ABORTIONS WITH BAPTISM: WITCHITA MURDER REVEALS CHRISTLESS CHRISTIANITY

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24: 11-12

"We have some experience with late terminations... about 10,000 patients between 24 and 36 weeks and something like 800 fetal anomalies between 26 and 36 weeks in the past 5 years."

Dr. George Tillman, 1995 a speech given by George R. Tiller at the National Abortion Federation Annual Meeting on April 2-4, 1995 in New Orleans, LA

On Sunday morning, May 31, Dr. George Tiller, 67, was gunned down and killed in the foyer of the Reformation Lutheran Church at the close of the 10 a.m. service.

The incident has raised questions not only about the killer but also about Dr. Tiller’s presence in a Christian church.

Tiller was America’s most notorious abortionist, who, by his own count, performed over 60,000 abortions. Over 800 of his surgical procedures were performed on women during the final trimester of their pregnancy.

To perform such late term abortions, Tiller developed a means by guiding a long needle through the mother’s abdomen in order to inject a drug called Digoxin within the baby’s heart. Some of the babies were not killed instantly but died several days later in hotel rooms near the clinic.

Some might argue that Tiller performed these procedures because he did not believe that a fetus represented a human being. But Tiller appeared to be fully aware that he was committing mass murder, since he offered to perform funeral services and even baptisms for the babies he killed. The doctor believed that such rituals aided in the “healing process” of his female clients.

To complicate matters, Tiller was an esteemed member of the Lutheran congregation, where his wife - - Jeanne Elizabeth (Guenther) sang in the choir. In 2005, Jeanne cut a record of her favorite songs. The album contains her rendition of The Lord’s Prayer.

In the wake of the killing, the Reverend Lowell Michelson and the Reverend Kristin Neitzel, the pastors of the Reformation Lutheran Church, issued this statement: “Members of Reformation Lutheran Church have been deeply affected by this tragedy. To address their needs, we are assembling a team of crisis intervention specialists. In this time of uncertainty, we stand firm in the promises of Jesus Christ: forgiveness, hope, love, and new life, even from death. We pray for healing and peace to be restored. We offer our thanks for the many prayers of support from across the country. Your words of encouragement are a blessing to the people of Reformation Lutheran Church and Wichita.”

And so the members of the Wichita congregation remain so distressed over the death of America’s #1 baby killer that they require the services of crisis intervention specialists.

They and the two ministers also require an introduction to basic religious doctrine.

The Didache or “The Teaching of the Apostles,” one of the oldest Christian documents (circa 120 A.D.) contains the following injunctions against abortion and infanticide (both of which were common practice in pagan Rome): “You shall not kill an unborn child or murder a newborn infant.” This equation of abortion with homicide was upheld by Tertullian, the father of Latin theology. In his treatise “On the Veiling of Virgins” (206 A.D.), this Church father railed against women who “conceal their sinful failures” by committing “homicide” by means of procured abortions. In 250 A.D., St. Cyprian maintained that abortion represented a crime far worse than “parricide.”

By the time of the Church Council of Elvira in Spain (305 A.D.), abortion was judged to be so grave an offense that a woman who purposefully destroyed a child in her womb, when the child was conceived by an act of premarital fornication or adultery, was held to be guilty of a sin that merited double damnation.

This teaching was upheld throughout the two millennia of Christian history. Martin Luther, in fact, refused to sanction abortion even when the life of the mother was at stake. In Von Ebelichen Lieben, he wrote: “If they become tired or even die - - that does not matter, let the woman die in childbirth.”

Of course, such teachings are lost to modern mainline Christians, most notably, the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Tiller’s denomination, which fails to see the distinction between the sacred teachings of tradition and the demands of the godless spirit of the age. This ersatz religious organization, which sees no relationship between Islam and terrorism, simultaneously voiced its support for abortion rights while condemning the death penalty.

