"Many in the "pro-life" anti-abortion movement seem to me to only be pro-life in the case of abortion -- unlike those who hold an ethic of life across a range of moral issues, not only abortion but also war and the death penalty, This makes "pro-life" in regard to abortion not only an inconsistent ethic, but an unstable one.
Nothing exposes this fundamental inconsistency and instability in the ethic of life as a description of the anti-abortion movement more than "pro-life" murder.
Dr. George Tiller, one of the most prominent and controversial abortion providers in the country, was gunned down Sunday n Reformation Lutheran Church while he was serving as an usher. Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his Kansas clinic is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed. He had been shot before and survived.
The Washington Post is reporting that an arrest has been made of a man matching the description of the shooter. Scott Roeder, the suspect in the murder of George Tiller, "is known in anti-abortion circles as a man who believes that killing an abortion doctor is justifiable."
Violence has been a part of the anti-abortion movement from the beginning, from the overt violence of the murder of other abortion providers to the covert violence of harassing women trying to get to clinics for reproductive services.
Violence is a logical outcome of the extreme self-righteousness of those who claim the "pro-life" label as an absolute and yet who do not have an actual, consistent ethic of life such as the views held by pacifists. Dr. Charles Kimball, a Baptist minister and professor of religion at Wake Forest University, well explains this logical connection in his book When Religion Becomes Evil. According to Kimball, two warning signs that indicate a religious viewpoint is becoming evil are "absolute truth claims" and "the end justifies any means." Violence, in Kimball's view, is an evil."
Nothing exposes this fundamental inconsistency and instability in the ethic of life as a description of the anti-abortion movement more than "pro-life" murder.
Dr. George Tiller, one of the most prominent and controversial abortion providers in the country, was gunned down Sunday n Reformation Lutheran Church while he was serving as an usher. Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his Kansas clinic is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed. He had been shot before and survived.
The Washington Post is reporting that an arrest has been made of a man matching the description of the shooter. Scott Roeder, the suspect in the murder of George Tiller, "is known in anti-abortion circles as a man who believes that killing an abortion doctor is justifiable."
Violence has been a part of the anti-abortion movement from the beginning, from the overt violence of the murder of other abortion providers to the covert violence of harassing women trying to get to clinics for reproductive services.
Violence is a logical outcome of the extreme self-righteousness of those who claim the "pro-life" label as an absolute and yet who do not have an actual, consistent ethic of life such as the views held by pacifists. Dr. Charles Kimball, a Baptist minister and professor of religion at Wake Forest University, well explains this logical connection in his book When Religion Becomes Evil. According to Kimball, two warning signs that indicate a religious viewpoint is becoming evil are "absolute truth claims" and "the end justifies any means." Violence, in Kimball's view, is an evil."
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