[Kerberos]

"I'm a prison chaplain. That is why the absence of God in a life is so apparently destructive from my point of view."

Having had some contact with prisons myself I will have to agree with you that a lack of spiritually in one's life is an important factor here.

However, that does not mean that the only spirituality available to someone is Christianity. Today we have choices and as hard as it is for some to fathom, some of us do reject Christianity as the religion we want to follow.

[man of Yosemite]

It is this Christian nation which allows you that freedom to follow some other path for your life. True Christianity has more freedom in it than anything you can replace it with. Were you to go to the other side of the equation and live without any moral compass, you might well find freedoms relinquished to whatever despot might rise to power. Understanding the true value of human life is what keeps this kind of evil at bay.