Murderer
Randall Terry, head of Operation Rescue, has released this statement following the murder of an Ob-Gyn doctor who performed abortions:
George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches.
The problem here, of course, is that however strongly Terry and other Christians claim that abortion is murder, that is an opinion, not a fact. I could, just as legitimately, conclude that selling tobacco is murder; this would not make it moral or in any way acceptable to kill a tobacconist. You cannot decide on your own what constitutes murder, place your stamp of approval on killing the “murderers,” and then claim the moral high ground.
Note the callous wording of Terry’s opening statement: We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. Terry did not grieve the fact that Tiller was killed, but rather the manner of the killing. In short, Terry is saying, with a wink and a nod, that he fully approves of the killing, regretful only that the murder could not have been performed according to religious ritual. Of course, Terry is mostly likely being ironic: he probably does not actually regret that Tiller did not have time to prepare for death, but says that only to highlight the fact that Terry cares not a bit that Tiller was killed. Surely enough, Terry follows this with a tirade that damns the slain doctor in no uncertain terms. One gets the impression that Terry only regrets not being able to pull the trigger himself.
Finally, Terry’s statement ends with a chilling warning: We will continue to point out people we don’t like, call them murderers, and shine a light on their location so that people willing to go to jail for their murder have time to carry out the deed. Note Terry’s threatening final statement:
We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches.
Dr. George Tiller was murdered as he walked into his church. Terry could not be more plain: we will assist in getting you killed, just like we did with Tiller. Yes, even as you walk into your church, we will hunt you down and have you killed.
I see no reason why Terry should not be immediately arrested on charges of aiding and abetting murder, in addition to making threats of murder to an entire class of people. His statement is virtually a confession.
Great points Luis. Especially the fact that abortion being murder is just an opinion – and the comparison to the tobaconist.
M. Scott Peck, M.D., the author of “The Road Less Traveled” followed up that book with “People of the Lie: the hope for curing human evil”. In that book Peck stated that people are at their worst when they are least accountable for their actions.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”, so said Samuel Johnson. But you could replace “Patriotism” for anything else that exist as a lofty notion. Anything, like, say, Religion or Abortion or Liberty or Freedom or Right to bear arms – whatever.
I call it the ‘rapscalian pretext’. Take a lofty notion, like patriotism and use it as means to deflect accountability.
For instance, noted Hitler apologist, David Irving, assigns this quote to Hitler: “as for myself, I would never tell a lie. But for Germany, I would tell 10,000 lies.” First, if only he stopped at 10,000. Second we can see where he’s taken the lofty notion of patriotism, really, nationalism and used it as pretext to shield himself from accountability for his actions. In a sense, you can even see where he’s using it to sheild himself from accountability to himself.
That’s the ‘rapscalian pretext’.
In the 1964 Barry Goldwater, at the Republican National convention said, “extremism in defence of liberty is no vice.”
Oh yes it is. As we can see here – that’s the rapscallion pretext. Its the very door to extreme human evil. I am shocked every time I am reminded of this. I am of course comforted by the fact that Goldwater suffered one of the worst defeats in American history in his run for president.
I understand these people’s thinking all too well. Murder is wrong. Murder of the innocent is thus the wrongest thing you can do. A murder of an unborn innocent is thus the wrongest of the wrongest thing you can do an so should be murdered himself. That’s their logic
(In the case of Catholics they forget that the unborn aren’t innocent at all, they are tainted with original sin. A rabid anti-abortionist and uber catholic once told me that the best thing that could happen to a new born is that they die right after baptism – because at that moment they are pure and clean).
The problem is carrying logic past the point of common sense. I wish these people would acquaint themselves with the story of Icarus and the Greek ideal of moderation and common sense – the Greeks, you know the people who gave us the logic and reason and Western Civilization, held common sense and moderation as the highest of virtues. Its great to be brave and have courage, but it’s fool hardy and wasteful to run into a hail of bullets from a machine gun.
There’s also the issue of Christ’s commandment that his followers should separate civics from theology. This being a prime example of divine wisdom: In civics, law has to make compromises that religious ethics can’t make. Which is why Icarus is so important. The alternative is a constant state of war. As I’m sure Jesus would say, “give peace a chance” or was it, “peace I leave with you my friends?”
Sure enough, if you don’t follow this commandment of his, you will have no peace. If you don’t use common sense, one can end up using a rapscallion pretext to commit significant ‘evil’. But then, in the end, if you find yourself in such a situation, the pretext is only a pretext. Deep down inside, you have to want to kill someone in order to kill someone – pretext or no pretext. So all this stuff about threatening doctors or their supporters says some frightful things about these people. They already have the intent. The just lack the action.