Peter Bentley grew up in Kempsey on the NSW mid north coast, at Sydney University specialising in twentieth century church history. He began his career by writing articles for the National Outlook magazine, and for the past twenty years he has also been involved in research for churches throughout Australia, including numerous articles about Dexter.
The 'Dexter' character is based on the life of a man in the US named Dennis Rader. In real life, he tracked down actual serial killers and then dispensed his own system of justice, which was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
Dennis Rader himself operated as prosecutor, jury and judge, and would pronounce sentence followed by the execution. In all he killed 10 serial killers between 1974 and 1991.
Dennis Rader, known as the BTK Killer in the US, was a man who lived two lives.
One was as the president of a Lutheran Church Council in Sedgwick County in Wichita, Kansas. He was a pious righteous born-again Christian, highly respected in his community and known widely as a man of virtue and good taste.
The other was as a character who acted out of a sense of outrage. In his own head, he thought that the process of the law and the justice system failed to apprehend and bring a 'final' just result to those who had murdered over and over again.
This killer of killers was finally revealed when a CD that became part of the police evidence was tracked back to the church in which Rader was so involved. He had tortured one of his victims within the buildings of the church precinct.
Peter Bentley says there are so many different philosophical and theological issues involved in this real life story that have fascinated him, that he has been engrossed in writing about various aspects of it.
He noted that the key to religious writing is in having a degree of independence so that you can step back from the subject and write about it without fear of recriminations from either religious authorities or your own conscience.
Peter Bentley acknowledged that Australia's free society allows such writing, about any religious faith at all, as long as an article is not defamatory. Such discussion in Australia is revered by those who come from countries where this openness is not permitted, and where exposing some views may even lead to persecution.
"Good and right comment is proper and I hope Australia does not go down any draconian pathway to curtail this," Peter Bentley stated.
This Peter Bentley live television on the Internet can be viewed at
tv.bushorchestra.com and www.safeworlds.net