Tilling the Soil: Reflections on the Murder of an Abrotionist

Surely by now you have heard of the murder of Wichita, KS abortion provider George Tiller.

Slate.com: http://www.slate.com/id/2219537/
The people who kill abortion providers are the ones who don't flinch. They're like the veterans you sometimes see in war documentaries, quietly recounting what they faced and did. You think you're pro-life. You tell yourself that abortion is murder. Maybe you even say that when a pollster calls. But like most of the other people who say such things in polls, you don't mean it literally. There's you, and then there are the people who lock arms outside the clinics. And then there are the people who bomb them. And at the end of the line, there's the guy who killed George Tiller.

Richard Land: http://erlc.com/article/murder-of-tiller-human-tragedy/
"Murdering someone is a grotesque and bizarre way to emphasize one’s commitment to the sanctity of human life. People who truly believe in the sanctity of human life believe in the sanctity of the lives of abortion providers as well as the unborn babies who are aborted."

Now, these are only soundbytes, but they both present problems. If I read him right, Slate seems to think that people are truly pro-life should not be squeamish about how they put an end to abortion. I appreciate the satire, Tiller was the real deal for being willing to abort practically any unborn child. Tiller's murderer is the real deal for being willing to kill a killer, an eye for an eye...

However, Land's comments are the ones that get my attention.

Southern Baptists are currently walking an ethical tightrope. On one hand, we are stridently pro-life, not only on abortion, but euthanasia (of which I am admittedly less convinced is always wrong but also can see the obvious potential for abuse, it is a real Pandora's Box scenario to be sure...), etc. etc. On the other hand, those who tend to speak on our behalf support the use of torture to extract information from "enemy combatants", and hold to just war theory.

Now hold it right there.

The question of whether one can justifiably take a life to stop the murder of an unborn child begs the ultimate question that no one seems to be asking. "Is there EVER a justification for taking another human life?"

I have struggled deeply with this.

Last summer I spent quite a bit of time on this subject. I read Hayes, Bonhoeffer, Lewis. I had others recommended to me before life took over and the project was shelved for a time. But you have to wonder: "what would I do?"

When we are at our netbooks in the coffee shop its easy to speak in abstractions. "I would NEVER..." "I would kill 'em all..." As it was well said, "everyone always talks about dying for their country, but not about killing for it..." (if you know who said that help me out).

I can say that I would always turn the other cheek, but then, no one has ever broken into my home and threatened my family. I could say that I would never torture a man, but if I knew it would save the lives of a bus full of school children, what would I really do?

I don't know. But what I do know is this, this tills the soil for discussions that we have to have.

Rev.