Sign urges prayers for killer
Alabama cab driver pays $700 for Christian comment
By Michele Holtkamp
Tribune-Star
Like any city, visitors in Terre Haute in May will see billboards around town that advertise cars, hotels and restaurants.
But a former Terre Haute resident is advertising something that won't bring a dollar return.
Chad Steenerson, a Birmingham, Ala., cab driver, paid $700 to erect a high above-ground billboard on Honey Creek Drive that asks people to "Pray for McVeigh" in simple, large letters. It also advertises the Web site that Steenerson runs, www.jesusfreak.org.
Steenerson, who plans to eventually study to be a minister, said that Timothy McVeigh's execution May 16 allows Christians the perfect time to think about their praying.
"Christians should be consistent," Steenerson said. "That includes [praying for] the worst among us." Steenerson said he has not lived in Terre Haute for 20 years but still has family in the area.
The billboard - between a busy mall area and Indiana 63, on which the U.S. Penitentiary is located - will have a high volume of traffic go past in the days surrounding McVeigh's planned execution. At least 1,300 members of the media and scores of protesters and the curious will be in Terre Haute for the execution.
The billboard went up Tuesday and has been rented through May 20.
Michael Vint, general manager of Lamar Outdoor Advertising, the company through which Steenerson rented the billboard, said Steenerson's message didn't surprise him. The company is accustomed to billboard rentals of a spiritual nature, such as the anti-abortion messages.
But, Vint said that Lamar decided at the same time to put up two billboards of its own that ask people to "Pray for the families."
One is between the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds and the strip mall that houses Circuit City on U.S. 41; the other is near Third and Locust streets. Lamar's billboards do not indicate what families to pray for.
Vint said the company doesn't want the survivors' families and victims of the bombing to be forgotten with all the attention on McVeigh's execution.
Steenerson said that his faith guides him to pray for everyone he believes needs to seek God's mercy.
"Certainly Timothy McVeigh is in the forefront of those who are not held in very high regard, to put it lightly," Steenerson said.
The Web site has a feedback form, so those who see the billboard and have an opinion on it can let Steenerson know. The site also highlights why Christians should pray for other well-known criminals, such as the teens who carried out the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
Vint said Steenerson's billboard isn't pro- or anti-death penalty.
"It's just something that was sold," Vint said. "The message does not say to save him, or spare him; it just says to pray for him."
Sheila Hayes, a spokeswoman for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, said Steenerson simply is exercising his First Amendment rights to free speech.
"It's basically someone who has a strong opinion about something who wants to make that opinion known and pay for it," she said.
Ron Forster, who owns The Open Door Christian Bookstore, just down the street from the billboard, said he isn't convinced the sign will change any minds but thinks it's a good idea anyway.
"I feel like we should be praying for Timothy McVeigh," he said. "For the next few days here he has a chance to make things right with his Creator."
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