Yesterday’s news of the death of prominent abortionist Dr. George Tiller at the hands of a gunman has produced a firestorm of criticism for pro-life groups and other “right wingers” whose language against abortion many blame for encouraging violence against Doctors as Dr. Tiller. While it is true that there have been a series of unfortunate attacks on abortion doctors in the past, such actions are hardly characteristic of the pro-life movement as a whole. Critics point to the hypocrisy of murdering in the name of life, and they are right to do so.
Murder is murder–whether it be the shooting of a aged man or a yet-to-be-born infant. To the Christian, both are created in the image of God, and both are worthy of protection as such. The only difference between them is that Dr. Tiller may be considered to have blood on his hands in the eyes of Christians–but not so in the eyes of law. The murder of innocents is what makes abortion so incredibly offense, yet is is only slightly worse that cold-blooded murder in a church foyer on Sunday morning. Murder is murder. Thus the men who (multiple) times have shot at Dr. Tiller, and in this final case killed him, are morally on the same ground as him–murderers.
The shooter yesterday paid no favors to anyone. He committed a crime as great as the one he thought he was stopping, he defamed and betrayed a movement and he put his own soul in peril. I will not be able to mourn Dr. Tiller, I admit–his actions and brutalities to thousands of innocent unborns only makes me pity his soul, and this is a fault on my part. He too, is a man, and anything that tiny reflection of God is destroyed, I must weep for my own, no matter how dirty or corrupted that picture may be. And so I mourn for mankind lost, I mourn the children lost, I mourn for the soul lost without repentence. Murder is destruction, and we cannot rejoice in its appearance.
