Prison doors (Photo credit: rytc)
In 2008 Luke McCormick was jailed for over seven years because he had killed two children and injured three other people in a car accident. He was drunk from a colleague’s wedding.
This whole scenario, I think we can agree, is Bad News All Round. I think we’ll also agree that it was All His Fault.
Anyway, after having behaved himself in prison it turns out he’s been released, and will be trialled by Swindon Town with a view to continuing his career as a professional goalkeeper.
Well, what do you think? Is this More Bad News?
Maybe it’s ok. He’s done the time so deserves to be reinstated. Perhaps four years doesn’t seem much for having killed two people, but that’s the judge’s call.
Or maybe it’s not ok. This is probably the side most people would land on simply because of the fact that he could be earning hundreds of thousands of pounds per week.
This perspective is highlighted nicely by Daniel Taylor:
Money is one thing, however; being in the public eye is something entirely different, and this is when the moral argument about rehabilitation takes a different slant and it is easier to understand the outcry.
Imagine, for example, how the parents of Arron and Ben Peak would feel turning on the television and seeing McCormick back in the football bubble, with all its perks and advantages. Or opening the newspapers and seeing him lauded for his achievements.
Is it surprising that something in us instinctively has a problem with people who have done bad stuff ‘being rewarded’?
Thank God that our eternal rewards (and punishments) will be perfectly matched to our hearts, thoughts, words and deeds.
