On May 31, Scott Roeder walked into a Lutheran church in Wichita, Kansas, approached George Tiller, and shot him to death. I join with every rational, law abiding American in condemning this vicious act of murder. I pray for Tiller, his family, his church, his community, and others affected by his senseless death.
In-and-of itself, a murder of this sort is not particularly newsworthy outside of local media. Only one person was killed, and that person was obviously targeted. This was no random act, or mass shooting, or act of terrorism. These kinds of murders happen every day in the United States and, indeed, in almost every country, but they do not normally have reach outside of the local news reports.
Tiller’s murder, however, is unique in that he was one of the most prominent practitioners of abortions. In his Wichita clinic, untold numbers of unborn children—each possessing unique, human DNA—were put to death (see ‘The Notre Dame Controversy‘ for a more in-depth look at the moral issue of abortion). Tiller’s clinic was one of only three in the United States to practice ‘partial birth’ abortion, formally known as ‘intact dilation and extraction’, which made his clinic a flash-point for pro-life protesters and Tiller himself a target of violence.
I cannot say it loudly or powerfully enough: the pro-life movement is a peaceful movement, and those who would commit acts of violence in the name of this movement are usurpers of the worst order. A movement dedicated to the protection of human life, by nature, cannot be a movement that would accept or endorse violence. The ends do not justify the means. We believe that an unborn child is a human being entitled to its own life, and aborting that child is murder. Murdering abortionists, however, is just as immoral, and is absolutely unacceptable.
But even as we condemn Tiller’s murder, we have a responsibility not to whitewash how Tiller lived his life. To do so would be akin to condemning Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald—as we should—but without acknowledging that Oswald himself was an assassin who had killed President John F. Kennedy (D).
