But today, the Community Pentecostal Church of God will welcome him as the congregation's newest ordained minister.

It will be the latest transformation for the 23-year-old Florence resident who, claiming Satan made him do it, tried to torch Fairview Christian Church near Williamstown on Halloween night 1998. Since then, Murphy has gone from being written off as a schizophrenic who needed to be medicated and institutionalized to a husband, a doting father of two and an inspiring Gospel singer.

"He was into Satanism something feverish," says Aaron Levering, 28, of Tuttle, Okla., the former pastor of Fairview Christian. "But that night, trying to burn my church down, set off a chain of events that led him to Jesus.

"It's a very powerful story I wish he would come back to my former church and tell."

Bad influences

Murphy was just 17 when he and some friends splashed gasoline around the foundation of Fairview Christian and set it ablaze.

Their crime came after a night of drinking whiskey and drenching their minds in music of what Murphy now calls satanic bands - the likes of Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.

Firefighters said the white building's aluminum siding probably prevented the church from fully catching fire.

Even so, prosecutors brought arson charges against Murphy and a friend, James Grey, 17, as adults in Grant County Circuit Court. Two other youths were convicted of criminal mischief, misdemeanors.

Murphy didn't deny his role. He simply told authorities that satanic beliefs prompted him.

"I believe I was possessed by demons," Murphy said, recalling the incident last week as he cuddled his 8-month-old daughter, Jayda. "They infused me with that kind of darkness. I lost control - and I didn't care."

There had been a series of church fires across the South, including two others in Grant County, and prosecutors wanted to set an example with the aggressive prosecution. While police concluded Murphy had nothing to do with the other fires, the prosecutor recommended five years in prison. Murphy served three years and three months.

Time behind bars

"I heard people say God will forgive you of anything, but I didn't think he would forgive me for trying to burn a church," says Murphy. "That's his house, after all."

Levering remembers going to the Grant County jail as part of a prison outreach program and discovering that the teen who tried to burn down his church was incarcerated there.

"He was very apologetic," says Levering, who was just beginning his first ministry at the time. "The one thing he wanted to do was get out of jail and go preach at the church he tried to burn. I wish I were still the minister there. I wanted to let him do that."

Levering, who had recently graduated from Cincinnati Bible College, told Murphy that the congregation didn't hold any ill will.

Murphy said that he turned to the Bible for inspiration. And he began to appreciate the smallest things: Walking on carpet. Opening a door.

He spent most of his time in the Boone County Work Camp, where the jailer, Ed Prindle, remembers Murphy as active in the prison ministry.

Life after jail

Community Pentecostal Church Youth Pastor Michael Addison recalls seeing Murphy for the first time after he got out of jail:

"All of a sudden this nice looking, clean cut, well dressed young man comes into our church and kneels at the altar and prays. It was a total transformation. You could see what the Lord had done for his life."

Murphy, a fair-skinned man with red hair, took to sporting short hair and wearing cargo pants and polo shirts; he soon married his childhood friend, Brenda Murphy, in his childhood church, and helped with raising her daughter, 5-year-old Mallory. In January, the couple had Jayda.

Brenda Murphy said she wasn't concerned about marrying a convict or reformed Satanist. She had her own troubles, and if anything, Murphy helped her.

"I would visit him in jail, and he would tell me to stop drinking and going out to concerts every night," she said. "I was like, 'Yeah, that's easy for you to say, you're locked up.' "

Steve Rust, a pastor's assistant at Community Pentecostal, said that Murphy now faces the new challenge of balancing family life with the ministry.

"His natural inclination is to rush into every kind of ministry he can," says Rust, whom Murphy refers to as his mentor. "I told him to back off and focus on being a father. He struggles with the same things every young man faces starting a family."

Murphy now works with the 2,300-member congregation's youth ministry. Rust describes Murphy as a creative person, a "left-brain thinker."

The kids can identify with him, Rust says.

Rust says Murphy uses that talent to write and sing songs that tell his story. He also played the lead role in the church's Christmas musical.

"I think Dusty's story is an amazing story of hope," Addison says. "I say that from the perspective of a pastor. I think there are a lot of parents with children in the same shape Dusty was in. Seeing his transformation show those families there is hope, to keep fighting, get involved in church and let God do his work."

Murphy just says God meant it to be.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com