Once again, I don't like the word "assassination" that many use. It doesn't seem to convey the same reality that the simple word "murder" does. Hopefully, if it's truly "murder one," the perpetrator gets a date with the executioner.
(it would not be murder one, perhaps, if the perpetrator was the father of a daughter victimized at Tiller's clinic, and that crime ignored by the state...but still definitely murder)
And so two other thoughts. First, who really killed all those 60,000 pre-born children that Tiller says he dismembered? Yes, Tiller, but also....all of us who treat sex as a game, and children as an "unfortunate consequence," bear blame as well.
And yes, there is a man out there who pulled the trigger. Hopefully he is in custody. There is also a state that failed to adequately prosecute Tiller's crimes, and at least one church that failed to recognize that Dr. Tiller was not just an abortionist; he was a doctor who was ignoring state laws about fetal viability verification and statutory rape. I would have hoped that even the most liberal of pastors would realize that when such laws are ignored, everyone's daughter (and son) is at risk.
Had the state and his church (or either one) risen to the occasion and disciplined Dr. Tiller, he might have had a chance to repent, and might have a decidedly different eternal outlook from the one he now suffers. Had our nation realized what we're doing with rampant encouragement of promiscuity, Dr. Tiller might have gotten a chance to get out of the profession he had.
Podcast #1047: The Roman Caesars’ Guide to Ruling
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The Roman caesars were the rulers of the Roman Empire, beginning in 27 BC
with Julius Caesar’s heir Augustus, from whom subsequent caesars took their
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6 hours ago
8 comments:
Yep. People think civil law and church discipline are about punishing people, but that's not at all the function of the first and not the only function of the second. Both also serve to make it clear that some things are WRONG. If you live in both a church and society that's just fine with Tiller, that's just one avenue of repentance removed for Tiller.
Reformation Lutheran Church, ELCA, of Wichita
of course tiller would be allowed to usher at a ELCA.
they are trying to play catch up with the episcopalians in the liberal theology dept.
they ordain gay ministers, so whats an abortionist or two.
OOPS. I only now realized I reversed "the first" and "the second" in my previous comment. Punishment is "not at all" the function of church discipline, and "not the only" function of civil law.
BTW, word is Roeder won't be charged with a capital crime because Kansas law requires "aggravating circumstances" for a Murder One to be capital, and they don't apply here.
??? Walking into a church and shooting someone in cold blood for a political purpose isn't an aggravating circumstance?
Weird times we live in.
Gino, you make a darned good point once again. I grew up in such a church, and almost stormed out when I saw a known adulterer ushering--somehow that didn't seem to honor our Lord.
It will be interesting to see what Ben does - or is allowed to do - when he is a pastor in that denomination.
I think aggravating circumstances are specified in the law -- multiple murders, murders of children, murders combined with some other particularly heinous crime (e.g. rape.) I don't think it's legally an "aggravating circumstance" just because it's particularly bald-faced or shocking.
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