Should We Be Glad George Tiller is Dead?

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A thoughtful person wrote a note asking how pro-life Christians should feel about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the late-term abortionist who was gunned down while serving as an usher in his church in Wichita, Kansas. The writer frames the question this way:

Do you think it’s a sin to feel relief that he is dead? While I would never condone violence towards anyone, I felt somewhat of a relief knowing he would never kill another unborn child...and some born. In a way, the result would be the same if he had been killed via an electric chair... Is feeling relief about his death sinful?

That’s an interesting way to put it, I think. How should we feel about his violent death yesterday? My own judgment is that we should utterly condemn that lawless act of murder that took place in a house of worship during a Sunday morning worship service. I say this for several reasons:

1. George Tiller was murdered–pure and simple.
2. The murderer short-circuited the legal system.
3. He took vengeance into his own hands when vengeance belongs to the Lord.
4. He broke the Sixth Commandment.
5. He took a life that was not his to take.

And of course there is more . . . this act gives the pro-abortion lobby another opportunity to paint the pro-life movement as violent and dangerous . . . it pulls the focus away from saving babies and helping women with unplanned pregnancies . . . it puts us on the defensive . . . it distracts us from the reality that the abortion debate must be a soul debate.

Have we forgotten that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood"? Killing George Tiller enrages and inflames, but it does not move us any closer to the goal of seeing real heart change so that human life is regarded as worthy of protection inside the womb. 

And I do think we are winning that battle. Little by little hearts are changing. One recent poll showed that for the first time a majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life. It would be tragic if this senseless murder erases the enormous good done by crisis pregnancy centers, sidewalk counselors, crisis hotline workers, those who counsel women who’ve had abortions, pastors who have courageously spoken out for life, and young women who decided to give birth when it would have been easier to have an abortion.

We need to think long-term because we serve a God whose purposes unfold across the centuries. It may be that our grandchildren will still live with abortion. I hope not, but it may turn out that way. No matter how long it takes we must not lose heart, we must not despair, and we must not turn to violence to advance the cause of life. And we should give no support to those who believe that this killing was anything other than murder.

See Al Mohler’s column A Wicked Deed in Wichita for a further discussion of this topic. 

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Visitor Comments:

June 2, 2009, 8:04 AM Jo-Ann Bouclair says:
	I agree with you Pastor Ray about killing this doctor being murder.......and God’s prposes unfolding across the centuries. In Canada we recently had a Catholic priest return his ‘Order of Canada’..... a very high honour because Canada’s most famous abortionist (infamous???) Dr. Morgentaler was awarded the Order of Canada .......
June 3, 2009, 4:33 PM Derek says:
KBM Website Administrator	James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel has another good article about this: Is this murderer a Christian? Is the murderer he murdered at a Christian church a Christian? How wrong is the wrong of wrongdoing to stop the wrongdoing of another wrongdoer? Answer: very wrong! More...
September 15, 2009, 8:31 AM Doug1958Music says:
	How in the world could anybody who names the name of Christ rejoice in the death of George Tiller. First of all, God is not pleased, because he died in his sin, unless, as we really don’t know, he had cried out to God in his final moments. The thief on the cross did so. The killer of George Tillman is able to do so. We have a big God, who has a big heart, but if the perpetrator is not brought to justice, the law is blatantly violated once more. You know, I have a theory: How about this Baptist Church of weirdos out in Kansas, who picked soldiers funerals, crarrying posters that are very derogatory to our troops, derogatory to our nation, and derogatory to human kind? Is it possible that the perp was a member of that church?