{"id":365,"date":"2009-06-01T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-01T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/06\/tiller-terror-and-apologetics.html"},"modified":"2009-06-01T11:09:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-01T11:09:00","slug":"tiller-terror-and-apologetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/06\/tiller-terror-and-apologetics.html","title":{"rendered":"Tiller, terror, and apologetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama tried to turn the page on the abortion debate during his speech at Notre Dame<\/a>. This weekend, the page was turned firmly back to the status quo, with the murder of Dr. George Tiller<\/a> in Kansas. It’s inevitable that the incident would b einstantly politicized, but I found something very surreal and familiar about it – essentially, conservatives are now finding themselves playing defense, in a way that American muslims know all too well.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear about what Dr. Tiller’s murder represents: an act of domestic terrorism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are some conservatives who will deny that – attempt to spin the murder as a random event or not related to Tiller’s abortion advocacy. They will seize upon whatever tiny detail they can to minimize the significance of the murder, including arguing (correctly, but irrelevantly) that such murders are rare<\/a> (though lesser crimes like arson or property damage<\/a> aren’t, it should be noted).<\/p>\n

There are some conservatives who will denounce the murder<\/a>, full stop. They will be joined by prominent pro-life advocates<\/a> and organizations<\/a>. At the same time, they will take pains to point out that the murderer was a fringe lunatic acting against the mainstream pro-life community’s values. Despite these public denunciations, pro-life conservatives will forever be subject to the silence libel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the pro-life community will indeed be tarred with the brush of Tiller’s murder as a whole. That isn’t fair, but as muslim-Americans like Mazen Asbahi<\/a> can tell you, life isn’t fair. While the average pro-life conservative bears zero personal repsonsibility for Tiller’s murder, the cause they subscribe to and support has engaged in rhetoric that has indeed played midwife to this act, however – a moral burden that should be recognized<\/a>, and accepted.<\/p>\n

The simple and sad truth is that a substantial fraction of conservatives are indeed sympathetic<\/a> to the murder of Dr. George Tiller, ranging from outright happiness at his death to more subtle concerns about the PR implications for the pro-life movement. That’s an ugliness that conservatives will have to confront head-on. Others will pay lip service to condemning the murder, but then immediately qualify their condemnation<\/a> by insisting that Tiller was a murderer himself and that pro-choice means pro-murder.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tiller’s murder also highlights an unpleasant truth: the pro-life movement is not really pro-life, insamuch as it remains opposed only to abortion but stands mute on capital punishment<\/a> and collateral damage<\/a>. It would be wonderful if the Tiller murder sparked more genuine reflection and soul-searching<\/a> within the pro-life community about what their own principles really dictate, and how their rhetoric of the “culture of death” for their political opponents has corrupted their souls.<\/p>\n

Related: Paul Raushenbush highlights more rhetoric of death<\/a> from the pro-life movement in response to the Tiller murder. Also see ED Kain at LOG who bemoans the culture war<\/a>, and Matthew Yglesias who points out the chilling effect<\/a> of pro-life intimidation tactics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama tried to turn the page on the abortion debate during his speech at Notre Dame. This weekend, the page was turned firmly back to the status quo, with the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}