Tiller, Meet Killer

One of the most evil men on the planet died last Sunday – not in bed, surrounded by friends and family, and consoled by the Church and the Sacraments, but violently, at the hands of a man whose name will, I suppose, ever be linked (by the media at least) to the likes of Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber.

But who was this notorious, hated individual? Osama bin Laden? Or maybe Kim Jong-Il? How about George Soros? Or even Dick Cheney? No, it was none other than George Tiller, AKA “Killer Tiller”, the mad doctor of Wichita, Kansas, who made a nice living tearing babies from their mothers' wombs and slaughtering them like pigs when they were half born. And furthermore... but wait! This just in! Tiller was, in fact, a great humanitarian... a friend of women... a supporter of “a woman's right to choose”. His patients worshiped and adored him as the man who had rescued them from a life of woe. He was their last, best hope, and he always came through. Women flew thousands of miles to check in at his clinic, in hopes of ridding themselves of an intolerable burden, i.e. an “unwanted child” -- unwanted, in some (but I'm sure not all) cases because said child had been diagnosed as being destined to have “a life not worth living” because of retardation, a physical handicap, or some other problem. So really, Dr. Tiller was a humanitarian in the best tradition of, say, Margaret Sanger, an early advocate of eugenics and an inspiration to the "master race" theorists of the Third Reich. Eliminate the less-than-perfect, the culls, the runts of the litter, because the truth is not in them. The future of the human race depends on perfection, not on hypocritical “charity” toward those who, in a more enlightened (i.e., pagan) era, would not have been allowed to live. Mushy, bleeding-heart Christianity is “out”; cold, hard Nietzschean philosophy is “in”. God obviously has no purpose in mind when the disabled are permitted to walk (or crawl, or slither) the earth. So they should be put out of their misery (and that of their parents) for their own good – and for a hefty fee.

So which is it? Was Tiller doing the Devil's work or was he the avatar of a new age of enlightenment, when man redefines man for the good of man? Was he an angel of mercy or an angel of death? Were his patients among a privileged few to actually live in the New Age, or were they exploited victims? And what about Tiller's murderer? The media had a ready-made cassette tape to plug in on this guy – a “radical”, a nut, a loner – you know the drill. And -- by the way -- no different from the army of pro-lifers who demonstrate at abortion clinics on Saturday morning, or attend the annual March for Life. I have to admit, my second thought on hearing the news of Tiller's demise (my first thought was, “They got him!”) was, oh boy, this is another one of those provocateur stunts the government pulls – like Oklahoma City, or so it's alleged – that they will use as an excuse to come down hard on the pro-life movement. I mean, forget about RICO, this is going to mean that all pro-life literature, Internet content, etc. will be classified as “hate speech” and "terrorism", and "incitement", and therefore illegal – and that all pro-life demonstrations, abortion clinic protests, etc. will be classified as mob actions that have to be suppressed. It could happen! I'm sure that, on some level, this news was music to the liberals' (including the Obama Gang's) ears – this is all we need to take care of those pesky “pro-lifers” once and for all. Let's not forget the Oklahoma City bombing, which was immediately blamed (by Bill Clinton) on... Rush Limbaugh! (who was still on the air, last time I checked)

But in the meantime, we have a wide spectrum of reaction to the event by pro-life groups – mostly very low-key and, you know, “condemning this unlawful act”. And I tend to agree, except that when beasts like Tiller are allowed to – legally – run amok, it's little wonder some people will be driven to direct action, especially now that the Obama Gang are in charge and the pro-life cause seems to be lost for the foreseeable future. It has been said that no one is so dangerous as the person who has nothing to lose – and Tiller's killer may very well have felt that way about himself. And let's face it, Tiller's business would have been grossly illegal in almost any civilized (or even uncivilized) society in history, especially if we're talking about Western civilization. The fact that it is still being debated whether an unborn child is a “person” is a sign of cultural degeneracy – people down through the ages have known damn well that that child is a person... handicapped or no, retarded or no. The Christian point of view – amply supported by Scripture – is that the unborn are known to God and loved by Him. And it doesn't plug in a bunch of qualifiers like, “who have prospects for a life worth living”, or “are wanted”, or “are physically perfect”. And how many stories can one come up with where the handicapped are an occasion of grace for the rest of us? Is there a family with a Down Syndrome child that does not love that child? None that I know of. And of course, a child with “challenges” is a test for everyone else, and requires sacrifices... and I suppose that this is the problem. We're all "media people" now -- perfectionists. Life has to look like, and be, the way it looks in high-end catalogues. Everyone is looking for a “blue ribbon baby” -- assuming they are looking for a baby at all – and anything less simply doesn't compute. We have genetic mutations and congenital malfunctions, for starters. And even a child who is healthy in the womb can suffer birth trauma and wind up with cerebral palsy, for example. But does that make him or her any less a child of God? It is still the only life that child will ever have... the only existence it will ever have on this plain. Is that not worthy of respect? George Tiller apparently didn't think so. And he regularly mocked the people who protested the abominations that were taking place in his “clinic”. He could at the very least have been humble, and regretful, and preached “the lesser of two evils”... and respected their point of view. But no, he paraded his enormities up and down the landscape, and drew government officials and politicians into his demonic web as well. Kansas became “Bloody Kansas” once again under his reign. “Wichita” became synonymous with “Auschwitz”. But! Let us not forget that he was “a family man”... a churchgoer... and a church usher to boot! (But Heaven help the church that would let someone like this be an usher.) It was in this capacity that he met his end, and while he did not die with literal blood on his hands it can certainly be argued that he died in the depths of hypocrisy. And, while the family contended that he died “in a place of peace”, one wonders how much “peace” there was in his abortuary, where many murders were committed daily. I suppose a bit of false peace of mind for the exploited and forever-scarred women who walked out, as the bumper sticker says, mothers of dead babies.

In situations like this, one is always tempted to judge. But, as Scripture has it, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay”. I imagine that, at the very least, the good doctor has a lot of explaining to do. Did he have an opportunity for final repentance? It's unlikely his killer provided him that option. But I doubt he would have taken it anyway. In fact, he actually said, at one point, that “abortion is worth going to Hell for”. Perhaps that intention is all that is required for that wish to be granted.