God. Love Him until you dance with joy. The third point is: love your neighbor--and you know who Jesus said your neighbor was--errrbody. The second is the one Christianity often glosses over, which is a shame because it's essential for the third point: Love yourself.

I don't remember the last two points. Probably because I floated out of church in a holy haze and got in my car and called my aunt, as I often do. I love my aunt to death, but she's got a negative streak that works my nerves sometimes.

"Did you hear about that nigger in Cleveland?" She asked after I told her I'd just left church where I had been given a five point plan for saving the world. She said 'nigger' the way old Black people from the South talk about African-Americans who embarrass the race. "You know, Black peoples didn't used to do things like that. I hope they strang 'im up!"

She was talking about Anthony Sowell, the 50-year-old convicted sex offender who was arrested after six dead bodies were found in his home. Police went to Sowell's address after a woman told police she had been drinking with Sowell when he punched, strangled, and raped her.

Sigh. You know where I'm going here.

First, how the hell did he get a date?! (I know that is wrong, but it did cross my mind as I was reading the newspaper this morning.)

Second, what happened? 50 years ago, Sowell was a little baby in a blue blanket, smelling like baby powder and Pampers. What happened to turn him into a rapist and a murderer?

And don't say, "What about the victims, KellyBelle?" I care so much about the victims, I want to know what went horribly wrong in Sowell's mind, so if there is another little boy out there right now undergoing the same thing, someone can stop it and save six lives in the future.

It's easy to call this man a "nigger," a monster, a freak. But when you love God and truly love yourself--I'm not talking about vanity or narcissism--you can't look at another human being without seeing some of yourself and God in him. So when someone does something that is not of God and is definitely something you wouldn't do, you stop and ask how did we create a world where this is possible? Where a baby grows up to drink, drug, rape and kill?

I'm just asking.