The murder of Dr. George Tiller has unleashed a firestorm of rhetoric and in some quarters celebration after the health care provider was murdered in his church yesterday.
Randall Terry doesn’t mince words, "Dr. Tiller was a mass murderer.”
In 1991, Mr. Terry was arrested by federal agents in front of Dr. Tiller's office for his part in leading the "Summer of Mercy." Mr. Terry's leadership gave birth to multitudes of protests in front of Tiller's office.
"I grieve for him that he did not have an opportunity to properly prepare his soul to face his Maker. Unless some miracle happened, he left this life with his hands drenched with the innocent blood of tens of thousands of babies that he murdered. Surely there will be a dreadful accounting for what he has done.”
"I believe George Tiller was one of the most evil men on the planet; every bit as vile as the Nazi war criminals who were hunted down, tried, and sentenced after they participated in the 'legal' murder of the Jews that fell into their hands. But even Mr. Tiller - like other murderers - deserved a trial of his peers, and a legal execution, not vigilantly justice.”
The “pro-life” moniker will be difficult to use in the future. Self-described pro-life groups, with some exceptions such as Evangelicals for Social Action, have parsed the meaning of life to allow the killing of some. Terry admits that the movement will have a more difficult time gaining consensus, "His killing presents us a severe challenge.”
He decries the fact that his and other’s violent rhetoric is considered complicit in Tiller’s murder. "The arch proponents of child killing such as Planned Parenthood, the National Organization of Women, NARAL, and a host of other enemies of children are already blaming the pro-life movement for Dr. Tiller's death.
"The child killers, and their allies in the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill, will attempt to browbeat the pro-life movement into surrendering our most effective weapons in this battle: our rhetoric, our actions, and our images.
"Pro-lifers must not flinch, waver, or in any way alter our course in our epic struggle to make child killing illegal again.”
"Our rhetoric must bear witness to the truth: abortion is murder.”
He suggests that a murder must me met with murder yet claims to be peaceful. "Our actions must be equal to this crime: we must continue with vigorous (yet peaceful) actions such as have been used by every social revolution since America's birth. The easiest picture to have is that of the civil rights activists of the 1960s. They held 'illegal' marches, freedom rides, and 'sit-ins' at lunch counters; they were met with water canons, dogs, police brutality, arrests, and jail. If we are going to end child killing, we must unflinchingly adopt the strategies of heroes past.
Recently, Terry organized a caravan of protesters who pushed baby strollers with dolls covered in blood onto the Notre Dame University campus. The group was protesting the commencement speech given by the President of the United States. When George W. Bush, who actually killed hundreds directly as Governor of Texas spoke years earlier he was not met with pro-life protests. Terry continues to attempt to co-opt the civil rights movement yet ignores the fact that Dr. King never used violent images or held mock lynching to peacefully protest.
Terry vows to continue his incendiary rhetoric and images.
"Our images must reflect the truth. We must continue to show the victims' bodies that we have pulled out of dumpsters; we must not retreat a single inch from showing the decapitated heads of little boys and girls, the arms and legs that were suctioned or carved out of their mothers wombs; we must paint the picture of sewers and landfills being used as unholy graves for these holy victims.
Terry’s statement concludes his violent rhetoric comparing health care providers to criminals gunned down in the street. "Of course we are peaceful; that is why this horrific shooting in a church has immediately garnered national attention. It is precisely because we are peaceful that Dr. Tiller's killing sticks out like a huge wart on an otherwise flawless complexion. If abortionists were gunned down every week, it would gather no more attention than crack dealers who are gunned down every week."