Posted on 03/14/2005 6:18:27 PM PST by Dubya
ATLANTA (BP)--Ashley Smith, the Atlanta-area woman taken hostage by the subject of the largest manhunt in Georgia history March 12, calmed the alleged killer by reading an excerpt from "The Purpose-Driven Life" and talking with him about God. She escaped by persuading him to let her pick up her daughter from an AWANA children's program at a Southern Baptist church.
"I asked him if I could read," Smith, 26, said in recounting the ordeal to reporters outside her attorney's office March 13. "He said, 'What do you want to read?'
"'Well, I have a book in my room.' So I went and got it. I got my Bible, and I got a book called 'The Purpose-Driven Life.' I turned it to the chapter that I was on that day. It was chapter 33. And I started to read the first paragraph of it. After I read it, he said, 'Stop. Will you read it again?'
"So I read it again to him," Smith said.
On Day 33 of the book, author Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist pastor in California, writes, "We serve God by serving others. The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you've arrived. In our self-serving culture with its me-first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept."
The alleged gunman, Brian Nichols, overpowered an Atlanta courthouse deputy as he was being escorted to court for a rape trial March 11. He then shot and killed the presiding judge and a court reporter before killing another deputy as he left the courthouse. Later he killed a federal agent in an attempt to flee authorities.
Nichols, 33, held Smith at gunpoint outside her Duluth apartment around 2:30 a.m. March 12, apparently having chosen her at random as she returned from a trip to a nearby store. Once he removed his hat, she recognized him as the man wanted for the killing spree and chose to cooperate with his demands. He tied her up and then began to converse with her.
Smith asked Nichols not to kill her because she was scheduled to pick up her 5-year-old daughter the next morning. Four years ago, Smith's husband died in her arms after being stabbed in a knife fight, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Smith was concerned that her daughter would become an orphan.
M. Allen Hughes, administrative pastor at Hebron Baptist Church in Dacula, Ga., told Baptist Press he was under the impression Smith planned to pick up her daughter at the church's AWANA function Saturday morning.
"My understanding was that her little girl was participating and that she was supposed to come pick up her little girl and obviously didn't get to do that because of the situation," Hughes said. "Some relative picked up the little girl for her, and ... when the relative found out that she did not pick the little girl up, that's how they knew something was going on. That's pretty much all we know on this end."
As time passed during the early morning hours at the apartment, Nichols and Smith talked about God, family and life experiences while the fugitive apparently became more comfortable with the hostage. She began to help the gunman consider the families of the victims he had shot that day and asked him if he thought about how they might be feeling.
"After we began to talk, he said he thought that I was an angel sent from God and that I was his sister and he was my brother in Christ and that he was lost and God led him right to me to tell him that he had hurt a lot of people," Smith told reporters. "And the families -- the people -- to let him know how they felt because I had gone through it myself."
Nichols held photographs of Smith's family in his hands and said repeatedly that he did not want to hurt anyone else, according to a CNN transcript of Smith's statements to reporters.
"He said, 'Can I stay here for a few days? I just want to eat some real food and watch some TV and sleep and just do normal things that normal people do,'" Smith said.
As they continued to talk, Nichols mentioned that he considered his life to be over.
"He needed hope for his life. He told me that he was already dead," Smith told reporters. "He said, 'Look at me. Look at my eyes. I am already dead.' And I said, 'You are not dead. You are standing right in front of me. If you want to die, you can. It's your choice.'
"But after I started to read to him, he saw -- I guess he saw my faith and what I really believed in. And I told him I was a child of God and that I wanted to do God's will. I guess he began to want to. That's what I think," she said.
When he was hungry, Smith made pancakes for Nichols and they talked more about God.
"I said, 'Do you believe in miracles? Because if you don't believe in miracles -- you are here for a reason. You're here in my apartment for some reason. You got out of that courthouse with police everywhere, and you don't think that's a miracle? You don't think you're supposed to be sitting right here in front of me listening to me tell you, you know, your reason here?'
"I said, 'You know, your miracle could be that you need to -- you need to be caught for this,'" Smith continued. "'You need to go to prison and you need to share the Word of God with them, with all the prisoners there.'"
By 9:30 a.m., Nichols agreed to let Smith leave to pick up her daughter. When she reached the first stop sign on her route, Smith dialed 911 and within minutes a Gwinnett County police SWAT team had surrounded the apartment with Nichols inside, according to The Journal-Constitution. Nichols waved a white piece of cloth to signal his surrender and was taken into custody.
"I believe God brought him to my door so he couldn't hurt anyone else," Smith said. --30--
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Ha! Very good.
