Posted on 06/09/2009 3:38:48 PM PDT by lasereye
Leading pro-life activists are denouncing the murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, but I'm not sure I understand why.
"It is immoral and it is unchristian," says the Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council. Calling the killing "a cowardly act," Operation Rescue President Troy Newman says his group "has worked tirelessly on peaceful, nonviolent measures to bring [Tiller] to justice through the legal system, the legislative system....We are pro-life, and this act was antithetical to what we believe."
Yet if you honestly believe abortion is the murder of helpless children, it's hard to see why using deadly force against those who carry it out is immoral, especially since the government refuses to act.
Nor is it sufficient to note that killing Tiller was against the law. When the law blesses the murder of babies, it is hardly worthy of respect, any more than laws blessing the enslavement of Africans or the gassing of Jews were, and violent resistance against such enactments surely is justified in principle.
Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry implicitly condemns Tiller's murder, saying, "We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God." Yet Terry continues to call Tiller a "mass murderer" and insists "the pro-life movement must not be browbeaten by Obama or the child-killers into surrendering our best rhetoric, actions and images," adding, "We hold absolutely no responsibility for [Tiller's] death."
How is it possible to believe that fetuses are people with a right to life yet also believe that using deadly force to defend that right is wrong?
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”.
In this life Caesar has control of law, justice and punishment. God will recompense.
While I shed no tears for the abortionist who met a just end, and would relish the opportunity to be a juror at the shooter’s trial, you are correct. There are specific, Scriptural admonitions about obedience to the laws of man.
Let’s see...
Even when we believe someone has committed a capital offense we guarantee them a fair trial. To kill someone because of your own beliefs is not justice...
No trial
No jury
No defense
He is trying to spin up an argument by taking the position that if you believe abortion is murder then killing the doctor is justified. Then when he gets people to agree to that concept he will cast all anti-abortionists as the kind of lunatics who advocate murder in place of justice. Beware the libertarian pot smoker who tries to make moral equivalences.
Killing abortionists is not wrong, it’s illegal.
Mr. Sullum needs to do some research.
The sole authority to execute lies with the state. See Romans 13:1-5.
If the state neglects in carrying out it's responsibility that does not necessarily give the individual permission to act. God will judge the state, and if you act outside your authority God will judge you too.
Agreed, There is nothing in the new testament to support this killing is OK argument.
Why isn’t the author out hunting down abortionists?
Abortion is murder.
If it’s wrong to kill an abortionist, could there at least be equal time of condemnation and sympathy for each of the babies killed by these abortionists?
Serious, I’m sure some of those babies felt pain, and I’m sure of them would have grown to be nice boys and girls if you got to know them.
People who think these two are morally equivalent are complete schmucks.
ML/NJ
Nor is it sufficient to note that killing Tiller was against the law. When the law blesses the murder of babies, it is hardly worthy of respect, any more than laws blessing the enslavement of Africans or the gassing of Jews were, and violent resistance against such enactments surely is justified in principle.
I read and understand what was written. But who decides? You, me, McGee? See where this line of reasoning leads - to utter anarchy.
Nope, I don't buy it, and I don't agree. Did Tiller "get what was coming to him?" That's for the Almighty to decide, not any of us - certainly not outside the framework of a carefully structured (if imperfect) judicial system.
Jacob, God has told us ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ God didn’t write ‘Thou shalt not kill’, He wrote specifically ‘murder’.
For those in Rio Linda, if a child partially out of the womb about to be murdered by Tiller had fired a pistol and blown the monster away, it would have passed through court as ‘self-defense’, not murdering a murderer.
The Catholic Church and western civilizations have long held the concept of justifiable homicide. For the protection of one’s own or another’s life, limb, chastity, or valuables of some moment, it is agreed on all sides that it is lawful for anyone to repel violence with violence. If one cannot, within the legal framework, prevent the murder of the unborn killing an abortionist may be justified. While it is against man’s laws, it is probably not against God’s law.
Only if God allows it.
“Why isn’t the author out hunting down abortionists?”
I think he’s busy trying to frame pro-lifers as hypocrites.
I think he makes valid points, but he misses the constraints God puts on us regarding submitting to lawful authorities.
Still, if your neighbor was routinely sucking out 2 year old’s brains, would you feel like a criminal if you intervened?
Granted, our current laws would absolve you. Our current laws don’t absolve you if you intervene to protect someone of eight months’ gestation. Thus the dilemma.
Pulling that trigger is definitely not cowardly, it's hard to pull that trigger.
“The place to defeat abortion is in the courts and legislature, not by murdering people.”
And yet, our ability to effect lawful change has been impeded by unlawful and illegal decisions. As in, bubble zones, and legitimate laws restricting abortions struck down over nonsense.
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