So far, we know nothing about the suspect. Though the motive for the crime we can all surmise in light of the vitriolic campaign that has been waged against Tiller for more than two decades by anti-abortiongroups.
And if we’re right about that, then we already know the identities of his accomplices.
They include every one who has ever called Tiller’s late term abortion clinic a murder mill.
Who ever called Tiller “Tiller the Killer.”
The groups who spent decades fomenting hate toward a man who simply believed that he was serving a purpose by being one of the few doctors in the country performing late-term abortions.
After all, it was Operation Rescue that coined the nickname “Tiller the Killer.” It was Operation Rescue that was most responsible for ratcheting up the heated rhetoric toward Tiller over the past two decades.
The group issued the following statement today:
“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”
Shocked? Are any of us really shocked that it would come to this after the many years of demonizing one man?
Certainly the group’s founder, Randall Terry, didn’t seem shocked when he issued a statement that, I would suggest, provides a truer sense of how the anti-abortion movement saw today’s events:
”George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to faceGod. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.
Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches.”
I’d suggest that if anyone is in need of salvation right now it’s the anti-abortion movement in Kansas and across the nation.
As Terry’s statement makes clear, the same bullet that killed George Tiller also shattered the moral underpinnings of the movement that inspired its firing.
If a gaymarriage question is put on the California ballot in 2010, it will put the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a seriously interesting crossroads.
Mormon watchers were surprised, then, when the church hierarchy took such an active role in the passage of Proposition 8 in California, limiting marriage to a man and a woman. Gay Americans were surprised as well. They didn’t expect the church to embrace gaymarriage, but neither did they predict that the Mormon Church would emerge as a resolute and politically-active foe, whose support for Prop 8 was perhaps determinative. Some of the resultant anti-Mormonrhetoric has been vicious.
That will put the ball back in the church’s court. The family is at the center of Mormontheology. But the national political trends are running against the church. Younger Americans—even young evangelicals—are more than willing to see their gayfriends get married.
Opposing gaymarriage in Utah (as the church did in 2004) is one thing, but taking a lead public role in a national campaign to deprive a persecuted minority of a right shared by all other Americans is another. It would be seen as a sign that the days of low-key tactics are over, and that the currentMormon leaders are prepared to give, and get, the political bruising that occurs when religion mixes with politics in America.
The bill will be voted on next week, as the third piece of a three-part gay-marriageproposal. Two bills have already passed — House Bill 436, the main bill, and HB 310, with technical changes — but a third became necessary when Lynch said he would veto the bills unless extra protections for religious groups were added. Language in the two bills that exempted clergy from performing marriages that their religions do not accept did not go far enough, Lynch said.
The Senate then passed HB 73, containing language Lynch demanded, but the House vote on May 20 fell short 186-188.
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler is exploring whether same-sex marriages performed in other states can be recognized in Maryland, a move that could open an avenue for legal recognition of gay and lesbiancouples who have been rebuffed by the courts and legislature here.
Gay-rights activists say the ability to marry would not only strengthen their relationships but confer hundreds of rights, benefits and responsibilities on them, including community property protections, control over funeral arrangements of a spouse and an obligation to pay child support.
Hundreds participated in the march. Seeking to link the march with the 1960s civil rights movement centered in places like Selma, Ala., organizers said it was “a symbolic sign of respect for the social movements before us.”
For Newsom and five major-party rivals, the resurgence of the same-sexmarriage issue has added a new complication to the race for governor.
If gay rights groups get their way, the nominees to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will share the November 2010 ballot with a measure to repeal Proposition 8, turning an emotionally charged cultural issue into a central focus of the campaign.
Voters have also shifted their views. In April, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 49% of Americans said gaymarriage should be legal, and 46% said it should be illegal. Three years earlier, 36% had said it should be legal, and 58% had said it should not.
In California, where Newsom’s rebel edict in 2004 touched off the court battles that spawned some 18,000 marriages that were declared valid Tuesday, candidates for governor face multiple dangers on the issue. Although support for gaymarriage has risen over the last decade — the 52% yes vote on Proposition 8 was down from 61% on a similar measure in 2000 — the issue still sharply divides Californians.
Younger voters were far more likely to approve of it than older voters. And Democrats overwhelmingly favored it, while Republicans were strongly opposed.
Rev. Frank Senn of Evanston wouldn’t mind if Illinois became the sixth state to recognize same-sex civil unions as binding commitments in the eyes of the law.
“There’s a difference between what is ordered in civil society and what the church can do under the Gospel,” said the pastor, whose son married another man in California before same-sex marriages were banned by the Proposition 8 referendum in November. “I think civil society has its own authority to make whatever social accommodations that seem good to society. We can only act on the authority of the word of God.”
We shot this short film to protest the passage of Prop 8, the ban on gaymarriage in California. It was amazing how many people volunteered their time to help out with it. There’s more info up on the “Educate Against Prop 8″ facebook site:
Hundreds of same-sexcouples and their supporters marched Saturday through dusty California farm towns, gathering in the state’s conservative center to push for gaymarriage in less hospitable areas.
Just days after the state’s highest court upheld a ban on gaymarriage, advocates vowed to win the hearts and minds of those who reject their unions. They are pledging to put a new initiative before voters to overturn the ban, perhaps as soon as next year.
The weekend-long event has attracted the movement’s most well-known activists and celebrities including Charlize Theron and Eric McCormack. It was organized by a lesbian mother in Fresno who was removed from the parent-teacher association at her son’s Roman Catholic school after she spoke out against banning gaymarriage.
Gayactivists believe their campaign against Proposition 8 focused too much on liberal urban enclaves along the coast, failing even to reach out to the state’s rural regions. The measure passed with nearly 69 percent of the vote in Fresno County, compared to 52 percent statewide.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: This afternoon in Toronto, former PresidentsBill Clinton and George W. Bush shared a stage for a “conversation with presidents” at Toronto’s Convention Centre, in a ticketed event (with a hefty payday for both ex-presidents) that was open to the general public.
It was a fascinating discussion — these two 62-year-old men with a combined 16 years in the presidency, talking about current and past events as probably no one else alive can, for the first time in a public forum.
“I don’t buy the premise that our attention was diverted” by Iraq, Bush said. “I think it’s false. Matter of fact, I know it’s false. I was there.”
And while President Clinton mostly kept to his promise to “thwart” efforts to get 42 and 43 to tangle with each other, he offered an interesting insight into his thinking on gay rights.
On the issue of gaymarriage — which Clinton, like PresidentObama, personally opposes — Clinton said of his position: “Frankly, it’s evolving” as he sees more committed gaycouplesraising kids.
Clinton also expressed optimism that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — which he helped enact — will eventually come off the books, allowing gaymembers of the armed services to serve openly.
“I think that time will lead to a repeal of this ban,” Clinton said.
That’s one of many areas where the former presidents disagree. But mostly, this event was a lovefest.
Bush welcomed the audience to “the Bill and George show.” Clinton teased that while the pair was facing expectations that they would “devour each other,” “we’ll do our best to thwart them.”
