This story has been churning in my stomach for the last few days and really makes me sick. For anyone living in a cave (from the NY Times):

WICHITA, Kan. — George Tiller, one of only a few doctors in the nation who performed abortions late in pregnancy, was shot to death here Sunday in the foyer of his longtime church as he handed out the church bulletin. The authorities said they took a man into custody later in the day after pulling him over about 170 miles away on Interstate 35 near Kansas City. They said they expected to charge him with murder on Monday.

Not surprisingly, the suspect, Scott Roeder was heavily involved in the “pro-life” movement. He obviously isn’t your typical pro-lifer, among whom are many of my close friends, but rather a subscriber to the extreme positions of the “pro-life” movement.

From McClatchy:

Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.

I know that he believed in justifiable homicide,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. “I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn.”

Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said.

Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds,” she said. “Then [Roeder] said, ‘I’ve seen you now.’ Then he turned his back and walked away, and they were scared to death. On the way out, he gave me a great big hug and he said, ‘I’ve seen you in the newspaper. I just love what you’re doing.’”

Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.

I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times,” Leach said. “I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don’t remember any details.”

Leach said he met Roeder in Topeka when he went there to visit Shelley Shannon, who was in prison for the 1993 shooting of Tiller.

He told me about a lot of conspiracy stuff and showed me how to take the magnetic strip out of a five-dollar bill,” Leach said. “He said it was to keep the government from tracking your money.

In the last few days many anti-choice activists and groups have come out with statements condemning the killing, however, some of these statements seem only to try to distance themselves from the killing without actually condemning the act.

Randall Terry, founder of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, a group that Roeder had associations with and whose Senior Policy Advisor’s phone number was taped to his car dashboard (via C&L)

George Tiller was a mass-murderer. He had blood all over his hands. Now we grieve for him that he was shot in this deplorable manner and he did not have a chance to get things right with his maker perhaps. Every man deserves to have a trial of a jury of his peers and then a proper execution, not to have somebody become judge, jury and executioner on their own.

Randall Terry again (via The Plum Line)

We must not fear, we must not flinch, we must not retreat a single inch. George Tiller was a mass murderer, and we must continue to say so in his death just as we did in his life.

Others just come out and say it with joy (from the website of anti-abortion group Army of God *very graphic link, so don’t scroll down*):

The lives of innocent babies scheduled to be murdered by George Tiller are spared by the action of American hero Scott Roeder. George Tiller the Babykiller reaped what he sowed and is now in eternal hell.

Admittedly, the second group isn’t one of the well anti-abortion groups, like National Right to Life and  is as far from mainstream as it gets, but in this case, it is groups like these that lead to the idea of justifiable homicide. If you don’t like the extremist groups and think it is unfair to lump the pro-life movement in with this kind of hate speech, how about someone a little more prominent? How about a TV and Radio host whose shows reach an audience of millions?

Lets take a look at some of Bill O’Reilly’s comments during his 5 year war against Dr. Tiller. Since 2005, O’Reilly has ranted at least 29 times about Tiller on his Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor:

Records show he’ll do it for vague medical reasons, that is, he’ll kill the fetus, viable outside the womb if the mother wants it dead.

I don’t care what you think, we have incontrovertable evidence, incontrovertable evidence, alright, that this man is executing babies about to be born, in late term, because the woman is depressed.

Tiller himself, when he injected the fetus with the killing agent, then when he took the afterbirth, he never said anything to you at all?

Tiller the Baby Killer, as the Factor has been reporting, this man will terminate fetuses at any time for $5000.

I wanted George Tiller, Tiller the Baby Killer going YEAH! I can make more money killing babies now!

And here is the best video compilation of Bill-O’s hate speech from Daily Kos TV:

Now, I would never say that Bill O’Reilly or any of the other people mentioned in this post were complicit in this murder. Scott Roeder did this. He made a choice to murder someone whose views differed from his own. What I will absolutely say is that people like Bill O’Reilly should be held accountable for the words they use. It is clear that his words were meant to dehumanize Dr. Tiller, to make him into a monster rather than a man. For a person like Scott Roeder, these kinds of words work. There must be some accountability for public figures who use language to demonize a person to the point that people no longer view them as a human being.

