George Tiller

When Dr. George Tiller was murdered in church, Wiley Drake declared it an answer to his prayers ... and he is now saying that same thing about the passing of Rep. John Murtha: 

Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park sent out an email Monday night, saying that perhaps his prayers had been answered with the death of Rep. John Murtha yesterday.

“Maybe God took him out,” Drake wrote. “Maybe God Answered our IMPRECATORY prayer that we prayed every 30 days.”

The Pennsylvania congressman, a decorated former Marine who fiercely opposed the Iraq war, died at the age of 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery.

I asked Drake if his statements weren’t distasteful, particularly coming immediately after Murtha’s death. He said that as a Christian, he didn’t buy into the sentiment of not speaking ill of the dead.

“It’s not distasteful to pray the word of God and include somebody’s name,” he said. “I didn’t celebrate his death. I said maybe it was God’s answer to our imprecatory prayer.”

Drake regularly asks his “prayer warriors” to participate in prayer targeting “unrighteous” politicians. He typically uses Psalms 109, including these passages including in his Monday email: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” And, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

...

Drake said he and his prayer warriors had been praying for Murtha’s death for four or five months. Among other things, Drake said Murtha’s use of profanity and his use of God’s name in vain. Beside praying for the death of specific politicians, he said they pray for “politicians in general who are taking unrighteous stands.”

You may recall that last year Drake said he was also praying for President Obama's death, but then backed off until Obama can be tried and imprisoned for treason.

Earlier this week, the Center For Bio-Ethical Reform issued a press release condemning Randall Terry's reaction to the conviction of Scott Roeder for murdering Dr. George Tiller and for Terry's support for the use of violence against abortion providers.

Terry immediately responded with a press release of his own making his standard claims that he does not support violence, but sees it as inevitable so long as abortion remains legal. 

Gregg Cunningham of the Center For Bio-Ethical Reform then responded with another press release in which he dared Terry to "sue us" if he thinks he's been maligned and proceeds to smack down Terry's attention-seeking histrionics while calling out his self-serving claims about opposing the use of violence. 

I'm posting a large chunk of the CBR release because it's a thing of beauty:

You chide me for not "picking up the phone" to "check the facts" before condemning your attempt to minimize the murder of George Tiller but what facts would have rebutted published newspaper photos of you displaying signs which argued that Scott Roeder's motives in killing George Tiller made his crime less than murder?

When you tell The New York Times (January 28, 2010, "Doctor's Killer Puts Abortion on the Stand") that you are not "condemning Mr. Roeder's actions," you are expressing support for violence against abortionists.

When you tell The Wichita Eagle (January 30, 2010, "Reactions to the Scott Roeder verdict from both sides of abortion debate") that "If we condemn him [Roeder] too severely it undermines the premise of everything we stand for," you are expressing support for violence against abortionists.

When you issue a press release (January 25, 2010) in which you say it is "a farce" to "pretend that this trial has nothing to do with child-killing by abortion," you are suggesting that Mr. Roeder's murder of George Tiller was justified by George Tiller's abortion practice and you are expressing support for violence against abortionists. (www.christiannewswire.com/news/7566412845.html).

When you issue a press release (January 27, 2010) in which you quote scripture which says in reference to George Tiller's murder, "For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning" and that "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous" and that "the Lord our God will bring other destructions upon them" and add "their innocent blood cries to God ... for vengeance," you are expressing support for violence against abortionists. (www.christiannewswire.com/news/8209412876.html).

When you hold a press conference (www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqGwuOwdZ7U) during which you say testimony by former Attorney General Phil Kline could have "validated" Scott Roeder's motivation and "brought a level of credibility to Scott's frame of mind," you are expressing support for violence against abortionists.

When you argue at a press conference (www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqGwuOwdZ7U) that Scott Roeder, who bought a handgun, practiced with it, studied George Tiller's daily habits and visited his church three times before finding him there and blowing his brains out, should have been charged with "voluntary manslaughter," you are expressing support for violence against abortionists.

