Frank Schaeffer: How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder

Frank Schaeffer: How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder

www.huffingtonpost.com

My late father and I share the blame (with many others) for the murder of Dr. George Tiller the abortion doctor gunned down on Sunday. Until I got out of the religious right (in the mid-1980s) and repented of my former hate-filled rhetoric I was both a leader of the so-called pro-life movement and a part of a Republican Party hate machine masquerading as the moral conscience of America.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I know there are those who will cry foul over this article but Frank Schaeffer is the real deal... a hard right wing funnymentalist who had a real and profound change of heart.

The hate filled rhetoric I have read on another thread on this subject do not reflect the teachings of Jesus the Christ who stressed compassion and mercy.

This man came to his senses... would that others who have embraced an intolerance and bigotry that would make the Taliban proud would do so.

Of course those who really need to read this article won't.

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 1-6-2009 by grover]

In the other thread I said:

As a pro-life Christian let me utterly condemn this action and any such vigilante actions. This doctor was a person with a family and people who loved him and I pray for their consolation at this time.

The perpetrator did not act in my name or in the name of those who are pro-life.

There are no circumstances in which murder, which this was, may be justified.

I stand by those words and, though reading some of the posts there, have not added anything else to it as I feel its important that those words should stand alone there when dealing with the murder of Dr. Tiller.

I do not, however, accept that the whole pro-life movement should feel a sense of collective responsibility for yesterday's murder. Neither do I think we should stop identifying abortion as "murder." These may be words that will inflame some who are unstable enough to act in such a manner but their actions do not implicate us all in them.

If this were the case then freedom of speech would be meaningless, not only as a political/ideological concept but as the basic means of discourse in society.

Where Mr Schaeffer is concerned I am reminded that there are none so zealous as converts.

[edit on 1/6/09/ by Supercertari]

When you start identifying the other as evil, a murderer and so forth... whether it is an assumed national enemy or a doctor who preforms abortions... when you dehumanize them as monsters worthy of hatred and contempt...

Then the seeds are sown for either the ill reasoned invasion of another country or the murder of the doctor...

It is how we were snowballed into invading Iraq...

It is how the Germans were convinced that it was alright to herd the Jews into the gas chambers...

And it is the logic behind shooting a doctor for preforming an abortion that you personally disapprove of.

Just because you might have strong moral convictions about something does not automatically give you the right to try and impose them on others.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by grover]

What a megalomanic. He was a pro-life leader over 20 years ago, and wants to take credit for one murderer killing another murderer?

But what can you expect from a George Soros funded website?

Is that your answer to everything... a George Soros funded website? Like somehow that invalidates the writer?

How about a Richard Mellon Scaife funded website?

A lot of Republicans use Huffington post as a news outlet ya know.

Originally posted by grover

A lot of Republicans use Huffington post as a news outlet ya know.

Republicans like this guy claiming to be a pro-life leader....even though it was over 20 years ago?

I'm sure there may be a few "Moderate" Republicans that long to "make nice" with the left. The same "moderates" that I wish would leave to party.

grover, please correct me and add to my knowledge, but the radical Left bombings of banks, etc. took place over a period less than ten years, plus I do not remember any churches, or religious organizations or organizations connected with religion, inciting militancy (killing/bombing).

Even the Berrigan brothers practiced non-violence and civil disobedience. And, for God's sake, truly, do not put burning draft cards and hammering on military equipment in the same category of bombing a clinic.

For 3 decades now, Americans have been stirred to militancy by this radical religious right movement. Three decades! Enough time to become ingrained in a society, creating a culture of religious violence where the ends justify the means. And to be handed down through generations, spreading as cancerous cells, to destroy decency in society.

Mr. Schaeffer's public apology is a wake up call. He mentions only one other doctor killed, but there were others, and no mention of the clinic bombings. If the only reason for many to be appalled this time is the fact that the killing was done in a House of the Lord, then his "sorry", while heartelt, is limited.

reply to post by desert


That is correct.

The radical left political actions ran roughly from 1968 or 69 or so into the early 80's but most of them were in the early mid 70's and I do not know of any church bombings from the left... the weather underground's most lasting effort was rappling down Mt. Tampalisis and painted the rainbow on the Golden Gate bridge tunnel... and the state of California knowing a good thing when they saw it... has kept it up.

By 1980 the justice department had succeeded in stamping out most of the real radical leftist groups.

There has never been a similar effort against radical right groups.

I think the injunction to read the article in your OP needs to indeed be attended to. Mr Schaeffer does not differentiate between pro-life groups.

His final paragraph:

But I'd like to say on this day after a man was murdered in cold blood for preforming abortions that I -- and the people I worked with in the religious right, the Republican Party, the pro-life movement and the Roman Catholic Church, all contributed to this killing by our foolish and incendiary words.

Is a blanket association of all those groups with incitement to hatred and, now, incitement to murder. This is patently untrue but not unexpected as this event will surely be, and has already been, used as an excuse to question the motives of all pro-life groups.

Your contention that "It is how the Germans were convinced that it was alright to herd the Jews into the gas chambers... " is an analogy which might better apply to the blanket condemnation of a group of people due to the actions of one. In particular allow me to draw your attention to the story of Herschel Grynszpan and his murder of Ernst vom Rath which led to Kristallnacht.