Anyone who brands a man as “Baby Killer” is a part of the reason why someone would feel it was justifiable to kill that person. Bill O’Reilly obviously sees it differently (via AP):

O’Reilly said that he had never incited people to do anything, and that he wished he heard more compassion expressed by some of these critics for the aborted fetuses.

I’m coming at it from a factual point of view,” O’Reilly said. “The man aborted 60,000 fetuses, potential human beings, all right? Human beings to some, not human beings to others but to everyone 60,000 potential human beings were aborted by the man who made millions doing it. To me, that’s unconscionable. As an American, I have a right to say that.”

Rather than condemn the murder, O’Reilly joins the “It’s bad to kill someone, but he got what was coming to him” crowd. As if anyone would expect him to do differently.

                  

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not only is there a storm-a-brewin’, but that storm will bring the gay…right…into…your…LIFE! Your freedom will be taken away (not sure how extending a human right to a marginalized part of society takes away my freedoms, but whatev)! Doctors will lose their JOBS (since they perform marriages? I don’t get it). Your youth group will be DESTROYED (no one is asking you to accept the gay into your church. The laws that have been passed specifically give exemptions to religious groups)! Your kids will be forced to LEARN about gay people in school (nonsense)!! They want to change the way YOU live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And you will have NO CHOICE!!!!!!! You will be forced to marry a gay person!!!! That must be what they are up to!!!!

At least these guys are forming a “rainbow coalition” who are “coming together in love” to save you! Thank God!!

What a load of bullshit that is.

                  

This has been my favorite piece of scripture since I spent a summer in Los Angelos working for the Center for Student Missions. It encompassed everything I felt about the suffering that I would see day to day. This verse taught me that suffering leads inevitably to hope and it was hope that got me through that summer, and the rest of my life since.

When President (then candidate) Obama centered his candidacy, and now presidency around hope, I was instantly drawn in. When I think about the past eight years of fear, intolerance, war, and hate I am overjoyed that our nearly decade long suffering under Bush Co. is finally over. I find it very fitting that our suffering has ended in hope!

Under Bush our constitution was thrown into the gutter in the name of national security. This has happened before and has even been facilitated by great presidents, like FDR. Yet, at the end of our long national nightmare President Barack Obama completely rejected this ideology:

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

Instead of fear, Obama has decided to lead this nation forward with hope. Hope to end war, hope to stop torture, hope to fix the economy, hope to end nuclear proliferation, hope to heal our planet, hope to rebuild our standing in the world and renew old alliances, hope for a better tomorrow.

It is up to us now to join with Obama in the promise of hope. And that is powerful, because hope does not disappoint us!

“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” President Barack Obama!!!!!

                  

The difference between your desire to have extramarital sex and a gay persons desire to be married to the person he loves is that you are allowed to get married and your desire for sex is no longer sinful as long as you are faithful to your spouse, but a gay person is not allowed to get married and so can never, in your eyes, be without sin in his relationship with his partner.

I’m sure Rick Warren and others of like mind would say a man and women getting married is “natural.” So even if being gay is proven to be natural for some people, they should still not be allowed to do what’s natural? We aren’t talking about the choice to have sex with multiple partners. We are talking about the choice for a person to marry someone that they love. Being gay isn’t about reigning in sexual desire. It isn’t the same as learning to deal with anger or shyness. Being gay is about choosing to be with someone that you love and that person happening to be of the same sex. End of story.

As far as Obama’s decision to have Warren off the invocation, just because he invited you to speak at his church doesn’t mean you owe him something. Obama made a serious symbolic mistake here and has really damaged the support from a major segment of his base. These are people who fervently supported his candidacy. They gave time and money because they believe Obama is on their side. Giving the stage to a bigot like Rick Warren on the first day of your presidency doesn’t start you out on the right foot. Now, instead of this day being about change and hope, it is about Rick Warren. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me for him to bring this kind of cloud over a day that millions of people are looking forward to. My only hope is that the uproar from the progressive movement about this issue will force Obama to be accountable on this issue. He now has a lot to prove to make up for this kick in the gut to the gay community. I really hope he backs up what he says and that having Warren speak isn’t a sign that he wont.

