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.