Posted on 06/01/2009 1:06:11 PM PDT by wagglebee
Upon learning of the tragic murder of abortionist George Tiller, about whom I have written on numerous occasions, our staff realized that I was 34,000 feet in the air. As I would have hoped, American Life League’s Executive Director, Shaun Kenney, who was on the ground, issued the following public statement on behalf of American Life League:
Leaders within the pro-life movement often discuss justice in connection with our mission to end the tragedy of abortion. Today, Dr. George Tiller's life ended in an act defying those principles.
With genuine sorrow, we reflect on today's events in prayer. Justice for all human beings includes the lives of those with whom we fundamentally disagree as well as the victims of abortion. We firmly hope the perpetrators of this act are apprehended, that the facts be made known, and that justice according to the law is preserved and dispensed.
Today's actions were tragic, and serve as another reminder that all human life is sacred. Pro-lifers by our nature and commitment to human rights reject violence as a means of resistance. Our thoughts and prayers indeed extend to the Tiller family and the community at Reformation Lutheran Church.
It is with unrestrained dedication to the principle that each human being is loved by God and is indeed His creation that our hearts go out to the Tiller family, including his surviving wife who is the mother of his four children. A senseless act of violence should never be answered with any words other than those extended with the love of Christ. For those reasons, I am personally proud of our executive director, and pray that others who have said less prudent things will take note of what it truly means to be pro-life in America.
It is not so with all of those who have made various statements regarding this senseless loss of life. Many have lost sight of the ravages that have been wrought by the culture of death and the strangle hold it has placed on our national psyche.
For example, when I listened to the words of President Barack Obama, my heart was struck with the tragic disconnect too many Americans have accepted when it comes to such tragedies in our culture. Apparently, they honestly see a difference between killing before, versus killing after, birth. The president said:
I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.
The president’s sentiments as expressed in this statement represent a serious disassociation between the tragic death of one man in Kansas and the equally tragic deaths of thousands of preborn children that occur on a daily basis throughout this nation. Every act of senseless killing is an outrage and should cause shock in the heart of every one of us. But this is not what I gleaned from the president’s words.
It is, in fact, so very sad that the president can treat of one type of heinous crime as an “issue” while describing an equally wicked crime in the proper terms. Such contradictory language is typical of the attitude of far too many in our nation who, after more than 36 years of decriminalized killing, have come to view the born as a completely different class of people than the preborn. Too many in America have become desensitized to what abortion does to not-yet born human beings. But at the same time, they are saddened, as they should be, by what equally horrific acts do to born persons.
Perhaps this is the perfect occasion for each of us to reexamine the culture in which we live: the attitudes we have adopted, and the opinions we have formed. Such an exercise would help us sort out this dichotomy in our language, our attitudes and our behavior.
When Pope John Paul II wrote of violence against the human person in his profound encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, he encapsulated many of the most fundamental principles that pertain to the life of every human being at every stage of his or her life:
Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves 'the creative action of God', and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can, in any circumstance, claim for himself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being….God proclaims that He is absolute Lord of the life of man, who is formed in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-28). Human life is thus given a sacred and inviolable character, which reflects the inviolability of the Creator Himself.
The truth is that every human being’s life is sacred; every human being’s life is a gift from God; every human being belongs to God, Who is the reason that each person exists.
It is our prayer that men and women of good will can take time to reflect with honesty on the sad events that occurred Sunday in Wichita, and realize that there is not a single human being’s life that is ever disposable, whether born or preborn. Judgments in matters of life and death belong to God alone.
Today we invite our fellow Americans to come together in prayer for the Tiller family, in mourning for senseless acts of violence that occur not only through abominable acts of abortion, but through hateful words, detestable acts against the unsuspecting and dreadful acts of dehumanization against our fellow human beings.
May the peace of Christ be with the Tiller family during this time of extreme sorrow.
And how many people has Tiller murdered?
