While this may come as a surprise to many of you, I am Catholic. I don't go to church and I don't believe in a lot of what they teach. However, for the 20 years I've been alive, I've been raised as a Catholic. I haven't decided if I beleive what I'm about to say or not, but this is what I've been taught.
Okay, so you're Timothy McViegh and you don't like the way people are doing things. Instead of trying to make a difference RATIONALLY by writing letters or getting a petition together or something, you decided bombing a federal building is a good idea. You get caught. What should your punishment be?
Well if the person deciding your punishment is Catholic, you should get life in prison. It's a commandment that thou shall not kill. There is no fine print. God told Moses that people aren't allowed to kill. There are no exceptions. People have no right to decide the fate of another man. Only God has that right.
So you're Timothy McVeigh. You're going to be put to death. Maybe you have a change of heart, realize how terrible your actions were. You pray and beg for God's forgiveness. You make your peace with God. When you are put to death, he welcomes you home. A son that was lost, but has now come home.
All the families of the victims of Oklahoma, are you happy now? You have sent a killer to heaven for eternity. He will enjoy the rest of eternity in heaven among the angles and the saints and God himself. Is that the justice you were seeking?
Those that decided his fate, you are going to hell. You have sinned, chosen to kill a man, taken it into your own hands to decide the fate of another man. Under Catholicism, you are going to hell, not Timothy McViegh.
I don't think he deserved to die at all. What he did was terrible. He changed the lives of many people and left many victims, dead and alive. I'm not saying anything about what he did was right or anything like that. But, everything happens for a reason. Maybe one of those people he killed would have grown up to be another Hitler. Maybe one of them would have grown up to be another Mother Theresa. Who knows. Everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for everyone. If you really wanted to punish McVeigh for what he did, make him live out the rest of his life in solitary confinement or in prison or whatever. Make him live the rest of his life with what he did. Maybe he cares and feels guilty, maybe he doesn't. If he doesn't, he'll go to hell when the time comes and justice will be done. If he does, 60 more years with his guilt is worse than sending him to heaven immediately, don't you think?
Whatever, it's done now. You gave him the easy way out.
1212 Out.