A tradedy in Wichita = A test for the Pro Life movement

Being a Christian and a believer in the Scriptures, I do stand against abortion. But what happened in Wichita yesterday with the murder of Dr. George Tiller was nothing but wrong, wrong, wrong. Violence in the name of protesting abortion is immoral, unjustified, and horribly harmful to the pro-life cause. Now, the premeditated murder of Dr. George Tiller in his church is the headline -- not the abortions he performed and the cause he represented.

For many years, Dr. George Tiller has represented the reality of the abortion industry in this nation. Well known to the pro-life movement in America, Tiller was known as "Tiller the Killer" because of his agreeing to perform late-term abortions almost no other doctor in the nation would perform. Because of this, Wichita became the destination of choice for women seeking abortions in the late third trimester. In 1993 Tiller was shot in both arms. His clinic was regularly protested and was once bombed. Tiller also had many brushes with the law, and just weeks ago he was acquitted of charges that he had with another physician conspired to illegally justify late-term abortions.

Unfortunately, violence in response to the horror of abortion is not new. But thankfully it is rare. According to some news reports, Dr. Tiller was the fifth physician to be murdered by abortion opponents. In other cases, abortion clinics have been bombed and workers have been hurt or killed. Abortion is nothing short of murder. It should be made clear that abortion is the taking of innocent human life and that what goes on in abortion clinics is the business of death. What goes on in those clinics is institutionalized homicide, often for financial profit. Abortion is a moral scandal and tragedy.

Having said that, We have NO RIGHT to take the law into our own hands in an act of violence. God has granted this power to governing authorities. The horror of abortion cannot be rightly confronted, much less corrected, by means of violence and acts outside the law. This is a vital test of the morality of the pro-life movement.

In the case of Dr. George Tiller, the governing authorities failed again and again to fulfill their responsibility to protect all citizens, including those yet unborn. While the law is dishonoring to God in its disrespect for human life, we are not to go ABOVE the law and take it into our on hands! The law failed to bring George Tiller to account for what should have been seen as crimes against humanity. But this failure does not authorize ANYONE to act in the place of the government, MUCH LESS the place of God. The government must now act to prosecute and punish the murderer of Dr. George Tiller. The man who murdered Dr. Tiller is no better and deserves to stand trial and face the punishment allocated to him by the government.

Those who are pro-life must not wage war against abortion by following this pathetic example. We must confront this evil of abortion from a higher plane, and know that the battle is ultimately in God's hands.

Murder is murder. The law rightly states that the killing of Dr. George Tiller is murder and I whole heartily agree. But I do not agree with the law that states what Dr. Tiller performed is alright. We should not rest until the law also recognizes the killing of the unborn as murder, just as it does the killing of Dr. Tiller. But the individual that murdered Dr. Tiller, makes that challenge all the more difficult.