LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[December 8th, 2004] NO CRIME IN SCARING CRIMINALS

Defense lawyer and self-styled historian William Long has thought of a new reason to abolish the death penalty: That it is somehow unfair to "scare" murderers with the possibility of ultimate punishment [Mailbox, WW, Nov. 3, 2004]. In his letter, Long faults Chief Multnomah Deputy District Attorney Norm Frink for his rather sensible position that the mere threat of capital punishment is enough to spare the community and the victims' families the ordeal of a trial--as recently occurred with Ward Weaver. If one looks at the 29 people on Oregon's death row, you will see there is nothing "capricious" about how they got there. Their crimes involved the torture of women and children and serial killings.

Long claims to be an objective scholar but in reality is a ferocious, if verbose, death-penalty abolitionist. However, he has yet to point to a single case of someone on Oregon's thinly populated death row who does not belong there. The best argument he has is that there are so many others who should also be there as well. His entire thesis is that if we don't execute Dayton Rogers, then why execute anyone? This fails to take into account the unique situation of each death-penalty case, each victim and each killer. In Oregon the death penalty is indeed reserved for the worst of the worst. Even at that, some, like the violent teen who murdered my 12-year-old daughter Lisa, while not a capital case, get away with far less than they deserve.

Steve Doell
Lake Oswego

Editor's Note: Doell is the president of Crime Victims United.

WHO LET THE DOGMAS OUT?

It is easy to comprehend why Zach Dundas found it difficult to understand the evangelicals ["The J Crew," WW, Dec. 1, 2004]. After all, there are only about 33,820 different denominations of Christians (Michael Shermer, The Science of Good and Evil).

The essential dogmas (beliefs) underlying evangelical Christian fundamentalism are:

* Scriptures are inerrant.

* Mary was always a virgin.

* Christ's crucifixion can atone for sins of humankind.

* Christ when resurrected ascended live into Heaven.

* Reports in the Bible regarding Christ's miracles are objective.

* Christ will return and rule upon Earth for 1,000 years.

None is based upon objective evidence, most are irrational.

The absolute immorality of adhering to such beliefs is seldom addressed. For example, The Oregonian published Nicholas Kristof's article regarding the rapture ("Brand-Managing the Apocalypse--Now," Nov. 26, 2004) but not one "letter" discussing that article has been published. Christians must be considered immoral if they: (1) believe in a god who intends to punish for eternity about three-quarters of all humans because they failed to meet his criteria for personal worship; (2) consider themselves qualified to be taken in the rapture but continue to endanger all nonbelievers, or believers in more charitable gods, by such acts as driving school buses, piloting airplanes, performing surgical operations or leading Marines into combat.

Evangelists cannot support the notion of "religious freedom" because that implies that different religions are equal. They will continue to attempt to impose their beliefs into the Constitution, and upon us all.

G Gage
Southwest Sherwood Drive