>> The Didache or “ The Teaching of the Apostles,” one of the oldest Christian documents (circa 120 A.D.) contains the following injunctions against abortion and infanticide (both of which were common practice in pagan Rome): “You shall not kill an unborn child or murder a newborn infant.” This equation of abortion with homicide was upheld by Tertullian, the father of Latin theology. In his treatise “On the Veiling of Virgins” (206 A.D.), this Church father railed against women who “conceal their sinful failures” by committing “homicide” by means of procured abortions. In 250 A.D., St. Cyprian maintained that abortion represented a crime far worse than “parricide.” By the time of the Church Council of Elvira in Spain (305 A.D.), abortion was judged to be so grave an offense that a woman who purposefully destroyed a child in her womb, when the child was conceived by an act of premarital fornication or adultery, was held to be guilty of a sin that merited double damnation. This teaching was upheld throughout the two millennia of Christian history. Martin Luther, in fact, refused to sanction abortion even when the life of the mother was at stake. In Von Ebelichen Lieben, he wrote: “If they become tired or even die - - that does not matter, let the woman die in childbirth.”
Luther wrote "How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God.
--, Martin Luther, Luther's Works American Ed., (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing), v. 4, 304. <<

Couple of interesting points I've thought since our conversation the other day:

1) From seeing what Martin Luther's personal views on abortion were on this thread, it's clear that the “Reformation Lutheran Church” in Witchia, Kansas wasn't following their namesake founder's views when they allowed an unrepentant abortionist to have a leadership role in their church. So yes, in that particular case, a Lutheran church is not following Lutherism.

2) From the comments I've seen on this board, it appears there are alot of conservative, pro-life freepers who are members of the ELCA. It's wrong to paint the entire denomination as liberal and un-Christian (though certainly I'd make that case with the particular congregation that Tiller attended). It seem the ELCA didn't even exist prior to 1988, so alot of the old time Lutherans weren't "raised" in that denomination at all. Unfortunately, many are probably in the same situation Conservativegreatgrandma mentioned, being from a conservative congregation that was absorbed into the ELCA following a merger belong their control. I understand the reasons for wanting to leave the ELCA for the LCMS, but I can also see there are conservatives trying to work within the ELCA to move them to the right, and we ought to respect that. I still don't think the ELCA is as misguided as say, the Unitarian Universalism Church.

3) As a Catholic, I don't have a problem at all with freepers saying the Reformation was important and that Luther was right. That's not a flame. Of course the Lutherans on FreeRepublic are going to claim that, otherwise you guys wouldn't be Lutheranisms! Furthermore, I think you'll find most Catholics would agree with some of issues Luther had the time. There is no getting around the fact that the Catholic church had some corruption problems in that era and the selling of indulgences was wrong (of course the Catholic church today hasn't done any "money-for-indulences" in several hundred years). Of course we're not going to agree with Luther's entire agenda (otherwise we'd convert to Lutheranism!) but Luther's actions DID bring those problems to the attention of the grassroots lay Christians and not only resulted in Protestantism, but resulted in alot of needed changes to the Catholic church. Personally I think Lutheranism can make much more of a case for its existence than Anglicanism (many of the Episocipian freepers won't be too happy with me because I view their denomination as only existing so some fat lecherous King could divorce his wife... and I agree on the point that if they don't like gay bishops and all they should just rejoin the Catholic church since their church is basically Catholic lite)

4) It's true the Catholic church had doctrinal unity no matter what "faction" of Catholicism you join (makes it easier for us to formally change rites or join a new congregation), and even those schematic churches no longer in communion with Rome (like Mel Gibson's church) pretty much stick with 2000 years of tradition and decry abortion and homosexuality as wrong. However, it's also true that Christian groups that retain overall solid doctrines on these issues, particularly Catholics and South Baptists, never-the-less have some reengage ministers and bishops in their church preaching otherwise. In short, what good is doctrinal unity if you won't enforce it? I think many Catholics on this board just as appalled when a "Catholic" university gave Obama an honorary degree and let him speak about abortion. And as a Catholic I felt just as embarrassed as the Lutherans did with Tiller, when the whole world learned that a "Catholic" priest in Chicago is buddies with Rev. Wright and tells his parishes that all white people are scum and encourages everyone in his congregation to vote for Obama. That heretical "church" isn't teaching anything remotely "Catholic" and it's priest should be excommunicated. But will the Roman Catholic leadership in Chicago that has jurisdiction over the church do anything? No. They gave him a slap on the writ, but still allow that heretic to use Catholic church property to spew his hatred. The solution for me was simple, I simply joined a Catholic church that was not under the authority of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Chicago. However, the fact that "Father" Pfeleger is still a priest in good standing is enormously embarrassing to all Catholics.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.