The Unredeemed

I think the tendency on a blog like this is to post things you think you at least almost have figured out, even if you know you have a long way to go to really have them work out in your life. Here’s something I don’t have figured out, though.

Are there people in this life who are not redeemable?

Sociopaths, psychopaths and the like? They appear to have no hope of ever improving as human beings. Medical science cannot help them. I’ve never seen any amount of love and kindness do any good for them or make them better people.

I believe there is such a thing as fate, but ultimately I believe it is our own free will that determines our destiny. I don’t adhere to any doctrines of pre-destination. I think everyone is called to serve our Creator.

But within my own belief system I can’t answer the question of “what about the sociopath?”

We can pray for sociopaths, but the prayers seem to be more for our own benefit than for theirs.

I’m reminded of the old saying, “God takes care of babies and fools,” but somehow I can’t reconcile the idea that the sociopath, who has done the greatest evil in the world, is just “taken care of” because he/she is not capable of being any better.

I saw somewhere once, maybe on a T-shirt, the saying, “Perhaps the purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others of what not to be.” Some people really do seem to have no other purpose, yet sometimes that purpose can be pretty powerful. When we meet them we work extra hard to be better, more loving, more spiritual individuals out of pure fear that anything about us might be like them.

So this is my question that I don’t know the answer to. What about the sociopath? What about the people who appear to be unredeemable?