Abortionist George Tiller Murdered

Hey Pat, I didn’t mean to imply that I oppose free speech.

But for someone whose wife says was once a nice guy to turn into an angry, violent man capable of murder, something got into him. What else but a toxic brew of ideas – undoubtedly used by Satan to divide Roeder from his original wholesome faith? The Screwtape Letters seem to me to have a lot to say here.

Christians are called to love one another, but he ended up hating another Christian brother and murdering him.

He seems to me to have taken his eyes off of Jesus and any commitment to live as his followers are called to do. Instead he spent too much time focused on the negative and his mind got drawn away into obsessive thinking.

There’s a reason the Bible tells us to think of whatsoever is noble, good, pure, and so forth (to paraphrase Paul). It helps us to draw closer to God. Conversely too much dwelling on evil draws us away from Him.

Of course prophets need to speak out about evils, so it’s a fine line to walk – made possible by constant returning to disciplines of the faith such as study, prayer, worship, acts of mercy, and talking things through with others active in their faith.

Yes abortion and torture need to be confronted as evils – and those who are involved in either one ought to be lovingly prayed for. God honors our prayers when our hearts are right – and righteous anger can easily betray us into angry, hard hearts.

As a favorite song says, he takes our hearts of stone and turns them into hearts for love alone.

Hearing more than one side can help one’s mind to retain some balance, or so I think. Then the Holy Spirit can help us sort through to the truth.

The danger, I believe, comes from constant bombardment of a very narrow set of ideas.

A media culture that allowed us to hear and consider a broader and more diverse set of views first of all would help us understand one others’ perspectives better, and maybe discover their ideas have some merit. I would hope that our conversation, relationships with others who differ from us, and maybe even some of our decisions would be improved.

So ultimately I advocate more free speech not less, in spite of being troubled by many of the hostile, rancorous, divisive things some on talk radio and TV spew so often. I think that kind of speech has a lot to do with the increasing level of rage and fear I’ve noticed for the last twenty years or so.

What I would like to see is a trend toward civility, where we discuss our disagreements without being nasty to anyone and where we strive to be open to one another’s personhood, and speak our disagreement gently. In other words, discussions where the Golden Rule is the norm.

I’m thinking mainly of social pressure and persuasion to change the tone. It’s heartbreaking to hear the ugly tone and shrill accusations on some of the airwaves – especially since I’m old enough to remember a time when that was very rare.

Hi Robb,

Certainly no offense taken. I mostly agree with you here. I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis on this. Day by day people make choices that bring them closer to God, or farther away.

Whole segments of American society’s interests and voices are excluded and ignored by the huge conglomerations that own most of our radio, television, and print media. That systematic exclusion impoverishes our collective understanding, leads to poorly informed political decisions from our vote to legislation, and makes it easier for extreme voices to weaken ties that bind our diverse people into one nation.

For instance, during economic downturns lately we seem to hear a lot from pundits who participate in the stock market and we hear some of their stories. But largely absent from commercial media are the stories of the working class and the impact of this downturn on their lives and their families.

Unionized labor’s points of view (which overlap but are not necessarily identical to working-class Americans everywhere) are heard from much less than their numbers in the private sector would suggest. In fact, they are very rarely included in news stories and often are introduced when they are with words that marginalize their concerns.

We constantly hear from the Christian right, but what about the voices of the Christian left and mainstream Christians?

Then there were voices excluded in the run-up to the Iraq War. Public opinion surveys showed over two-thirds of the American public opposed to that action. But a study showed that on the major networks out of 186 interviews in the two weeks around Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations, only 3 were of those who believed war with Iraq was the wrong action for our nation to take.

It’s hard to have a healthy democracy without a healthy media environment. I happen to believe enlightened self-government is such a good idea that it must have originated with the God who loves each one of us.

Since noticing these worrying trends, I’ve been studying these issues myself (in fact my concern about this has led me to begin a master’s program in journalism) and I believe the complex web of corporate interests of the media conglomerates are pushing the lies by omission, marginalization and misreporting. For instance, NBC’s ownership by GE, which has a subdivision that makes equipment for the military, just might have influenced the way they covered the run-up and the war. Their profit motive was not self-disclosed or self-examined.

And fanning the flames of controversy brings more eyeballs and sells more products for their advertisers so the corporate-controlled media spends much time fostering heat and minimizing light and reason.

In the mid-90s I heard talk on the radio that approached advocating violence, on one of the stations carrying Rush Limbaugh’s show. A guest host on a rant talked about the need for guns because they wanted to be ready to go to Washington and take our country back from liberals in Congress.

I can tell you that rant, along with the widespread and constant references to everything wrong and evil in America coming from Democrats and liberals ratcheted up my level of alarm considerably.

Constant demonization of the Tutsis on the radio has been documented to have had much to do with the genocide in Rwanda.

Violence on television and video games has been shown in numerous research studies to be related to an increase in the number of violent acts by children and youth. Maybe not a sole direct cause but certainly a contributing factor.

Angry and violent rhetoric (rhetoric that discounts and degrades the humanity of anyone person or group), unchecked, uncountered and untempered, is harmful to the spirits of those who are fed that diet and to society which is impacted by those who are immersed in that unwholesome world.

When that kind of rhetoric comes from those who proclaim themselves as Christians, I cringe. Their theology is so wrong just based objectively on what the Bible and New Testament say. They keep people away from Christ by misrepresenting who He is. Polls showing a drop in the number of Americans who say they are Christian cannot be unrelated, don’t you think?

I feel the privilege and responsibility both of living in a country where the government is of, by, and for the people, and of following God who calls us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. I take that seriously and want to make the effort to be part of restoring us, building bridges, promoting reconciliation between us and with God.

As for Scott Roeder, he was and is loved by God who died to redeem him. He is redeemable. And who are we to say he is unworthy of God’s love and infinite efforts at redemption and restoration. Did God throw David away after he committed adultery and caused Uriah to be slain (violating two of the Ten Commandments)? Did He put Cain to death after Cain murdered his brother? Consequences yes. In Cain’s case, exile but protection by placing a mark on him. He gave, and so we are to give, chances to turn, repent, and be transformed and restored.

Roeder denied that oppurtunity to Dr. Tiller, but that does not cancel Christians’ obligation to work for God’s purpose of redemption and reconciliation of all Creation. Or so it seems to me.