When you argue that Scott Roeder's motivation for killing George Tiller entitles him to a slap-on-the-wrist sentence of less than five years in prison (the minimum sentence for voluntary manslaughter under Kansas law) you are trivializing premeditated murder and expressing support for violence against abortionists.

Against this background, your press conference claim that "I don't even agree with what Scott Roeder did" is absurd. It is the sort of self-serving fig leaf which thoughtful listeners will rightly reject. You are either being intentionally deceptive or wildly negligent.

You have every right to bring discredit upon yourself and the organization you represent. But when your self-promotional excesses discredit the entire pro-life movement with reckless theatrics, it would be irresponsible for the rest of us to signal indifference, or worse, agreement, by our collective silence.

When you attempt to rationalize, justify, or minimize violence against abortionists, you don't speak for those of us who condemn anarchy without equivocation. Be assured that when you jeopardize the fragile progress we have all worked so hard to achieve, we will anathematize and isolate you.

Standing trial for murdering Dr. George Tiller, Scott Roeder admits that bought a gun, took target practice, and shot Tiller in the head as he attended church last spring.

But, Roeder insists, he was justified in doing so in order to stop Tiller from performing abortions and, in court today, admitted that Pat Robertson and his "700 Club" played a key role in his transformation into militant anti-choice activist: 

Roeder testified that he attended church with his family when he was younger, but did not consider himself religious until he had a conversion experience while watching the "700 Club" on television in 1992.

The popular show, hosted by Pat Robertson, airs on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"I was alone in my room," Roeder said. "That day I did kneel down and accept Christ as my saviour at that time."

After that, his views on abortion, which he had always considered wrong, became stronger.

Randall Terry and his activists announce that they are heading to Kansas today for the Scott Roeder trial and want to make it clear that while they are not calling Roeder a hero for allegedly killing Dr. George Tiller, they ... well ... still consider Roeder to be something of a hero:

"We are not coming to condone or condemn Scott Roeder's actions. That decision will soon rest with the jury. However, there are those who want to pretend this trial has nothing to do with child-killing by abortion; that is a farce. It's like saying that the trials of Nat Turner and John Brown had nothing to do with slavery.

"We will be present to be a voice for the babies who perished at George Tiller's hand, and to raise a series of 'academic questions' such as the following:

"Was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry completely right, completely wrong, or a mix of both? Was Brown a hero or a villain?

"Was Nat Turner's slave rebellion completely just, completely unjust, or a mixture of both? Was Turner a hero or a villain?

"George Tiller murdered 60,000 babies by his own hand. Scott Roeder knew this. How can Mr. Roeder receive a fair trial if this data is kept from the jury? Will the jury be allowed to hear evidence -- such as the grizzly means by which these babies were slain and disposed of -- evidence that would clearly effect Mr. Roeder's state of mind?

...

"If George Tiller had murdered 60,000 Jews, would the judge exclude all Jews from the jury, or insist that only anti-Semites could be jurors?"

• Not surprisingly, right-wing groups are running to the defense of Brit Hume.
• Sandy Rios demands to know if Rep. Mark Kirk is gay.
• Several right-wing leaders have banded together and signed on to a letter demanding the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
• Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has been subpoenaed by attorneys defending Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion zealot accused of killing George Tiller.
• Finally, just what your iPhone needs: the Sam Brownback app.

As something of a follow-up to my last post, Rick Scarborough just issued yet another press release about the upcoming press conference challenging hate crimes legislation in which he compared those participating in the event to Martin Luther King:

On October 28, President Barack Obama signed into law a measure extending the federal hate crimes statute to include so-called sexual orientation. The ministers believe this will criminalize all criticism of homosexual behavior, including that contained in the Bible.

