Dark Journey, Deep Grace: Jeffrey Dahmer's Story of Faith

Roy Ratcliff with Lindy Adams
Leafwood Publishers (2006)
ISBN 0976779021
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (10/06)

The words grotesque, depraved, and heinous, do not adequately describe the horror of mayhem and murder attributed to the appalling nature of Jeffrey Dahmer’s criminal offenses.  Dahmer is described as a “handsome, former tennis player, the son of middle-class parents, and a perverse serial killer whose unthinkable acts shocked the nation?”

In his statement to the court in 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer said, “Your Honor, I know my time in prison will be terrible, but I deserve whatever I get because of what I have done.  Thank you, Your Honor, I am prepared for your sentence, which I know will be the maximum, I ask for no consideration.”

“Dark Journey, Deep Grace” asks the question, “Can God forgive even Jeffrey Dahmer?” This is the story of Jeffrey’s journey from remorse, to repentance, to redemption. 

Author, Roy Ratcliff expressed the beginning of the journey this way, “Jeff confessed to me his great remorse for his crimes. He doubted he could be forgiven. He wished he could do something for the families of his victims to make it right, but there was nothing he could do.  He turned to God because there was no one else to turn to, but he showed great courage in his daring to ask the question, ‘Is heaven for me too?’…he dared to ask and he dared to believe the answer.”

Roy was often asked if Jeffrey was sincere in his desire for baptism and in his Christian life.  Roy addresses this common skepticism about prison ministry and last-minute conversions.  His response is a resounding, “Yes!”  Ratcliff also details Jeffrey’s extreme swing to legalism and his new passion to do things right in every aspect of his new life and faith.
 
On November 28, 1994 Jeffrey Dahmer was killed by another inmate in the prison facility.  Seven month’s earlier Roy Ratcliff, a minister from a community near the prison baptized Jeffrey in a whirlpool.  In the months that followed, Roy visited Jeff weekly to nurture him in the Christian faith and to study the Bible together.  Jeff was eager to learn more and was full of questions about following Christ’s teaching.  His life revealed evidence of growing in understanding and in growing into Christian maturity.

In God’s providence Roy recognized Jeff as a friend, and as a brother in the faith.  This is a story of man’s sinfulness and God’s grace.

Roy Ratcliff working with co-author Lindy Adams has created a masterful contrast of man’s darkest evil and the power of God’s forgiveness and His redeeming grace.  “Dark Journey, Deep Grace” is profound in the questions raised and powerful in the answers provided. This story of Jeffrey Dahmer dramatically demonstrates God’s grace, forgiveness, and his eternal destiny.

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