The Most Difficult Problem Christ faces in the world

Kansas Law Enforcement Officers have charged Scott Roeder with entering a church building and gunning down one of the church's ushers. George Tiller fell victim to the gunman's wrath. If you didn't know it, you know now that Tiller was a famous physician who performed late term abortions. Pro-life causes had repeatedly pointed to Tiller as representing the kind of medical practice in America that threatens the lives of the unborn and that is responsible for taking the lives of innocent children. Those who would like to see Roe vs Wade overthrown by the Supreme Court would obviously like to see abortions such as those performed by George Tiller to come to a halt. Most Pro-life advocates believe that late term abortions are murder. However, most Pro-life advocates believe that to murder to stop murder is not a solution that an individual has a right to pursue. Its murder to take one's life without a legal basis whether performed by an abortionist or an anti-abortionist. Until the law is changed, abortion is legal. No matter how much we abhor the act, individuals have no right to take the law into their own hands.

The irony of taking the life of a man in a church and doing so in the name of Christ is not lost on the enemies of Christianity. According to witnesses Roeder's car had an anti-abortion sticker on it, as well as the fish , a symbol of Christianity. A number of political causes will be encouraged by the act of the murderer of Tiller. The anti-gun movement will receive a great deal of free advertisement from this act. The Pro-choice movement will be able to gain support for silencing critics of abortion doctors. Keith Olbermann blamed Fox News for this despicable act, and especially Bill O'Reilly who had referred in the past to George Tiller as "Tiller, the baby killer". Olbermann recommended that his viewers quarantine Fox News. He encouraged his viewers to ask waiting rooms across America, whether Doctors or other waiting rooms, to discontinue carrying Fox News. If they refuse to do so then change Doctors. The anti-Christian movement will find encouragement by the evidence that the accused had the fish symbol on his car. The result of this crime may be millions of dollars worth of free advertisement for the views we have just mentioned.

In Romans2:17ff., the apostle Paul wrote the following:
"Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; If you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law. if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--you, then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal...do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Paul's argument could have just as easily been applied to Christians as it was to Jews. What if the rhetorical question was "You who preach pro-life, do you commit murder?" In other words you preach opposition to murder by murdering? Such behavior leads to the name of Christ being blasphemed in the world. Many facts will come out in the next few months that are not known at the moment, but for now, the name of christianity and the cause of pro-life have been damaged greatly by the behavior of one who has chosen to be identified with Christ.

Nothing an enemy can do to us is nearly as damaging as the disobedience of God's people. When the advocates of the cause violate the cause, they do more harm than all voices of its critics. May all of us be reminded that even in criticizing an evil, we must do so in a way that brings glory to God. We may at times feel so passionately about a cause that we have a hard time being civil with the opponents, but God's cause is never advanced by ungodly behavior. My prayer is that the murderer of George Tiller will be brought to justice and pay the price that he thought murderers of infants should pay. Government is the body that has been entrusted by God with punishing the evil and until the law has been changed we can do nothing about abortion except seek to persuade our neighbors and elected officials to embrace a pro-life position and exert influence that might lead to the limitation and eventual removal of statutes permitting legal abortion.