God’s Misfits, from left, Tad Cullum, Tifany Adams, Cole Twombly, Cora Twombly and Paul Grice, are accused of killing two Kansas women. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation)
The latest chapter in the God’s Misfits story has been revealed, adding to our knowledge of how two Kansas women were murdered the Saturday before Easter last — they were stabbed to death — but contributing little to our understanding of why .
It’s an existential question about good and evil that lies at the cold heart of every horrific act of personal violence. It transcends motive, because motive can be understood as a lust for money or revenge or some other kind of gratification. The why that haunts us is about whether evil is the absence of good, like cold is the absence of heat, or if human beings are tragically predisposed to wickedness.
If so, how could a loving God allow such things?
While these philosophical questions have been debated since at least the time of Plato with no definitive answers, in the Oklahoma panhandle such matters are sometimes approached by back roads evangelists with the tools at hand. As recounted by one newspaper columnist in 2001, one of these rough panhandle preachers told a story about giving a ride to a couple of hitchhikers who were disinterested in hearing the gospel. So he pulled a pistol from beneath his seat and put the barrel to the head of one of the young men.