The Murder of Dr. Tiller and a Convert to Islam

06.03.09 - chris
Tags: abortion, convert, islam, murder, news, tiller

I’ve got a great sadness in my heart for what the Christian Church has become.  There are so many signs of degradation starting at the very top of the leadership and flowing (trickle is exactly the wrong word) down to the grass roots.  I was raised a Southern Baptist and there are few denominations that equal the SBC in its capacity for besmirching the name of Jesus Christ.  That’s for future posts, though.

The murder of Dr. Tiller, the abortion doctor in Wichita, KS, has provide great fodder for those that are looking for any reason to distract or demean the message of love and forgiveness of Christ.  And why not?  The man was shot and killed in the lobby of his church.  The lobby of his church.

Now, I’m pro-life, and I hold that belief for exactly what the name says.  I believe that an unborn baby is still a baby and that the concious destruction of that life is wrong, and should be illegal.  One of the government’s responsibility is the protection of life, and there is no more innocent or vulnerable life than that of an unborn baby. That said, there is absolutely no way you can justify to me the attack on abortion clinics or personnel.  There is absolutely nothing in the character of Christ (Christian means Christ-One, or someone trying to emulate Christ) that would in any way condone these actions, let alone a murder.

An interesting juxtaposition is this story from CNN.com about a Muslim storekeeper that turns the tables on a robber, and then converts him to Islam. The store keeper pulled a shotgun on a man trying to rob the store with a baseball bat, learns that the man is just trying to get some food, gives him $40 and a loaf a bread.  The robber, apparently moved by the man’s charity, asks to become a Muslim.  Wow.  Is there a clearer example that there are so many people that are desperate for something, and cling to whatever truth they see as most genuine?

Is it too cynical of me to believe that had the storekeeper been a Christian, there’s a decent chance the robber would have been shot and then chased out of the store?