Is
Pornography Truly a ‘Victimless’ Crime
Portions of Ted Bundy’s Execution-Eve Interview
with Dr. James Dobson
One of the most infamous sex criminals of
all time is Ted Bundy. According to his own words, Bundy believed his descent
into the horrible pit of sexual assault and murder was fueled by an addiction
to violent obscenity. What makes Bundy’s
case of immense interest to evangelical Christians is an execution-eve
interview conducted by Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. This
interview took place
Dobson: “Ted, as you would imagine, there is
tremendous cynicism about you on the outside, and I suppose for good reason.
I’m not sure that there’s anything that you could say that people would
believe, some people would believe. And
yet, you told me last night, and I heard this through our mutual friend John
Tanner, that you have accepted the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and are a
follower and a believer in Him. Do you draw strength from that, as you approach
these final hours?”
Bundy: “I do. I can’t say that being in the valley of the shadow of
death is something that I’ve become all that accustomed to and that I’m strong
and nothing’s bothering me. Listen, it’s no fun. You know, it gets kind of
lonely and yet, I have remind myself that every one of us will go through this
some day, in one way or another, and countless millions who have walked this
earth before us have so this is just an experience which we’ll all share. Here
I am.”
There are several important points made
during the interview. These points are reinforced with direct Bundy quotes.
* * * * *
Point
1: Bundy
was not born a monster. He began life as a normal person.
“…that’s part of the tragedy of this whole
situation. Because I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving
parents, one of five brothers and sisters; a home where we as children were the
focus of my parents lives, where we regularly attended church – two Christian
parents who did not drink, they did not smoke, there was no gambling, there was
no physical abuse or fighting in the home… I led a normal life … And part of
the shock and horror for my dear friends and family years ago when I was
arrested was that there was just no clue. They looked at me and they looked at
the all-American boy.”
“…there were very strong inhibitions
against criminal behavior or violent behavior that had been conditioned into
me, bred into me in my environment, in my neighborhood, in my church, in my
school. Things which said ‘No, this is wrong.’ You
know, even to think of it is wrong, but certainly to do it is wrong.
“…I was a normal person. I wasn’t some guy
hanging out at bars or a bum, I wasn’t a pervert in the sense that people look
at somebody and say, I know that there’s something wrong with him, you can just
tell. I was essentially a normal person.”
* * * * *
Point 2: obscenity is progressively addictive.
“. . . the most
damaging kinds of pornography are those that involve violence, and sexual
violence. Because the wedding of those two forces, as I know
only too well, brings about behavior that is just too terrible to describe.”
“My experience with pornography that deals
on a violent level with sexuality, once you become addicted to it – and I look
on this as a kind of addiction – like other kinds of addition, I would keep
looking for more potent, more explicit, more graphic kinds of material. Like an
addiction, you keep craving something which is harder, something which gives
you a greater sense of excitement until you reach the point where the
pornography only goes so far. You reach that jumping off point where you begin
to wonder if maybe actually doing it will give you that which is beyond just
reading about it or looking at it.”
* * * * *
Point 3: There is a cause-and-effect relationship between using
obscenity and criminal sexual behavior.
“Listen, I’m no social scientist and I
haven’t done a survey. I don’t pretend to know what John Q. Citizen knows about
this. But I’ve lived in prison for a long time now and I’ve met a lot of men
who were motivated to commit violence just like me. And without exception,
every one of them was deeply involved in pornography; without question, without
exception, deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.
There’s no question about it – the FBI’s own study on serial homicide shows
that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography.
“And what scares and appalls me, Dr.
Dobson, is what I see what’s on cable TV – some of the movies, I mean, some of
the violence in the movies that come into homes today, the stuff that they
wouldn’t show in X-rated adult theaters thirty years ago… There are kids
sitting out there switching the TV dial around, and come upon these movies late
at night or I don’t know when they’re on but they’re on, and any kid can watch
them. It’s scary, when I think what
would have happened to me if I had seen – it was scary enough. I just ran into
stuff outside the home, but to know that children are watching that kind of
thing today.
“I think society deserves to be protected
from itself, because as we’ve been talking there are forces at loose in this
country, particularly, again, this kind of violent pornography where, on the
one hand well-meaning, decent people will condemn behavior of a Ted Bundy while
they’re walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send
young kids down the road to be Ted Bundys.”
* * * * *
Point 4: Bundy was eventually driven by an evil supernatural force. Although he never named this force as demon
possession, his descriptions of it, and the obvious results, point to a classic
case of intermittent (time-sharing) demon possession.
“…this one small but very potent and very
destructive segment of it that I kept very secret and very close to myself and
didn’t let anybody know about…
“…something which is almost like a separate entity inside.
“…that’s one way to describe it – a
compulsion, a building up of destructive energy.
“It’s a very difficult thing to describe.
The sensation of reaching that point where I knew that it was like something
had snapped, that I knew that
I couldn’t control it any more, that these
barriers that I had learned as a child, that had been
instilled in me, were not enough to hold me back with respect to seeking
out and harming somebody.
“It was like coming out of some kind of
horrible trance or dream. I can only liken it to… have been possessed by
something so awful and so alien, and then the next morning wake up from it,
remember what happened ...
“…it was like
a black hole. It was like a crack and everything that fell into that crack just
disappeared.”
* * * * *
Point 5: Despite the influences of obscenity and demonic forces, Bundy
recognized his need to be accountable to society and God for his behavior.
“…it’s important to me that people believe
what I’m saying, to tell you that I’m not blaming pornography, I’m not saying
that it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility
for whatever I’ve done, and all the things that I’ve done.
“…and then the next morning wake up from
it, remember what happened and realize that basically, in the eyes of the law
certainly and in the eyes of God, you’re responsible. To wake up in the morning
and realize what I had done, with a clear mind and all my essential moral and
ethical feelings intact at that moment, absolutely horrified that I was capable
of doing something like that.
“I deserve,
certainly, the most extreme punishment society has and society deserves to be
protected from me and from others like me, that’s for
sure.”
End of Interview Excerpts