Site
Contents
 |
Imagine Indiana Transition Team Information
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Area United Methodist
Foundation
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
May 2001 |
Commentary:
McVeigh: what can we learn from 'state-assisted suicide'?
By Phil Wogaman
How are we to think of the death penalty, in light of the case of Timothy McVeigh?
Even those opposed to capital punishment have to acknowledge that if anybody deserved to be executed, surely he does. In the deliberate, well-planned bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he murdered 168 people, including 19 small children in the building's day care center. Even now, six years after this foul deed, he seems utterly remorseless -- at least according to two reporters who interviewed him for 80 hours. Could a better illustration be offered in support of capital punishment?
Yet, what makes this such a strange case is his apparent eagerness to be executed. Referring to this as "state-assisted suicide," he refused to allow any further appeals in his behalf and insisted that the execution proceed. Now scheduled for May 16 in Terre Haute, Ind., this will be the first federal execution since 1963.
"State assisted suicide"? By executing him, are we giving him what he wants? And if that is the case, what does that do to the theory that the death penalty is a deterrent? In McVeigh's case, could it even be argued that the death penalty was not a deterrent but an incentive?
That idea may seem strange. And yet, students of capital punishment have long concluded that it really does work in that perverse way -- not in every case, to be sure, but often enough to give us pause.
The strangeness of this case is heightened by the clamor of many people to have the execution televised so they can see it. You can almost understand the desire of some of those whose loved ones were killed by this man's deed to see him executed. Some, no doubt, believe it will bring a kind of closure to their spirits. I am skeptical that revenge brings such closure, but I do not stand in judgment of those who think it will. They are deserving of sympathy.
Still, there is a further irony. McVeigh himself evidently wants it to be televised, and news reports reveal that he'll get his wish. This raises questions about motive. Suppose he, or anybody else, does something terrible for the sake of personal publicity in an execution. Has the penalty again become an incentive and not a deterrent?
Some opponents of capital punishment advocate televising these gruesome executions in the thought that this would increase public abhorrence. I think that would be a terrible mistake. It could have exactly the opposite effect of brutalizing the popular culture, giving people perverse enjoyment of the spectacle of others dying. It happened in Rome!
Putting raw emotion aside as best we can, what stands out to me in the strange case of Timothy McVeigh is his expressed disrespect for life, obvious in the murderer's disregard for the lives of the victims ("collateral damage"). Less obvious, but no less true, is the murderer's disrespect for his or her own life. That seems true, on the face of it, in McVeigh's case. He's prepared to die -- maybe even wants to die. Even murderers who kill for other motives seem to have a pretty low regard for the humanity in themselves as well as in others.
The country seems to be doing more soul-searching on this subject now. Maybe the churches can lead the way. At the United Methodist General Conference last May, the Church's opposition to the death penalty was reaffirmed by a 97 percent margin. Surprising as that is, in light of public opinion in the United States, the action may indicate a new kind of attitude developing. In any case, the Church's position reflects deeper spiritual insight than the passions aroused when the public is outraged.
The Rev. Phil Wogaman, pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, is a seminary professor of Christian ethics and an author.
Last updated January 14, 2004