The man known by pro life advocates for years as “Tiller the Killer” was shot and killed on Sunday, May 31st 2009.

News of this was shocking, in that I am against murder. Yet, as I began to think on the situation, there were several pieces of irony which couldn’t be ignored.

First, most everyone associated with pro life causes or who disagree with abortion has felt compelled to state, “We don’t agree with this murder of George Tiller.” From the perspective of those who are truly pro life, the gunman took the life of George Tiller without a right to do so. The awkwardness is that all along, the same pro life advocates have been decrying the abortions of countless innocent children at the hands of George Tiller. He took the lives of (truly) innocent babies without a right to do so.

Second, liberals everywhere will no doubt try their best to find a link (however real or not we shall see) between the gunman and pro life causes. They must do so in order to paint any pro life advocate as heartless, cold and potential or actual extremists — terrorists to quote from Janet Napolitano’s DHS memo. Yet, George Tiller in his life was heartless, cold and the source of real terror to the unborn.

Third, George Tiller will receive eulogy after eulogy about what a fine upstanding man he was. The fact that he served as an usher in his church will be played up as proof of the caliber of devotion and right living. For the moment, I will presume that the gunman is also a churchgoer. Let’s allow that he might even be an usher in his own church. Will the same people afford him the flowery speeches and affirmation of his fine character for the same religious assets? I have a feeling he would no doubt be pilloried as a hypocrite or (again) that all those in the same grouping will be painted with a broad brush as powder kegs waiting to explode with the gunman being key proof positive.

Fourth, it was truly ironic that George Tiller was shot in church. Although there have been plenty of massacres in church in places such as Rwanda and other countries, churches are typically seen as holy, safe havens which must be respected. The quote from the family summed it up thus: “This is particularly heart-wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.” Church is the place where we expect to be shaped into the image of God. The gunman had no respect for this when he took George Tiller’s life.

In like fashion, the womb of a woman has, since ancient times, been revered as a place of mystery, holy wonder and safety — a place of peace in which the growing child is transformed from a cluster of cells into the only being in the universe which is said to be made in the image of God. It was in this environment in which George Tiller performed his bloody deeds for decades. He had no respect for the womb when he took the lives of his innocent victims.

If you’ve read this far without angrily closing your browser, please accept at face value that I am truly sorry to read that someone would act so in a church. But I have sorrowed equally for the murders of the unborn. That is the tension which those who are pro life can actually hold in some balance: to value the life of all, even those who wantonly destroy the lives of others, because we believe that life is indeed a precious gift from God not to be taken lightly — or destroyed for convenience, even if it is the convenience of someone’s twisted view of a cause.

In the end, the gunman and George Tiller were both murderers, guilty robbers of the gift of life which belongs alone to God. One will be pilloried, the other eulogized.

Both will stand before God to answer for their deeds.

May God have mercy on George Tiller’s soul — and the soul of the gunman.

What do you think?