That is sort of the point. What Rick Warren did at Saddleback isn't what people in other regions want. Believe it or not, some people want traditional services, traditional music, and even the King James Bible!
Rick is very clear that his intent isn't for other churches to copy Saddleback. He understands different areas, different congregations, and different people need different types of service.
What he does works for Orange County, California. It's specifically tailored to that demographic.
Then he should return the millions he has taken from churches all over the country who have been sold his bill of goods. He is merely another marketer of religion, his own flavor.
LOL. However, you gotta respect the lady. Cool under pressure and trying to do the right thing. I'm impressed.
Well, too bad someone didn't read that to him BEFORE he went and shot up that courthouse.
Haven't they made it illegal to have religious material on government property? (sarcasm)
She's wonderful! I love when she said "He needed hope." We do need to offer everyone hope in Christ, and it's too easy to not view our criminals as human. Our whole society could be changed if we followed her example...I hope you all get to see the full interview.
Probably the most controversial, and I'm sure she didn't, nor do I mean any disrespect to the hurting families of the victims, is that if he gets to live rather than die, God can use him in prison to spread the Word of God to those men. God does have purpose for and wants ALL of us.
Alot of her wisdom you could see came from the pain of having lived through her husband being stabbed and dying in her arms four years ago. She is so gracious and articulate! Today she focused the attention off herself onto "the true heros, the judicial system." She expressed her sympathies and prayers for each of the victims, naming them individually. She's now trying to focus on helping the police in doing their work.
She was interviewed on a street corner, graciously answered and talked...what a dear!
Bless you Ashley, and you friends and family of the victims.
An incredible and moving story. I wish Mrs. Smith had touched his life before all this tragedy, but that's not the way it happened for Nichols or his victims. If nothing else, it saved her life. Maybe there are great things in store for her that she lived through this...with incredible poise, faith and dignity.
What an amazing woman for someone so young! She has more presence and wisdom and perception than most her age or older. Remarkable!
I haven't heard this addressed either but in her interview with Hannity she said that he "moved" her to the bed and bound her with electrical cord while he took a shower. He also covered her head with a sheet so she couldn't see him naked while he showered . That was an act of respect for her, undoubtedly.
This is amazing. Here is evidence that the Lord is using Rick Warren's book to help this poor lady, a miracle happens because of her use of that tool the Lord provided, and all you can do is criticize the messenger. This is like the Pharisees who deny the miracle of healing even though the man who was blind is right in front of them. You should be rejoicing over the gift rather than despising it.
Right, the people who originally started the church and built it up around the doctrines, beliefs and way of doing things that they believed were best are usurped. New people take over and all the older members who do not want everything changed tyrannically are kicked out. Many times the older members and those that like the church the way it is are the people that have paid for expensive church buildings with their tithes and offerings and they are kicked out and the "purpose driven people" now have not only destroyed the church as it was founded and grown but have acquired a huge amount of property that they never paid for.
Oh come on...no one's twisting anyone's arm to read his books or follow them. There is still something called free will.
I need to have our Grandson respond to this thread. He has been going for the last year or so, and they put him in a group that has no leader. Doesn't sound like any of the groups have a real leader. They sit around and BS, talking about their "issues", but there is no teaching. Blind leading the blind.
Our pastor says the book promotes works-righteousness, which it does.
As a Catholic I have found a great deal of good ideas in Rick Warren's book. My wife and I have read and discussed one of the 40 chapters for each day of Lent. We highly recommend "The Purpose Driven Life".
Apparently, the liberals in our schools are twisting the truth to avoid the stark reality that there IS PURE EVIL in this world, or at least the world MOST of us live in. In the liberals LA-LA LAND, everyone, no matter what they've done wrong, is just unfortunate and misunderstood. What a LOAD OF CRAP. I NEVER heard, or read about, Mrs. Smith saying ANYTHING about seeing something "good" in this cold-blooded murderer. Was he "good" for realizing that the jig was up, and if he didn't stop murdering innocent people and turn his ass in, he would be severly injured or killed by those gunning for him? I think he quickly got out of murdering and rampaging mode, and into protect-my-own-worthless-ass mode.
And was his premature "jailhouse conversion" to Jesus just a manipulation of the liberal media, and a potential O.J.-type jury, to enhance his chances of beating some of the charges, or at least, beating the death penalty?
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
( now having said that, I do NOT advocate, him not paying for his crime.He needs to be tried, convicted and sentenced, and yes, that would include the DEATH penalty)......but God forgives the worst of criminals and she was reaching beyond herself.
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