Who made the monster? Indeed, it is important to acknowledge that the man who committed these monstrous acts of pure evil was a deeply religious person, plagued by demons who have their source in certain not uncommon forms of religious brainwashing. Afterall, body hatred is not something we are born with, not something we come to naturally. It is something we must be taught. In any case, besides the racist, simple-minded dehumanizing of Asian people so prevalent now in the culture at large, it is beyond doubt that the demonization of women and sex in the context of religion were critical factors in the mind-set that permitted this individual who, incredible as it seems saw his furious crusade against the flesh as a way to get right with God. Of course, as we know, killing, torturing and punishing for the purpose of pleasing the Lord has been going on since religion first appeared. It is the dark side of a sacred and necessary enterprise in dire need of renewal and reform. In fact, when I first read Mr. Long’s comments about wanting to help people by getting rid of temptation, it reminded me of the religious images which showed up at the insurrection, the signs that said “Jesus Saves,” “In God We Trust” and of course: “Proud American Christian.” It reminded me of the flags with various forms of the cross, for in both Mr. Longs’ behavior and the behavior of the insurrectionists there is the same kind of moral inversion whereat falsehood becomes truth, evil becomes good and the devil mutates into God. Hatred of women Hatred of another race Hatred of one’s own natural desire An unholy trinity born of fear. It must be remembered that all of these unholy hatreds are ultimately hatred of the Tzelem Elohim: the image of God: God the female; God the source of all the peoples; God the source of human instinct and sexuality. All of these are rejections ultimately of the divine, and those who recognize them as such should call them out and expose them for the hypocritical apostasies they are. Indeed, whenever people seek to transpose the unholy into the holy, the irreligious into the religious, whenever people seek to invert the rational or the real, those who love God must object. As the dream voice suggests, religion should be the champion of life in all its forms not its enemy. Dream “There are several ways of dealing with the chaos in the human heart, with the chaos of the ‘bull.’ You can kill the bull, an approach taken unfortunately by conventional religion, which should be the champion of life, or you can become the master of the bull, the master of the chaos, and the thing that masters is love. If you can find the love and acceptance in yourself to master the bull without destroying it, then you can become whole.” That a person who identifies both as a Christian and a theist could believe what Mr. Long believed and perform the acts that he performed, is a challenge for those who care about how people understand sacred things, for those who care about the way in which God and the religions which worship Her/Him are understood, articulated and taught. The moral and theological inversion in which Mr. Long participated, to which Mr. Long fell prey will only reinforce the cynical attitudes of those who regard religion as wholly negative and belief in God as a dangerous, primitive remnant of the uncivilized, superstitious past. But as the voice of the dream instructs, “There is true comfort in faith”