To test this belief and protest a clear violation of First Amendment freedom of speech and religion, various clergy will preach short sermons and read passages from the Bible regarding homosexual behavior. Like Dr. Martin Luther King and the Sixties Civil Rights movement, they will engage in civil disobedience to protest injustice.

On a semi-related note, here's another short clip of Scarborough on Janet Porter's radio program saying what while President Obama was "so careful in choosing his words and calling for caution" after the shooting at Fort Hood, "he threw all that to the wind when George Tiller was shot in his church ... There was no hesitancy in this particular presidency to immediately assume that there were conspirators ... There was a quick jump to judgment in that issue":

For the record, here is President Obama's statement on the murder of Tiller:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

You have to hand it to Alan Colmes.  Even though I spend my days wallowing in right-wing insanity for this blog, I don't know that I could tolerate the prospect of actually debating any of the people we write about, but Colmes does it day in and day out.

Case in point: his interview last night with Randall Terry about his "Pelosi and Reed Should Burn in Hell" contest.  Terry insisted the contest was "somewhat tongue and cheek" but when the conversation turned toward the issue of covering reproductive health needs in heathcare reform, Colmes informed Terry that Focus on the Family provides its employees health insurance through Principal, an insurance company that covers "abortion services," Terry was shocked by the news and said he'd be contacting James Dobson about it.  So it looks like Focus on the Family ought to be expecting a visit from Terry and his theater troop in the near future.

Perhaps the most interesting exchange came when Colmes asked Terry is he had any sympathy for Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing Dr. George Tiller and Terry went silent, saying he'd never thought about it.  Eventually, Terry suggested that his views on Roeder's alleged actions depended on whether he acted in order to stop Tiller from carrying out more abortions and thereby saving babies or whether he acted in order to punish Tiller for his past abortion procedures.  The latter, Terry seemed to suggest, was completely different from the former and Roeder's actions should be judged accordingly. 

But in the end, the one person for whom Terry has no sympathy at all was Tiller himself, whom Terry called "one of the most evil, damnable, demonic men on the planet, every bit as vile as the worst Nazis" and a "son of a bitch who deserved to rot in hell":

The other day, we posted on a Washington Post article highlighting a recent fund-raising letter from Operation Rescue warning that it was on the verge of shutting its doors if it didn't get donations and financial help soon.

Now, OR's Troy Newman is complaining that the letter "is being misreported by the media":

Media obtained a copy of the letter and then started placing stories indicating Operation Rescue "is very close to shutting down unless emergency help arrives soon" (Associated Press). That report quotes Operation Rescue's Troy Newman as saying: "We're so broke (as the saying goes), we can't even pay attention."

But Newman tells OneNewsNow that report is an exaggeration. "Rumors of Operation Rescue's demise are grossly overrated -- and it's something that the liberal left-wing media loves to salivate over," he states.

One report theorized the pro-life group suffered financially because of its long campaign against late-term abortionist George Tiller, who was murdered in May. AP refers to the murder as "a public relations nightmare" for the group. But Newman says that is not true.

"The real impact upon us and all non-profits is that the economic crisis, the recession that we're in that began late last year, has impacted everybody, across the board, 30-40% down in their giving -- and Operation Rescue is no different," he adds.

Newman says there have been good and bad times during his 20 years of ministry, but they rely first on the Lord and secondly on donors. The end result, he shares, is that no bills have gone unpaid.

Really?  Because if you read the letter Newman sent out it seems as if the media reports were entirely accurate.  After all, how else are you supposed to interpret Newman's assertions that the organization was "now so broke (as the saying goes), we can't even pay attention," admissions that "we struggle to pay every bill [and] had to borrow money just to send you this letter," and warnings that "we're completely out of money" and that "we're getting very close to the point of shutting everything down if emergency help doesn't arrive soon"?:

Dear Friend of Operation Rescue,

I need you to please stop whatever you're doing right now and read this letter. It's that urgent.

At this moment, I'm writing this from a closed abortion mill.