                  

On the other hand I think it is a non-issue. Warren is a man who has invited Obama, someone he disagrees with on gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research, and other issues to speak at his church. He is a man who believes we can work together on the issues we agree on without getting hung up on those we don’t. He has done some really great work on poverty and AIDS and believes that Christianity is about more than just those divisive issues. Of all the crazy right wing pastors out there, Rick Warren is at least willing to listen and work with those who hold opposing views. I mean, it’s not like he asked Dobson to speak!

That being said, there are a number of far better pastors out there who hold progressive views and probably should have been asked to speak over Warren. I understand all of the inclusiveness mumbo jumbo, but symbolically, asking someone with views as strong as Warren’s to take the stage with you on inauguration day is kind of a kick in the gut for the gay community.

                  

Personally, I completely disagree with the entire practice of having an opening prayer in the Senate Chamber. As much as the religious right tries to convince us otherwise, the United States is not a Christian nation. Yes, we have Christians. Yes, the majority of Americans claim to be Christians. Also, yes, Christians deserve the right to congregate and speak just as everyone else, but religion, in any form, does not have any place in the US Senate; whether official, or ceremonial, or simply because it is the tradition.

Operation Save America issued a press release rife with inaccurate portrayals of the Founding Fathers and their supposed “[standing] on the Gospels of Jesus Christ!” I’ll ignore how completely wrong they are, but not without saying this: The Founding Fathers did not stand on the Gospels of Jesus Christ, or any other religious text. They stood on the Constitution. That’s it. Though many of them were Christians and much of the constitution was based on Christian principals (and any number of other universal principals), they took painstaking efforts to keep organized religion out of the Constitution and to avoid the institution of an official Church of the United States.

Now, if we are going to allow Christians from a wide spectrum of Christian sects*** to serve as Senate Chaplains and invoke the name of Jesus Christ in prayer when the Senate comes into session, then we ought to extend the same courtesy to other established and credible religions. We should do this because the Founding Fathers made a point to keep religion out of the Constitution and to keep the United States from establishing an official Church.

Until the day when the only invocation allowed on the floor of the Senate is that of the Constitution, I think it is only fair to be fair.

*** – Religious affiliations of Senate Chaplains since 1789
Episcopalian – 19
Methodist – 17
Presbyterian – 13
Baptist – 6
Unitarian – 3
Congregationalist – 1
Lutheran – 1
Roman Catholic – 1
Seventh-day Adventist (current) – 1

Total Christian – 62
Other religions – 0

                  

Some noteable quotes include:

• “There are 2 kinds of people in the world…those who love Jesus and those who don’t” Wow. Tolerance please? Is that really teaching our kids to care about others? You’re with us or against us. Does the gospel tell us that?
• “Where should we be putting our focus? I’ll tell you were our enemies are putting it. They’re putting it on the kids.” She then goes on the make a comparison between what they are doing at these camps and arming and training kids to fight in battle.
• “At 5 I got saved because I just wanted more out of life.” What 5 year old wants more out of life? When I was 5, more out of life was going outside and playing with my friends, not protesting abortion and worshiping a picture of George W Bush. <–I’m not kidding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co1_9lR9EpM.
• “I really feel that we are the key generation to bring jesus back” If we are going to teach our kids about Jesus, at least let them the truth. This line is from what looks like an 11-12 year old boy. He thinks that his generation will “bring jesus back.” !?!?!?
• “This means war, this means war, this means war!” I don’t know, I guess that just scared me. 100’s of children screaming that. There is something wrong with that.

You can watch the trailor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_EKHK1C2IE

                  

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these fringe republican evangelical christians, like his highness Mr. Bush? Before I really get into it I need to mention that Bush is the first president since James Garfield in 1881 to not veto a single bill that congress has sent to his desk. But Garfield had an excuse: he was assassinated after just 6 months in office. Before him, the last full term president to not veto a single bill was John Quincy Adams, the 6^th president in 1829. So if you do that math, that is 177 years since a full term president has not used his veto power. Why does this matter? Because it looks like Bush is finally about to actually veto something! [edithe did just veto something] Is it a ghastly defense appropriations bill that will put us even further into debt? Is it a bill that will severely cut spending on social services like Medicaid? Is it a bill that will give ridiculous amounts of power to the executive branch and take away the civil liberties of Americans? OF COURSE NOT!!! He signed all of those and around 1500 other bills from the republican dominated congress into law during his presidency.

