www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall George Tiller shot to death in church this morning

"Ultimately, it came to this: aborting the abortionist is the same crime that he is committing."

This is true, although certainly not the same scope of "villainy" as perpetrated by the abortionist.

One additional thought: consider Dr. Bernard Nathanson. He was once a poster child for the pro-abortion movement, responsible for the deaths of a multitude.



He is now a Catholic, pro-life advocate. Suppose he had been gunned down at the synagogue that he attended? There are many roads to Damascus out there. We do not know if the seed of doubt had entered Dr. Tiller's mind that Sunday morning. Perhaps he had resolved to end his hand in the slaughter of the innocent unborn, before he himself was killed at church? It is, of course, doubtful, but no one will ever know...

What is especially heinous is to deprive any soul of the opportunity for metanoia - that is not for man to do.

"What is especially heinous is to deprive any soul of the opportunity for metanoia - that is not for man to do."

Be careful and consider the full implications of what you have said, for it can render you morally impotent in the face of violence and evil.

I am quite comfortable with what I have said in this particular case (since my statements are referring to this specific incidence). As one who has stood and prayed in front of his clinic, as someone who has prayed for its end for several decades, even he deserved a chance for metanoia, and if my statements regarding an unnecessary premeditated murder are out of line, perhaps the Gospel also then can "render you morally impotent".

Tiller's assasin was not a soldier under orders to defend his family and country.

"Tiller's assasin was not a soldier under orders to defend his family and country. "

True. There are other instances when it is proper to take another life, though such instances are always sinful in that they mar the image and likeness of the Father, which is in all men. However, there are times when it is necessary, but the circumstances can only be considered in their proper context, and not in the abstract or absolute.

I tend to sympathize with Diak's argument, though I would not make a universal claim about what is or is not a mortal sin in the case of self defense. I hope that I am not put into that position, and if I am I will seek greater counsel than my own imperfect conscience.

I too have mixed emotions on this event. I admit that I have not shed a single tear at the loss of this mans life, although, I do not condone the action. This was such a big news item for the media about how horrible this event was, but how many headlines complained about all the little innocent babies Tiller murdered? The hypocrisy is frighteningly evident.

I Would have rather seen George Tiller lose his livelihood (perhaps a loss of a Hand) rather than his life, and as uncharitable as that sounds, somehow seems it would have been fitting. After all, I am sure George Tiller being a Lutheran must have heard the Gospel passage from Matthew 26:52 "...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," thus the abortionist was aborted.

May the Lord have mercy on all involved!

Tiller's Abortion Facility to Close Forever

"Operation Rescue was just 2 months away from getting Tiller's medical license revoked and that would have accomplished the same goal."

By Kathleen Gilbert

WICHITA, Kansas, June 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a statement released today, the attorneys of late-term abortionist George Tiller confirmed that his Wichita abortion facility would shut its doors permanently, following Tiller's murder last month.

"The family of Dr. George Tiller announces that effective immediately, Women's Health Care Services, Inc., will be permanently closed," stated attorneys Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat today. "Notice is being given today to all concerned that the Tiller family is ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic."

The statement went on to praise Tiller's "service and courage" and asserted that Tiller's family would honor his memory through "private charitable activities."

The attorneys also emphasized that the medical records of Tiller's former patients would "remain as fiercely protected now and in the future as they were during Dr. Tiller's lifetime."

George Tiller, who was perhaps the most notorious late-term abortionist in the United States, was shot and killed May 31 at the Lutheran church he regularly attended. Hours later, Scott Roeder of Kansas City was apprehended and charged with the first-degree murder of the abortionist.

Over 60,000 unborn children are believed to have been killed in the Wichita facility at Tiller's hands since he began his operations there in 1975.

"It is a bittersweet moment," wrote Operation Rescue president Troy Newman in an email about the closure of the abortion centre. "Operation Rescue was just 2 months away from getting Tiller's medical license revoked and that would have accomplished the same goal."

Operation Rescue, which moved its headquarters to Wichita in 2002 to focus its resources on shutting down Tiller’s sordid business, was the leading source of peaceful resistance against the abortionist's burgeoning business for several years.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Kansas Late-Term Abortionist George Tiller Shot and Killed - Pro-Life Groups React

Abortionist Tiller Admits to Performing Abortions the Day Before Delivery

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060904.html

"Tiller's Abortion Facility to Close Forever"

Considering how few clinics do this sort of abominable procedure, one might say the guy who shot Tiller actually understood the situation quite well.

What is also disturbing to me was that he was a faithful member in good standing with a mainline denomination that purports to call itself "Christian".



I am not as convinced about his "understanding" since within the state it is well known that the process to revoke Tiller's license has gone into overdrive with the departure of the Governor who was essentially his last line of administrative defense, who has no successor, and likely facing Brownback as the next governor.

Stuart,

But if one upholds the view that all human life is sacred from conception forward, what is to stop people like the guy who shot Tiller from committing the same crime against pharmacists and doctors who prescribe abortafacient contraceptives, which includes the pill and its secondary effect of making the surface of the womb hostile to implantation? THe only difference between that and Tiller's procedures is a matter of months and weeks. The result - a dead child - is still the same.

The question goes to ends and means. As Gertrude Himmelfarb once wrote in an essay of the same name, "No Hitler, No Holocaust". No Tiller, no later term abortions, at least not in Iowa. The phenomenon was so closely associated with one man (Tiller, indeed, was monomaniacal in his fixation on late term abortion), that he was the driving force behind its continuation. Very few other doctors perform the procedure; most won't be associated with it. With Tiller gone, the wind goes out of that sail. Indeed, if I were in the abortion rights movement, I would be greatly relieved, since Tillerism lacked even the pretense of moral justification (the babies he aborted were viable outside the womb, and the abortion procedure was no less dangerous--and in many case more dangerous, than delivering the baby alive) that it was becoming a real embarrassment to the movement. Now he's gone, his clinic is gone, and I doubt anyone will take his place.

In the other instances you mention, it is doubtful that one, several or even dozens of killings would stop anything, but it would create a backlash against the anti-abortion movement. Were the pro-abortionists as diabolical as their support for abortion makes them, they would actually do some of that them selves, as agents provocateurs. But they aren't like that. They're just your run of the mill, Hannah Arendt "banality of evil" types.

The bottom line, when we sin, and a sin become 'habitual' it deadens the soul. The mind and body justify it to the soul, telling it everything is OK - sort of an I'm OK, You're OK mentality. With his doing over 60k abortions - his heart and soul must have only functioned without feeling, and he had no idea. That is just my thought anyway.

What Pani Rose says is a paraphrase of Joseph Stalin's, "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic".