April 2026: “A Cedar Rapids judge determined Matthew Schleier not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his 5-year-old son… Defense attorneys argued Schleier was suffering from psychosis when he strangled his son, citing testimony from doctors, who said Schleier was suffering from multiple mental illnesses, had delusions that his son was doomed to die a horrible death due to the child’s food allergies, and took his son’s life to protect him from this fate.”¹
This sounds eerily familiar to the infamous Lindsay Clancy case dividing the nation, but it happened months prior with little to no coverage. The airwaves incessantly try to zone in on rage-bait topics to create distraction and stir the gender war, but the truth is that we are in a spiritual battle. Regardless of what popular narrative streams through the masses, the truth remains. Both men and women have been full participants in this pro-death culture.
The enemy likes to play these blame games because if the problem is misunderstood, so will be the solution.
God uses situations for exposure, but they uproot and enlighten dark seeds that have already sprouted schemes and poisoned the soil. Toxic empathy is one of the thief’s greatest ploys to distort God’s character and it was an issue way before abortion. What is happening is simply the dark progression of a nation that has strayed from the gospel. It’s an issue with a society as a whole, not an issue with one gender.
The devil’s spiritual persuasion on hearts and minds rejecting God’s truth led to the availability of the insanity plea (which was initially implemented in the U.S. to defend a guilty man).²
The insanity plea appears as a gift wrapped in God’s grace, but it is the devil masquerading as light, an unjust apathy disguised as good that pushes wayward hearts further down the path toward destruction. It leads people to define legal leniency as mercy and justify crimes against humanity. It aims at rehabilitation, but all it does is show cruelty to victims and steer perpetrators away from the knowledge of sin and the gospel.
Jesus is God. He is a perfect judge. He does offer the fullness of his mercy, grace, forgiveness, deliverance, redemption, hope, healing, and freedom to all those who repent and turn to his death and resurrection as a payment for their sin. The saved will stand in his courtroom as guilty sinners washed clean by his righteous gift he freely gave on the cross, but what Jesus did is something we cannot. He is sinless. He paid the price. What he did was an act of pure justice. In this life, our purpose is to represent his character and lead people to him.
Offering injustice on a platter of apathy does not lead to his eternal love. It bypasses it to satisfy our temporary comfort.
Allowing guilty perpetrators to claim insanity may hold the power of worldly rehabilitation, but it does not hold the power to deliver them from demonic strongholds that led them there in the first place. Twisting God’s grace and mercy into worldly justifications and behavior modification completely neglects the eternal freedom needed for their soul.
It’s not possible to follow Christ and hinder the path to the knowledge of sin at the same time. It’s the knowledge of sin that magnifies conviction and opens the door to the resurrection. The devil has already been defeated, but he revels in a momentary victory every time deception disguised as grace hinders the path to the gospel that defeated him.
We are in a spiritual battle.
Legal apathy is a stain on a nation claiming to follow the Lord. The insanity plea is unjust and should not even be an option in the legal system.
So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. – 2 Corinthians 2:11
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. – 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. – John 10:10
Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord. – Proverbs 20:10
Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. – Proverbs 25:26
Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. – Proverbs 28:5
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. – Colossians 2:8
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. – 1 Timothy 1:8-11
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. – Romans 3:20-24
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. – Isaiah 1:15-17
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14
¹ News Article: Iowa Father Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity in 5-year-old Son’s Killing
https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-courts-matthew-schleier-not-guilty-sons-murder-insanity/71142494
² History:
The insanity plea was adopted from England.
English Common Law Roots: The foundational standard for the modern insanity defense came from the 1843 English case of Daniel M’Naghten, creating the M’Naghten rule (which tests whether a defendant understood the nature of their act or knew it was wrong).
The First U.S. Case: The M’Naghten rule was first used as a defense in an American courtroom in the 1847 New York case People v. Freeman, where attorney William H. Seward argued that his client was legally insane.
The First U.S. Aquittal: In 1859, Daniel Sickles, a New York congressman, was deemed temporarily insane after he murdered Philip Barton Key II, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
President Reagan signed the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 that switched the burden of proof from the prosecutor to the defense.
