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What would Jesus say?
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When I was a kid on the playground at Colesville Elementary School in Maryland when someone got self righteous, we would ask them, " When did God go on vacation and leave you in charge of judging others for him." The Right Wing zealots just don't get it. If life is sacred as I truly believe it is, then abortion is not just a prebirth event. When you murder someone in cold blood as was done to Dr. George Tiller on Sunday, all of you so called Right to life supporters who condone violence as a solution, just endorsed the latest term abortion of all. So we can stop pretending that one side in the abortion debate is pro murder of fetuses and the other is for the right to life. The debate should be seen for what it is a ploy to whip up the zealots and divide opponents for the purpose of gaining political power not morality or justice.
As several authors on the Huffington Post noted, these extremist attacks increase when a pro-Choice president is in office and decrease when an anti-Choice president is in office. Political power or lack thereof is the only opperative variable in this violent equation.
This is not faith it is ego that begins by believing that God created all of heaven and earth and all the people of the world and after his 7th day of rest started acting like a drunken alcoholic parent and went around choosing favorites. When you put the killing of Dr. Tiller in its proper perspective we need to begin to see Randall Terry, the Founder of Operation Rescue as little different than Osama Bin Laden, an extremist willing to manipulate people's beliefs to achieve their own political ends. The problem is not religion or faith but fundamentalism and the belief that one is God's chosen and is doing God's will that creates terrorists. As Shannyn Moore in Huffington Post stated, what the Right has engaged in under the banner of religious faith is Christian fundamentalist terrorism.
Randall Terry had a slogan," If you believe abortion is murder, act like its murder." Bill O'Reilly called Dr. Tiller, " Tiller the baby killer." Both men should share culpability for Dr. Tiller's murder for inciting this " born again bigotry."
Whether it is Michelle Bachmann calling for people to be," armed and dangerous" or Christian pastors acting like Islamic Fundamentalist Immams and preaching fear and haterd such as Gay marriage endangers all marriage, ( no one on the Right has yet explained how), truth takes a holiday in these sermons. Preaching that gays will molest your children, ( the actual statistics say your child will have more to fear from family) can create the fear and hatred , that can trigger violent acting out of these calls to action as Sunday so tragicaly proves. It is not Faith that preaches , " Hate your next door neighbor but don't forget to say grace," as the song from the 1960's Eve of Destruction said, it is intolerance and bigotry no matter how many times you pray and invoke God's name during the church service.
Scott Roeder, the man identified as a person of interest in this case once belonged to a terrorist group the Freemen, an anti-government group in the 1990's that declared themselves exempt from all laws, regulations and taxes. He has been arrested for having bomb making materials in his possession and has stated that killing Doctors who perform abortions is justifiable homocide. What people who believe like Mr. Roeder fail to state in any fashion is exactly when and how they were appointed to be judge and jury for the rest of us who have a different view of morality and Christianity. The last I knew that was vigalante justice and is murder which is immoral as well as illegal. One can only gawk at the contradictions of killing another person in the name of Right to Life.
For his part, Dr. Tiller acknowledged that." Abortion was as socially divisive as Slavery and Prohibition." He said, ' For him the issue was about giving women a choice when dealing with technology that can diagnose severe fetal abnormalities before a baby is born" There is no one who is for abortion and no one who believes it is justified as a form of birth control. Many of the women and couples who went to Dr. Tiller's clinic had genuinely wanted the child but on what was the worst day of thier lives chose the compassion of not putting their beloved child through a short but painful and brutal life. There was much less compassion for this moment from those who claim to stand for Christ's compassion and the sanctity of life.
Religious zealotry has been the excuse for the commission of many of the worst attrocities man can commit against his fellow man. Our founding fathers had plenty of experience with the destructive capacities of those who literally believed they were on a mission from God which is why they kept church and state seperated.
Short sweet and simple no one has the right to impose their religious beliefs on others and Jesus would look down on this and point a finger at all those who falsely claim to speak and act in his name and would say to the Randal Terry's of the world " Forgive them for they know not what they do."
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