Babies are of no use to the empty suit, they do not give money, they do no vote and for sure they don’t pay taxes for him to give to his supporters.
Therefore they are useless to him, as a matter less than useful, nothing.
No, he didn't. He was doing hundreds of third-term abortions each year.
People can’t be upset about things they haven’t heard about. While the death of the sergeant and the wounding of the officer is indeed a tragedy, they weren’t national figures, so the attack wasn’t national news.
I’m alluding to Barack going beyond.
I looking forward to the day that his girls get old enough to realize that they were a 'burden' to him.
Thanks dad...
I’m betting Tiller had a few “oopsies” that he had hauled off as quickly as possible.
Imagine the mental anguish from a woman who has been coerced into the late term abortion anyway, to hear the cries of her “induced” baby before they cart it away to die of exposure and neglect.
Obama is against murder, but serial killing.... not so much.
Lawless actions do nothing to elevate the pro-life movement. In fact, it does more harm. The perpetrator’s actions, however noble, can not nor should be excused. That he committed this act in church is even more henious. It is an act against God. The commandment states, “Thou shalt not murder.”
Now, before everyone starts to pile on, let me be clear. I do not support abortion. I’m on your side. But truth is truth. So spare yourselves the time of telling me how bad you think I am for disagreeing.
Judgments in matters of life and death belong to God alone.
Not according to Genesis 9:6 NASB “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”
AND
Romans 13:3,4 NASB “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
God gives to mankind the responsibility to judge murderers and administer capital punishment. He reserves the right to determine the murderer’s eternal destination AFTER His will has (or has not) been done, through capital punishment, by imperfect human justice.
You posted:
“That he committed this act in church is even more henious.”
Why?
Exodus 21:12-14 states “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.”
God was talking to a specific group of people about a specific instance. You can find justification for anything in the Bible, but it doesn’t mean it was what God intended. Should we murder whomever we please?
God said that vengence was his, did he not?
crickets??????
There is a difference between justice and vengeance, wouldn’t you agree? Or do you define EVERY “killing” as “murder?”
I was addressing your assertion that it was particularly heinous for the killer to shoot Tiller in (or near) church. Why is that “worse” than anywhere else?
Do you think mankind has any responsibility to execute capital punishment in accordance with God’s word, taken in its complete context? How do you interpret Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:3-4?
BTW. God was not talking to a specific group of people about a specific instance. He was talking to His people about how to administer justice, and differentiating between an accidentally caused death and a deliberate murder.
I hear ya, but it not going to stop until those involved stop it.
Wouldn’t it have been great if Nazi Germany had “stopped” their own death camps? Maybe if they had been allowed enough time and latitude, they would have solved all their “own” problems. After all, their courts gave them legal sanction to do everything they did.
The American holocaust dwarfs the German holocaust, but Americans seem to suffer far less anguish or angst over our sanctioned murders than the Germans did/do over theirs.
By the time Dresden was firebombed, the allies were well aware of what was going on in the NAZI concentration camps. That weighed heavily on trying to force a quick end to the war, to save as many as possible the oven fried feeling. Churchill pushed it hard, for FDR to go along, and finally succeeded.
So when ZERO apologizes, ask if he would have rather had another 100,000 innocents cooked to death.
ZERO isn't historically accurate about near everything he says from the start.
You posted: “ZERO isn’t historically accurate about near everything he says from the start.”
Agreed, and I don’t think he is merely ignorant, but deliberately deceptive.
What saddens me is not Tiller’s death, but the apparent inability for many (if not most) of us to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.
True justice punishes the guilty (Tiller) and protects the innocent (his thousands of victims). Our society’s definition of “justice” protects the murderer (Tiller) and ignores the slaughtered innocents.
Again, this is what saddens me, particularly when those who call themselves believers, or Christians, ignore the clear teachings of Scripture about “justice,” and pollute our thinking with miguided notions of non-violence which actually increase the shedding of innocent blood in our midst.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.