The recent killing of Dr. George Tiller is not merely an isolated act by a deranged individual. It is the natural extension of a philosophy that preaches hate, intolerance and vigilantism. Pro-life groups have been quick to condemn the act for fear that it may paint them with the same brush. What they fail to see is that they deserve to be painted by the same brush. If you participate in vilifying a man so much that he is perceived by many as the devil incarnate, you can hardly blame a believing Christian for taking the obvious and final step of killing him.

This is something that many religious people fail to recognize. When you are part of a group that believes itself to be just and chosen and persecuted and that it is your job to save and die for your God, then the men and women who kill in the name of Christ are the brave ones. The rational ones. They are the ones who can add up 1 and 1 and get two. So many religious believers will go to the edge only to stop short of leaping. They cannot take that next step because something deep inside them knows it is wrong. But, knowing that it is wrong never leads them to re-trace the steps that led them to that cliff in the first place. To question some of the fundamentals that have led them to an obvious and terrifying conclusion.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be in the army of God and be a pacifist. You can’t believe there is only one true church and love your neighbour. You cannot hate atheists or abortionists and be belssed as a peacemaker. So many things in religion are mutually exclusive and so many religious believers intentionally blind themselves to this. To what they have signed up for.

And now, the same people who yelled from the rooftops that George Tiller was a murderer and who also advocate capital punishment are surprised that somebody killed him?