Demonstrators protest state execution

By Lynda C. Ward
Special to the Hoosier UM News

About 30 people gathered at the courthouse on Monday, March 12 in South Bend to pray in opposition to the execution of Gerald Bivins, which would take place 32 hours later in Michigan City. The vigil, held by the St. Joseph/Elkhart County Coalition Against the Death Penalty, was repeated again on Tuesday outside the prison just prior to Bivins' execution for the shooting death of the Rev. William Radcliffe in 1991.

The Coalition, an ecumenical group, consists primarily of Mennonites and Catholics, though it does have one UM member, the Rev. Michael Mathers of Broadway Parish in South Bend. But as member Jan Jenkins states, "We need more churches, especially United Methodists, since Methodists are against the death penalty."

Adopted in 1980, the official position of the UMC regarding capital punishment is clear: "opposition to the retention and use of capital punishment in any form or carried out by any means; the church urges the abolition of capital punishment." And yet, Bivins' execution passed without a public outcry from many United Methodists. "The death penalty violates our social principles," says Rev. Steve Long of the North Indiana Conference, "but our principles are not embodied by many of our members, and unfortunately we don't expect people to live them out."

In an attempt to encourage members to live their faith, The United Methodist Office of Restorative Justice opened in Nashville, Tenn., in 1999. Affirming opposition to executions, the UMORJ promotes a "remember, restore, reconcile" model of justice instead of "forgive and forget" or "remember and punish."

Director Harmon Wray says, "The biblical witness of caring engagement fits well with our Wesleyan tradition, and has the potential to heal the violence and vengefulness that is tearing us apart."

Indiana has executed eight people since 1976. Currently there are 43 people awaiting execution in the state.

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