It's the one in Wichita, Kansas, where more than 50,000 innocent babies were brutally murdered from 1983 to 2006, until we at Operation Rescue bought the building and kicked the baby-killers out!

The abortion staff who worked here never re-opened. They are permanently out of business. And babies are thereby saved.

We "exorcised" this building and turned it into our national headquarters. So now, babies are being saved in this building! And I firmly believe that the souls of the 50,000 babies killed here are cheering me on.

I sure hope so. Because right now, I need cheering on.

You see, this summer has been brutal for Operation Rescue. Not only did George Tiller's death throw everybody in the pro-life movement for a loop (and especially us), but the economic crisis our nation is suffering from has brought our financial support to nearly a halt.

We're now so broke (as the saying goes), we can't even pay attention.

Seriously. We struggle to pay every bill. I had to borrow money just to send you this letter, in hopes that you will come to our rescue so that we can continue to rescue babies.

And, what's really frustrating is that this crisis couldn't have come at a worse time.

Why?

Because, in the next 30 days, we're planning to launch the most ambitious and most significant project in our entire history.

It's something that's going to devastate the abortion cartel. It could even help end abortion in America once and for all.

Basically, it centers around our unique ability to close abortion mills.

And although I can't go into detail about it -- because we need to take the abortion cartel by surprise -- I can tell you that it will be a totally NEW phase in the pro-life fight.

We've been working on it all summer. And we were planning to launch it in the next 30 days.

However, now that we're completely out of money, I'm afraid we won't even be able to launch it... ever!

And that would be the worst defeat imaginable.

The only thing that can save this project is EMERGENCY FUNDING -- and EMERGENCY PRAYERS -- so that we can move forward as planned.

Because when abortion mills get closed, babies are saved.

It's just that simple.

For instance, here at the closed abortion mill that's now my office, we recently had a young woman knock on our door.

She came for an abortion, because she thought this was still an abortion mill. The same one where she had an abortion as a teenager years ago.

What she got instead was about an hour of much-needed counseling from our staff, plus an armload of educational materials.

And, praise God, she's decided to keep her baby!

With our new project, we can continue to close abortion mills around the country -- faster and easier than ever before.

Why, just last year, we were instrumental in closing at least 10 mills!

And as you'll see on the enclosed yellow sheet of paper, we've closed more than 40 abortion mills over the years!!

Right now, there are only about 729 mills left in the United States -- down significantly from the 2,126 mills that were killing babies back in 1991...!!

Our new project can get rid of those 729 mills -- one at a time -- peacefully and legally.

No violence. No threats. Just super-effective activism that we've learned and perfected over the last 20 years.

I'll tell you all about this new project in my next letter to you. Revealing the details now would be counter-productive.

However, I can't even move forward on it unless we get out of this financial crisis immediately.

That's why I urge you to take a look at the enclosed yellow sheet with the list of closed abortion mills. You'll be pleasantly shocked.

And then I beseech you to rush a life-saving gift -- of any amount -- so that we can get back on our feet and move forward with this exciting new project.

Without your help -- and your prayers and God's grace -- this project will go nowhere.

And that means all those abortion mills will stay OPEN and continue killing the innocent little babies like the ones that were killed in this building I'm sitting in.

50,000 of them--in one abortion mill alone.

We know how to close abortion mills. And this new project is how we'll get the job done.

But we can't even get it started without your utmost help at this time.

Frankly, we're getting very close to the point of shutting everything down if emergency help doesn't arrive soon.

That would be a devastating blow -- especially at this time when we're actually WINNING the pro-life fight.

More people (a majority of Americans, in fact) identify themselves as opposed to abortion, especially younger Americans. The number of abortion mills has been cut by two-thirds since 1991. The total number of abortions is down by 400,000 per year! The abortion cartel can't find new abortionists, and the average age of the existing abortionists is 72. All this adds up to VICTORY for the babies and for our country -- but ONLY if we can keep moving forward.

