Guest Opinion: Randall Terry on George Tiller's Death

If we ever hope to make it illegal from conception until birth to slay an innocent human being - we are going to have to declare the truth without equivocation.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - "Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD." William Lloyd Garrison

Because of the slaying of George Tiller, the pro-life movement is at a critical crossroads, one that could determine whether we proceed on a path to victory or to defeat.

George Tiller's death has the potential to drive us back into a corner, or to propel us forward to victory. Which way will it go? That depends on us.

The Slave Rebellion of 1831: Who was guilty?

When Nat Turner led his slave uprising in 1831, brutally killing his masters and a total of 70 white men, women and children, the slaveholders of the deep South howled bitter accusations at those who were calling for the abolition of slavery.

The slaveholders insisted that it was the rhetoric of those calling for the end of slavery that was responsible for the death of white slaveholders and their families.

The slaveholders cried out that slavery was a right, and a positive good, and that the abolitionists who said that slavery was "sin," "a crime against God," that "the blood of slaves was crying from the ground," and that "God would bring judgment on the United States for slavery" - that it was these righteous prophets and their rhetoric who were responsible for the death of slaveholders.

With a blind rage rarely paralleled in human history, many slaveholders refused to admit or even see that slavery was an intrinsic evil that possessed within itself the seeds of violence and carnage. They refuse to see that the cry for justice for the slaves was anchored in God himself, and that they - the slaveholders - were the villains in this story who were bringing America into unthinkable turmoil and bloodshed.

The "Slaveholders" of Today: The Abortionists

Fast forward to today. The promoters of child killing by abortion refuse to admit or even see that abortion is the violent murder of an innocent human being. And that as such, the slaughter of 50 million innocent human beings has within it the seeds of horrifying turmoil, judgments and bloodshed; that the blood of these babies is crying out from the landfills and sewers of America to God Almighty for justice.

They blame us - pro-lifers - for the death of George Tiller. They say that our rhetoric is responsible for his death. They insist that when we say "abortion is murder" and that "George Tiller was a mass murderer," or that he was "Tiller the killer," that it is we who bear the blame for his death.

Is Abortion Murder? What is the Truth?

I ask you this: is abortion murder; yes or no?

Does child killing by abortion violate the commandment of God, "You shall not murder." What is the answer to these two questions?

Yes, abortion is murder. And yes, child killing by abortion breaks the commandment, "You shall not murder." So the question before us is this: will we declare the truth?

In this hour of crisis, when the proponents of wholesale murder are screaming that it is our words that are responsible for Tiller's death, will we continue to use those words?

Put more clearly: Will we declare the truth without wavering - that abortion is murder - or will we cave in to the murderers themselves and surrender the truth? Will we surrender the very commandment of God in this battle? Will we honor God, or those who mock Him, rebel at His commands, and slay those made in His image?

If we surrender the Truth, we are condemned to defeat.

If abortion is not murder, we have no right to make it illegal. If the hired assassins who reach into a women's wombs, rip innocent human beings limb from limb, and discard their bodies in dumpsters are not murderers in the Christian, biblical, historic sense of the word, then we have no right to call them murderers, and no right to fight to end their deadly trade.

In truth: either they are the heroes in the story, or the villains. Either we are the heroes in this epic battle, or the villains. Which is it?

What will we do in this hour of Trial?

The question before us is this: where do we go from here? Will George Tiller's death set us back 20 years? Or will it propel us further toward victory?

We can say that he was a mass murderer, and also acknowledge that we support the rule of law - that God does not make someone judge, jury, and executioner; that George Tiller deserved a proper trial of a jury of his peers; and that we condemn someone walking into a church and shooting someone in the face.Yes, this is a tightrope to walk, but it is the challenge we face at this time.

Lessons of History Applied to Today

Let's go back to slavery: when the Nat Turner rebellion happened, William Lloyd Garrison - that firebrand leader in the abolitionist movement - did not support Nat Turner's bloody carnage, but he fearlessly declared that slavery was an intrinsic evil that was the cauldron from which Nat Turner's insurrection boiled over. Garrison warned that slavery itself was the evil root from which this horrifying deed sprang.

After Nat Turner's rebellion - William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists actually grew more strident, more shrill, and more cutting in their rhetoric - insisting that it was slavery itself that was the crime against God and man it would plunge the nation into unsinkable chaos and bloodshed if it was not eliminated.

As a result of Garrison's courage and clarity for the truth, private citizens put a $1,500 bounty on his head; the Georgia Legislature put a $5,000 reward for Garrison. (These were HUGE sums at the time.) Politicians throughout the South made the reception or the possession of his newspaper - the Liberator - a crime.

But Garrison never backed down, and he literally risked his life to speak the truth about slavery.

If the abolitionists had cowered, and agreed to surrender the truth to those who were the proponents of that damnable crime against God and man, they would have been defeated. The U.S. could easily have had slavery for another 50 or 100 years.

And remember: The powerful in the press and in politics of Garrison's day insisted that he was a "disturber of the peace," and an "outlaw." We now hold him as a hero.

And now consider the proponents of child killing. Like the slaveholders of the 1800s who refused to acknowledge that slavery was an intrinsic evil - the powerful in the press and politics insist that child killing is a right, even a positive good.

And they insist that we - those of us who are peacefully defending the right of babies to be born alive and not butchered - that we are terrorists!

Their asinine accusation would be funny if it was not so damnable. In their perverted, ethically depraved world, we - the defenders of life - are the terrorists and villains in this epic struggle, and they - the promoters and performers of gruesome murder - are the heroes! They would make slave holders blush.

So the question is this: Will we fight with the courage and clarity of the abolitionists of the 1800s? Will we continue to say the truth in the face of fierce hostility - as William Lloyd Garrison did - and thereby propel this movement to victory?

Will we say the truth even in the face of Tiller's gruesome killing? Or will we surrender? Will we give up the truth in order to not be seen as "radical?" Let us use the words thundered by William Lloyd Garrison as our marching orders:

"Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD."

If we ever hope to end this holocaust - to make it illegal from conception until birth to slay an innocent human being - we are going to have to declare the truth without equivocation in this historic moment. May God give us stout, courageous hearts, to stand firm - and "not retreat a single inch."

(To learn about Mr. Terry's upcoming seminar, Insurrecta Nex! - to be broadcast live on the internet - with Alan Keyes, Norma McCorvey, Fr. Norman Weslin, and Washington DC Pro-life leaders, go to www.OverturnRoe.com)

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online