Beneath the Floorboards

(Murder is wrong. Rape is evil. By pointing out this song I'm endorsing neither.)

As we talk about Total Depravity this week... there can be a sad but luring temptation for Christians to think that they are "of a different stock" from the "worst" of sinners. Sufjan Stevens is NOT one of those Christians. He reflects on the life of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. and allows it to shed light on his own sin.


Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr 2005
Sufjan Stevens gives his take on the story of Gacy, who was executed in 1994 for the rape and murder of 33 boys …

His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's T-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss
On the mouth

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid

--Sufjan Stevens, song: John Wayne Gacy, Jr.