And that, unfortunately, takes money.

So please prayerfully consider what size gift you can afford to send to us right away.

There's no time to lose.

I thank you for being there for us in the past.

And I thank you in advance for helping us now.

God bless you.

For the Babies,

Troy Newman

President, Operation RescueP.S. I can't emphasize this enough...

This is the worst financial crisis we have ever faced. And it's hit us at the worst time possible.

Without emergency help from our loyal supporters like you, I hate to think what kind of situation we'll be forced into.

But let me tell you: Our enemies in the abortion cartel would rejoice. And the angels would weep.

Please don't let that happen. Please send your emergency gift TODAY.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I have been diligently following the developments in the shooting death of anti-abortion activist James Pouillon in Michigan since the news broke this morning and based on the little information and few details that are available, it is impossible to know why Pouilon was killed.

Reports indicated that Pouilon was gunned down from a moving car early this morning.  A witness got the car's license plate and police arrested someone an hour later.  At that point, the suspect reportedly informed the police that he had committed another murder earlier in the morning and police were soon informed that the body of Mike Fouss, the owner of a local gravel pit, had been discovered, shot multiple times in his office:

Fuoss knew the suspected shooter, according to Shiawassee County Sheriff George Braidwood. Braidwood said it appeared he was shot at close range.

Subsequent reports indicate that the suspect in custody had some sort of personal connection to Fuoss:

Fuoss’ brother-in-law, Glen Merkel, told the Free Press that Fuoss was found shot dead in his office around 7:30 a.m. by an employee. He said Fuoss was seen alive perhaps 20 minutes earlier when another truck driver for his company came to pick up a load of gravel.

Merkel said the suspect in the shootings is the son of a former Fuoss Gravel employee, but said he did not know any reason for Fuoss’ slaying.

In short, at this point, it’s far, far too soon to say what the motive in either of these crimes actually was.

But none of that seems to matter to right-wing groups and individuals like Randall Terry, all of whom are releasing statements and holding press conferences demanding political action.

From Concerned Women for America:

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), stated, "We are shocked at this senseless violence against a peaceful man. Jim Pouillon sincerely lived out his belief that babies have the right to be born. He dedicated his life to convincing others to reject the violence of abortion. It is a tragedy upon tragedy that a peaceful man who tried to end violence was himself violently killed.

"We hope Attorney General Holder will as vigorously denounce the murder of Jim Pouillon, who tried to save babies from violence, as he did the murder of George Tiller, the late-term abortionist."

CWA President Wendy Wright will speak at a press conference today, September 11, along with pro-life leaders Troy Newman, Patrick Mahoney and Rob Schenck. The press conference will be held at 2:30 outside the Department of Justice (950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C.).

From the Pro-Life Action League:

"We are shocked to learn of the killing of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon, a man who day after day stood as a witness to the violence of abortion. Now he himself is a victim of violence," said Joseph M. Scheidler, national director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, "Just last month at a clinic on the north side of Chicago a man shouted to one of our counselors, 'I'll get my gun and shoot you through the head.' On a number of occasions, our 'Face the Truth Tour' was threatened with deadly weapons."

"When the late term abortionist, Dr. George Tiller, was murdered, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office launched a federal investigation into federal crimes in connection with the murder, and the Civil Rights Division convened a meeting of the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers," commented Scheidler. "Now the Pro-Life Action League is calling on those government agencies to investigate this murder and established a task force to protect pro-life advocates."

Let me say this again: at this point, nobody knows why Pouillon was killed.  He may have been targeted for his activism, or it may have just been random, but nobody knows.  Perhaps it would behoove these right wing groups to hold off until some facts are actually known about this case before they start issuing statements and making all sorts of demands.

And maybe media outlets like the New York Times ought to hold off on running articles carrying headlines like "Man Killed Over Anti-Abortion Stance" until that has actually been established: