On June 20, 2001, the nation learned of the horrible crime of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five small children in the family’s bathtub. According to doctors’ reports, Andrea struggled with mental illness and a deep sense of inadequacy. She felt like a failure as a mother. She began searching the Bible for answers to her problems. Instead of insight or inspiration, Andrea found only words of condemnation. She believed that she was possessed by the Satan. She also believed that her bad parenting had damaged her children’s characters beyond repair. Somehow, in her obsessive study of the Scriptures, Andrea Yates missed the message of grace entirely. Yes, her mental illness must have blinded her to the truth. But would her children be alive today if Andrea had understood Jesus’ promise of unconditional, undeserved love?
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“The Yates Odyssey” by Timothy Roche, TIME Magazine, Jan. 28, 2002, pp. 42-50.