So what bill is Bushs first veto in 6 years? One that allows the science community to research embryonic stem cells harvested from leftover fertilization clinic embryos. It is research that is supported by nearly 70f Americans. Research that could lead to cures for diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and to rebuild lost spinal tissue.

So why would mr. bush veto this bill? Because he, and the small section of the country that still thinks he is doing a good job think that because these embryos have the potential to become a human life, that using them for research is murder. This is complete nonsense. First of all, completely ignoring the moral justifications, they are leftover embryos that will basically be thrown in the garbage otherwise. The bill basically allows fertility clients to donate unused frozen embryos instead of letting them just be destroyed. What the hell is wrong with that?  Literally 100’s of thousands of these frozen embryos will be disgarded this year alone.  It is medical waste for pete’s sake!

“This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others,” Bush said at the press conference. “It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it.” He also said this, “If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would, for the first time in our history, be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I’m not going to allow it.” Bull!! Think about this. This same man believes that if a leader of a country is evil and doing harm to his people, it is morally justified for us to bomb that persons country in order to possibly end suffering. When engaged in the bombing of a country it is common and accepted knowledge that some innocent people will be placed in harms way and lose there life unnecessarily. But this is accepted because the greater aim of eliminating evil and suffering is greater than the loss of life in the attempt of gain victory. In doing, there is no guarantee that peace will be achieved or that suffering will end. So how can you say that those human lives are not important because we are ending suffering but say that researching cures for horrible diseases that are killing thousands of innocent people with the hopes of ending suffering is wrong because we are killing the potential for human life. For gods sake, we kill actually human beings everyday in our wars, but we cannot use discarded embryos to possibly cure the worst diseases that we know? That is murder?

An embryo at the stage that we are discussing is not a human being. Yes, it is life, but there is a difference between life and being a human being. At this stage, the cells can become literally any other human cell. They could become skin cells, liver cells, brain cells, any other cells! Can a human being become any other thing that it wants to? Of course not. They are not human life and no one can honestly say that a cell at that stage is the same as a new born baby. You cant honestly say that they have the same value. Life isnt always equal to life. It isnt black and white. Be honest about this. Say you are in a fertility clinic and it suddenly begins to rage in flames. Everyone in the building leaves but somehow a 3 month old child is left behind in the back. You rush in realizing you have very little time. You know that there is a storage container in the back with 20,000 frozen embryos waiting for the chance to make someone pregnant with a child. What would you do? You have the chance to save a potential 20,000 babies!! Or do you save the 3 month old that is screaming in the back? You only have time to do one or the other. What would you do?

You are lying if you would save the frozen embryos instead of the living breathing human baby, because you know that they are NOT the same thing. They are destroyed every day in the name of the science of fertilization. Why not give someone the chance to donate what they do not use to the science of stem cell research? This isnt the same issue as abortion. Stop making them the same thing. We are talking about the earliest human cells, cells that are not yet defined as a liver or and heart of a lung. They are full of unlimited potential and should not be wasted.

Oh, and according to press secretary Tony Snow, “There is nothing that makes embryonic stem cell research illegal; it simply says that the federal government will not finance it. As you know, there are ongoing efforts in some states, including, I think, California and Massachusetts, to use state money for it, and I daresay if people think that there’s a market for it, they’re going to support it handsomely. The simple answer is [Bush] thinks murder is wrong, and he has said it.”  It’s funny that Bush is so adamant about this being murder, yet he agrees that it isn’t illegal and that allowing stem cell research to be performed privately is ok, just not using federal funding.  So murder is legal as long as the government isn’t funding it.  The government only gets to do that when we are war mongering or using the death penalty.  That’s awesome!!!

                  

Recognizing the violence in my own heart, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, I vow to practice the nonviolence of Jesus who taught us in the Sermon on the Mount:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God…You have learned how it was said, “You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy”; but I say to you, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. In this way, you will be daughters and sons of your Creator in heaven.”

Before God the Creator and the Sanctifying Spirit, I vow to carry out in my life the love and example of Jesus

-by striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;

-by accepting suffering rather than inflicting it;

-by refusing to retaliate in the face of provocation and violence;

-by persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;

-by living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;

-by actively resisting evil and working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.

God, I trust in Your sustaining love and believe that just as You gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so You will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.

Amen