Sunday was Pentecost on the Christian calendar.  Pentecost, put simply, is considered to be the church’s birthday – the day the Holy Spirit descended with great flourish and was received by the Apostles. Had modern-day media been in existence, surely every major network would have swarmed with their “live trucks” to Jerusalem on this day to report the spectacle.  The noise and activity attracted a huge crowd and the Apostle Peter preached a sermon to the crowd with some effectiveness, as Acts 2:41 reports: "On that day about three thousand believed his message and were baptized."

Just as millions of other church-goers across the country Sunday, abortion doctor George Tiller was celebrating Pentecost at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas.   Tiller was performing duties as an usher in the church foyer that morning when a man entered the church and fatally shot him.  The alleged killer, Scott Roeder was taken into custody.  The Roeder family issued a statement after the arrest.  “We are also Lutherans, and that adds a double touch of sadness and irony."  Indeed.

Consider Tiller’s decades-long practice of late-term abortions.  One can also safely speculate his alleged killer’s motive was utter hatred of the practice. Noting the bond both Tiller and his alleged murderer share in their Lutheran faith – just what is their official church position on this deadly debate? The Reformation Lutheran Church website is linked to their parent church organization known as Evangelical Lutheran Church inAmerica, or ELCA. 

The “ELCA Social Statement on Abortion” notes: “The concern for both the life of the woman and the developing life in her womb expresses a common commitment to life.  The strong Christian presumption is to preserve and protect life.  Abortion ought to be an option only of last resort.  Therefore, as a church we seek to reduce the need to turn to abortion.  We also deplore the circumstances that lead a woman to consider abortion as the best option available to her.” 

According to their doctrine, it would appear both Tiller and Roeder got it wrong.  Tiller used often specious rationale to protect the names of men who raped and impregnated minor girls.  He used questionable mental health diagnoses as the sole justification for otherwise illegal late-term abortions.  While Roeder, one could presume used anger at Tiller or the legal system that has left him virtually unscathed as the catalyst to exact his own perceived form of judgment and justice.  Neither man held true to their church’s commitment to “preserving and protecting” life.  

Those within the pro-life movement will continue to proclaim, even in his death that George Tiller was a man who murdered innocents.  The conversation becomes compromised when the suggestion is made that Tiller’s murderer, Roeder simply rid the Earth of an evildoer.  That Roeder’s actions were somehow less egregious than those of his victim. There can be no mistake for those of faith, however.   Both men erred supremely.

Kerby Anderson, a nationally syndicated columnist and director of Probe Ministries International says the Bible is clear regarding individuals taking a “life for a life,”or vigilante justice.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus “is speaking to the issue of our personal desire for vengeance.  He is not denying the power and responsibility of the government…He is telling Christians that they should not try to replace the power of the government.  Jesus does not deny the power and authority of government, but rather He calls individual Christians to love their enemies and turn the other cheek.” 

Within hours, the shooting death of George Tiller was swiftly transformed to a full-throated, low-brow assault on the pro-life movement by those in the abortion industry, liberal members of government and the press.  Planned Parenthood regional leadership went to the cameras reminding viewers of the daily harassment they say Tiller endured all these many years.  Video of past attempts on his life, and protest footage was looped repeatedly.  Pictures and video taken of the alleged shooter’s car were purposefully focused in on the emblem of a fish with “Jesus” written inside affixed to the trunk.  

It took less than four hours after the shooting for Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks to declare, “…the same bullet that killed George Tiller also shattered the moral underpinnings of the movement that inspired its firing.”  Hendricks suggests everyone who called killer a “killer” or that his clinic was a “murder mill” are now accomplices in his murder.

The knee-jerk, emotional vapidity of such sophomoric reasoning is typical in the public square after tragic events.  In 1995, the Oklahoma City federal building bombing became a rallying cry for Hendricks’ ilk when talk radio was first branded as “hate speech” by the Clinton administration.  The not-so-subtle inference was the domestic terrorists summoned their motivation to carry out the heinous act from talk-radio’s largest voice – Rush Limbaugh.

Take your pick of any courthouse, school, or church shooting in the last decade and you’ll find editorials and blogs that read for miles suggesting wild-eyed, NRA member, pro -Second Amendment, bunker-dwelling militia men virtually gifted the gun to each deranged shooter. 

The most recent unjustified aspersions cast on a large swath of the population came just this spring as the Department of Homeland Security released what they called a “threat assessment.”  It’s title: “Right-wing Extremism Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”   

The study ignited a firestorm across the country suggesting that "right-wing" groups could pose a threat to U.S. security. "Right-wingers" were defined as people who opposed abortion rights, were military veterans or backed the Second Amendment.

Sunday’s tragedy is all that was needed to launch the political  eqivelant of “told you so”  by  the Obama administration.  In less than 24 hours, President Obama felt compelled to issue a statement declaring his shock and outrage over the Tiller murder.  Obama’s presumtion of the murderer’s motives, while not widely in doubt, seems to suggest a willingness to wade into the abortion debate before all the facts are known.  Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement directing the United States Marshals Service to “offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation.”  One tragic, random murder on a Sunday has risen to the level of

full-scale public protection and defense of the abortion industry.  

The left is always quick to remind their audience of the “isolated nature” of events and outcomes that suit their politics, however.  When violent crimes are committed by illegal aliens in the United States, immigration reform advocates forcefully rebuke the “isolated acts.”  They sternly remind Americans that illegal aliens are simply here in our midst for a chance to work.  Or do the jobs Americans won’t do.   Any suggestion to the contrary is, of course, “bigoted and racist.”

When Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue – an anti-abortion group who protests Tiller - issued a statement on the Tiller murder, Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review Online drew a parallel.  “But here Randall Terry is doing exactly what the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) does.  When someone dies at the hands of a Muslim, CAIR rushes to warn the rest of us not to use it as an excuse to scapegoat Islam.”

Recently, Gallup released a poll showing that the pro-life position is the position held by a majority of the country.  Similarly, poll after poll confirms the United States is a majority religious country.  The two are inextricably linked - life and faith.   Life has no inherent value if one does not recognize it as a gift granted by a creator. 

Those that take another’s life without regard for their faith and the true gift they are destroying are dangerous individuals.  George Tiller and Scott Roeder now share that odious commonality.  Similarly they will be judged by the Creator to whom they must both now answer.  At the same time, those that use a man’s murder to malign others who celebrate and defend life and faith are just as dangerous, but far less obvious.  They aim to marginalize the importance and strong defense of the Creator and the life and freedom He grants.  In doing so, much of what we understand in black and white today slowly becomes shades of gray.  When the Creator is undermined and dismissed, Earthly rulers begin to prevail.

May 31st, 2009 A.D. - the modern-day public have swarmed around a church on Pentecost.  There is a major spectacle to behold, though tragic.  With the whole world watching, how will we spread, defend, and celebrate the good news about life and faith.

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