How would an atheist convince a serial killer not to be a serial killer?

[Rev. Rye]

Not to mention that serial killers are usually Christians: John Wayne Gacy considered becoming a Catholic priest in his youth, Gary Ridgway (The Green River Killer) went door-to-door proselytizing for the Baptist church, Dennis Rader was a leader of a Lutheran Church, Jeffrey Dahmer was a born-again Christian, John List killed his wife and kids so that they could be in heaven before they start sinning, etc.

Dennis Rader and John List were actually part of the same sub-denomination I was in, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Supposedly, the pastor of Rader’s church stuck by him during his trial… until he described his belief that his victims would be his slaves in the afterlife, at which point, he walked away in disgust. And given that my own former church believed that the ECLA, the larger and more liberal Lutheran denomination, were non-believers (Yes, seriously, and they kept some shit or whatever that was supposed to allow my mother to be a member of a different, ECLA congregation from her for that reason), I can easily believe that this is more because of theological reasons than anything related to human decency.