1
Jun
2009
The assassination of George Tiller
Yesterday, an abortionist in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller was shot dead outside the Reformation Lutheran Church in the city. The BBC has a good op-ed piece on violence in the abortion debate:
While many pro-life organisations have come out and condemned the killing on Sunday, the fact remains that violence and intimidation have remained a constant thread in the history of the modern-day movement.
According to data gathered by the National Abortion Federation, a pro-choice group, there had been at least nine killings in anti-abortion protests, 17 attempted murders and 400 death threats.
Bombings and arson attempts of abortion facilities also happen on a regular basis with cases often reaching double figures every year.
The most famous was probably the Christmas Day bombings which targeted three clinics in 1984 with the perpetrators dubbing them a “birthday gift for Jesus”.
More reading material of a distinctly more repulsive nature is available in this blog post on Carnal Nation, in which the author has used Twitter for its only sensible purpose: mining public opinion. Gathered there is a collection of “tweets” from a fringe-group of pro-life nutjobs who, ironically, celebrated the assassination.
They would seem to be also supporters of the death penalty, which would make one doubt the creedence of their claim that they believe every life really is sacred. Or perhaps their flawed logic is simply the product of having been brought up to believe fundamentalist dogma, and they see no logical contradiction.
In any event, here are some of the tweets:
No need to pray for George Tiller. We know he went straight to hell!!!!!
Tiller the Baby Killer is finally dead….God took care of what needed to be done….
the killing of tiller the baby killer was JUSTICE, not murder.
All very Christian and forgiving, don’t you think? It’s worth noting that the overwhelming majority of tweets from both sides of the abortion debate expressed horror at the assassination of Dr. Tiller. Indeed, the last tweet linked above seems to be from a particularly screwy individual, who also appears to be a proud racist.
So, these people aren’t in the mainstream, but the Internet acts as a veritable megaphone for their idiocy. The effects on their lives is predictable, as “the stupid, bigoted comments people used to make at the water cooler now get preserved for future employers to find using Google.”
But what effect does this have on the rest of us? Comment and phenomena like this will always be sought out to satisfy a kind of morbid curiosity many of us might have. Is there the chance this will result in it becoming more acceptable and popular?
What is the logical contradiction here between being against abortion and in favour of the death penalty, I’m not seeing it? Or do you interpret a slogan like “every life is sacred” entirely literally and applicable to every situation?