{"id":7,"date":"2009-06-02T11:13:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T11:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html"},"modified":"2009-06-02T11:13:39","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T11:13:39","slug":"no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html","title":{"rendered":"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"090602_TC.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Cartoon courtesy of Signe Wilkinson. Read more Signe Wilkinson<\/font>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

By now most of you will have heard that a doctor well known for performing late term abortions in some cases was murdered Sunday whilst ushering in his Lutheran Church in Kansas where he regularly attended.  Here is the link to the NY Times story. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/us\/01tiller.html?th&emc=th<\/p>\n

My views on abortion are well known, and I certainly fall into the pro-life camp on this issue (though I think there need to be some case by case medical exceptions for abortions where the life of the mother truly is in grave danger, and perhaps in some cases of rape or incest however rare those circumstances may be). Indeed my view would be considered totally pro-life as I am opposed to abortion, capital punishment, and war, all of which are life and death issues. <\/p>\n

I find many of my friends in the pro-life movement insufficiently pro-life because if the principle is that all life is sacred and a gift from God, and all human life is created in God’s image, then as Christians we have no business taking it away.  The fundamental theological and ethical basis to oppose abortion is not different from the fundamental theological and ethical basis for opposing war and capital punishment.  As the Bible says, matters of life and death, requiring an omniscient observer, and an always merciful and just and fair judge, should be left in the hands of God who alone meets the requirements for just judgments in such matters.  This is why even in the book of Revelation the not so subliminal message is that only Christ is worthy to unseal the seals, and judge those on the earth– ‘vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord….’ (cf. what Paul says in Romans 12 about Christians not taking revenge on others in any circumstances). <\/p>\n

This brings me to the case in the newspapers today. Regardless of how pro-life you may be,  it is inherently contradictory to say “I’m pro-life and I am ever so glad someone killed that abortion doctor because he was a murderer of innocent infants and deserved to die.” To resort to murder is to violate one’s own pro-life principles, and I am glad that even Operation Rescue has totally repudiated this repulsive, sinful, heinous act. <\/p>\n

I am reminded of a famous text in Mt. 18.21-22 where Peter thinks he is being exceedingly merciful to forgive seven times, but Jesus replies not seven times but seventy-seven times. What is often overlooked is that this is an echo of Genesis 4.24 where Lamech says he will take revenge 77 times.  In other words, Jesus is completely ruling out revenge taking and ruling in forgiveness and mercy ad infinitum.  This is why he also talks about loving one’s enemies, turning the other cheek etc.  and reminds that those who live by the sword die by the sword. <\/p>\n

Think on these things.      <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cartoon courtesy of Signe Wilkinson. Read more Signe Wilkinson By now most of you will have heard that a doctor well known for performing late term abortions in some cases was murdered Sunday whilst ushering in his Lutheran Church in Kansas where he regularly attended.  Here is the link to the NY Times story. http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/us\/01tiller.html?th&emc=th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nNO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cartoon courtesy of Signe Wilkinson. Read more Signe Wilkinson By now most of you will have heard that a doctor well known for performing late term abortions in some cases was murdered Sunday whilst ushering in his Lutheran Church in Kansas where he regularly attended.  Here is the link to the NY Times story. http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/us\/01tiller.html?th&emc=th…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-02T11:13:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/090602_TC-thumb-600x396-5456.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"Cartoon courtesy of Signe Wilkinson. Read more Signe Wilkinson By now most of you will have heard that a doctor well known for performing late term abortions in some cases was murdered Sunday whilst ushering in his Lutheran Church in Kansas where he regularly attended.  Here is the link to the NY Times story. http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/01\/us\/01tiller.html?th&emc=th…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-06-02T11:13:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/090602_TC-thumb-600x396-5456.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html","name":"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/090602_TC-thumb-600x396-5456.jpg","datePublished":"2009-06-02T11:13:39+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-02T11:13:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/090602_TC-thumb-600x396-5456.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/090602_TC-thumb-600x396-5456.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/no-safety-in-the-sanctuary-abortion-doctor-brutally-murdered-in-church.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NO SAFETY IN THE SANCTUARY: ABORTION DOCTOR BRUTALLY MURDERED IN CHURCH"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}