The Matthew 25 Network is saddened, shocked, and outraged by the assassination of George Tiller as he attended church on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009. Though our membership has a diversity of opinions on the question of abortion, we all agree that violence in the name of any political cause is absolutely unacceptable, and that Dr. Tiller’s assassination was an unequivocally evil act.
Our sincerest prayers go out to Dr. Tiller’s family and friends, as well as to his church family, whose memories of Pentecost Sunday 2009 will be forever marred by this act of heinous violence that happened in their midst. We pray that the God of comfort bring them blessing and hope in a time of deep trial and trauma.
As more information comes out about this disgusting act, it is becoming more and more apparent that verbal violence, the demonization of those on the other side of an incredibly emotional and volatile issue, was a major contributing factor in Dr. Tiller’s assassination.
This assassination should serve as a wake-up call, a clear indication that violent language leads to violent deeds and a clear invitation to all of us to speak and act in good faith and try to find common-ground solutions to our problems. We hope that our brothers and sisters on both sides of this issue will come together with us not only in condemning this act and all acts of terrorism, but also in striving to find common ground and a better way of talking about this issue, in order to ensure that acts of violence like this never happen again.
I wonder if the Matthew Network is equally outraged by the 63000 third trimester abortions that he performed that subsequentially made him a millionaire.
As the statement indicates, there is a diversity of opinions within the Matthew 25 Network on the question of whether abortion should be legal. Some think it should be, some think it shouldn’t. We’re all committed to reducing abortion through common-ground solutions, and we’re all united in our outrage and condemnation of the assassination of Dr. Tiller.
In your response to Dr. Tiller’s murder, I noticed no words of commendation for the pro-life groups who immediately denounced the murder. Your statement reads like a mere reprint of the White House’s statement. You won’t get much “common ground” with pro-life groups when you make one-sided slams at their alleged “verbal violence.”
“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people” (President John F. Kennedy).
Please keep in mind that I’m speaking entirely for myself here and not for the Matthew 25 Network – why do they deserve a cookie for saying that murdering an abortion doctor is wrong? Why do they deserve a pat on the back for stating the obvious? If they want to be commended, they should say openly and outwardly that anyone espousing anything other than the most unequivocal condemnation of all anti-abortion violence would be (a) unwelcome in their organization at any level, (b) unwelcome at any event they put together or co-sponsored with any other group, and (c) reported to law enforcement authorities. They would also volunteer to assist the FBI in any way they could in finding and ensuring the arrest and successful prosecution of those who would engage in violence.
The mainstream pro-criminalization groups don’t deserve commendation for stating the obvious; they’ll deserve commendation if they do everything in their power to ensure that violence like the assassination of Dr. Tiller doesn’t recur. Thus far, I haven’t seen any such commitment; perhaps you could point me to the place where the mainstream pro-criminalization groups not only condemn the killing but pledge to do whatever they can – including toning down their rhetoric – to stop future killings?
And I’ll be quite frank – from what I’ve seen, the “verbal violence” is quite one-sided. When the mainstream voices in the pro-criminalization movement are calling abortion the Holocaust and likening people like Dr. Tiller to concentration camp wardens, why is it at all a surprise when someone goes out and acts violently? I haven’t seen any such rhetoric from mainstream voices in the movement to maintain abortion rights. Words do things, and the words being used by the mainstream of the pro-criminalization movement – to say nothing of extremist groups like Operation Rescue – create a climate that encourages violence like that done to Dr. Tiller, which was only one of many acts of anti-abortion terrorism over the past ten years.
If the mainstream “pro-life” movement is serious in their condemnation of Dr. Tiller’s assassination, they’ll do some soul-searching and ask themselves how their words contribute to anti-abortion terrorism – and they’ll change the words they use.
Thanks, Mr. Gilmore,
I had not visited the Matthew25 web site recently and decided to stop by and stumbled upon this article regarding Dr. Tiller’s murder and the subject of abortion. I agree that both sides in this debate should seek common ground, try to solve some of the problems that might cause women to seek abortions, and tone down the rhetoric. It seems as if the previous comments were meant to cause anger or a negative response from you, but you were very frank and honest in your responses, reiterating the need for some consensus on the subject of abortion and the expectation that the pro-life movement would become more focused on preventing violence as a result of their rhetoric and admonishing them for expecting credit for renouncing violence when it is the only thing to do. Excellent post & responses.
[...] the death of the President. If one considers the link between violent language and violent deeds – a link we’ve talked about before – it becomes pretty clear that this could be seen as a clarion call to [...]
[...] of the President. If one considers the link between violent language and violent deeds – a link we’ve talked about before – it becomes pretty clear that this could be seen as a clarion call to [...]