Christian response?

Yesterday George Tiller was fatally shot outside his local Lutheran church in Wichita Kansas. If you’ve been following the news then you’ve probably heard that Mr. Tiller was a doctor that performed late-term abortions for women. This isn’t the first time that violence has been used against abortion advocates or against Mr. Tiller, but it has seemed to stir up emotions. Some reports seem to indicate that this instance of violence is just how radical many conservative groups are and the extreme-right will stop at nothing to have their agenda dictated on the general populace. Many pro-life institutions have, rightly so, backed away from the murder and condemned the act as wrong. Much of the press seems to be taking the murder and its condemnation by pro-life groups as sharp step forward for pro-choice peeps. This doesn’t exactly seem to be the case. So in all of this what is a Christian’s response to such a situation where a person is clearly disregarding the sanctity of life and the government allows and protects them? 

Well in looking at this whole situation I think it starts with Mr. Tiller. Was it right for him to perform abortions? NO. From the moment of conception a human is a human regardless of where on the biological time line they are. Should the government have allowed Tiller to perform abortions? NO. Just as the government protects the natural rights of a 47 year-old black male or a 6 year old white girl they should also defend the life of a unborn child. Should somebody have taken steps beyond the government to murder a murderer? I don’t think so, but it can be hard to say. Tens of millions of lives have been destroyed by the presence of abortion but does that give permission to the born to kill? We know that murder is wrong (which is why abortion is too) but should it be allowed in order to protect a greater number of people? Was it ok for small groups to try and assassinate Hitler in order to save the larger numbers of Jews? Essentially the question seems to be if citizens have the ethical obligation to surpass the government when a situation arises that runs contrary to their beliefs?

If the answer is yes then doesn’t that give full permission for crusades and jihads and all other manner of social anarchy merely dependant on what somebody’s code of ethics are?

But if the answer is no then does that leave people only trusting and being passive rather than active in making a politically better world? Over the past several months I  have seemed to be running into the separation of church and state (or lack thereof) debate quite frequently and I still haven’t figured out whether it is a Christian’s responsibility to do everything possible to stop sin from happening or to allow somethings and not other or to allow everything. In a perfect world everybody would do everything right and we’d have a theocracy but what are the rules when there’s a single person that disobeys? Do we stamp them out? I think it’s best if we follow the model Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 or trying to convince them of their wrong but what do we do if they still don’t turn? What if what they’re doing directly threatens us then do we have the responsibility to stop them forcefully? Historically we look at the Roman days and see Rome persecuting the Christians but we look at the Crusades and see Christians persecuting others were the Christians not pushing their faith enough or pushing too hard? If as citizens we shouldn’t go beyond the boundaries of the law then what as Christians are we to do in the face of venomous governments that are part of a fallen society that compose this dying world? The only thing that I’ve really resolved on in this debate of Christian ethics in politics is that we must Trust. Trust entirely on God’s power and will for us and for the world. No matter what there will be problems with ourselves and people around us and so we can only depend on the mercy of God. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote to protect life or we should all go and become abortion doctors, but it does mean that as Christ suffered the weight of the world so should we bear our burden of a lack of trust and bury it in the tomb.