Murder is Always a Wrong Moral Choice

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Dr. George Tiller, the most well-known partial birth abortion doctor in America, was shot and killed Sunday in a church in Wichita, Kansas. The gunman fled after the crime, but a 51-year-old suspect, Scott Roeder, was detained some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting. It is assumed that he will be charged with murder.

He should be. Murder is always a wrong moral choice.

Despite whatever motives are forthcoming in the circumstances of the shooting, murder is murder. At the present time, abortion is legal in America–even the gruesome abortions that Dr. Tiller performed on late-term pregnancies. George Tiller was a human being, made in the image of God, with an inalienable right to life. In the eyes of the law of the United States, Dr. Tiller was also an innocent man who was maliciously killed. His death was horrific and wrong, and we should be saddened and outraged.

Those of us who are pro-life are always pro-life when it comes to murder.

Speaking for the pro-life side of the debate, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson, issued the following statement Sunday on the slaying of late-term abortionist George Tiller:

“We are shocked by the murder of George Tiller, and we categorically condemn the act of vigilantism and violence that took his life. America has from its foundation respected the rule of law, by which every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those constitutional rights are forfeited only when crimes have been committed, and the perpetrator is charged and found guilty by a jury of his or her peers in a court of law.”

“Tiller recently faced serious charges related to the killing of babies in violation of the law, by the most grotesque procedures administered without anesthetics or compassion. We profoundly regretted the outcome of his legal case, believing the doctor had the blood of countless babies on his hands. Nevertheless, he was acquitted by the court and declared “not guilty” in the eyes of the law. That is our system, and we honor it.”

“Our condolences are extended to the Tiller family. The person or persons responsible for his death should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Yes, because murder is always a wrong moral choice.

But the Tiller’s death should also be cause for us as a nation to carefully examine this whole area of “life” and what it means to commit murder. The US Constitution, based on Christian and biblical precedents, gives us Americans a God-given “right to life.” The current laws of the United States do not recognize that right because to accommodate the excesses of the 60s sexual revolution, we invented a “right to choose” to get rid of the unpleasant consequences of immorality. We deceptively re-defined “life” in 1972, allowing us as a nation to callously reject thousands of years of civilized behavior in order to kill our children.

We enshrined “choice” as the new morality. All of a sudden it was “good” to choose. It didn’t matter what the choice was, which in our case, was murdering forty-five million tiny fellow Americans over the past thirty-seven years.

What a ridiculous (or should we say satanic?) idea. If we’d thought about it honestly, for even a moment, we would have come to the conclusion that choice is not moral–it is neutral at best. You can choose bad or you can choose good. You can choose wisely, or you can choose evil.  You can choose life for a human being or you can choose to kill that human being. There’s nothing moral about being pro-choice. It all depends of what choice you make.

Scott Roeder made a wrong choice in killing George Tiller. Murder is always a wrong choice.

And though the laws of America are currently skewed to cover up for our sexual sins, there is a higher law that says that what George Tiller did for a living was wrong. It was a wrong choice to kill thousands of young lives who didn’t deserve to die. Even if George Tiller had lived to old age, died, and then stood before God in judgment, the righteous verdict of heaven would have then condemned him as a murderer.

Murder is always a wrong moral choice. And God will hold us all responsible for the choices that we have made (Look at Hebrews 9:27 for that sobering reality.)

And that brings us to the true state of America in 2009. On the one hand we are rightly out-raged over the murder of George Tiller. Yet, on the other hand we are still in denial about the one million children we are murdering every year under the false and deceptive labeling of choice.

We, too, are murderers. In fact, we are mass murderers on a genocidal level equal to the likes of Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. That the human beings we killed were smaller doesn’t make any difference. From the moment of conception they were separate human souls who deserved the right to live. Just like George Tiller. Just like you and me.

I’m thankful that America is finally waking up to the reality of our greatest national sin. For the first time in recent memory, Americans are now profess to be pro-life by a 52% to 44% margin (May 2009 Gallup Poll). We’re getting it–and real  change may be on the horizon.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the murder of America’s most infamous baby killer was used by God to bring us back to the truth.

What is the truth? Murder is always a wrong moral choice.

Getting the law wrong for three decades doesn’t alter that fact.