Again, I haven’t blogged in some time now, but I want to make a short comment about the murder of Dr. Tiller, the abortionist who specialized in partial birth abortions. I and every other person who is truly pro-life condemns his murder and all acts of violence in general. I am passionately pro-life and absolutely loath the taking of unborn human life through abortion, and especially loathe late-term abortion. But I also hate the taking of already born human life. As much as I hated what Tiller did for a living, his life was as important as the life of an unborn baby. You can’t both talk about defending unborn life and not care when an already born person is murdered. And on the other hand, you can’t only care when a grown person is murdered but not be concerned about the lives of babies who can survive outside the womb who are murdered by an incredibly gruesome “procedure” that not even its supporters feel comfortable talking about in detail. It’s double talk.

People who call themselves pro-life but who don’t care that Tiller was murdered and people who call themselves “pro-choice” and who are outraged about Tiller’s murder but don’t care that millions of unborn babies are murdered every year have something in common after all. Both groups of people are hypocrites. They care only about one side of an equation but not the other. And their logic doesn’t add up.

Being pro-life means that you’re in favor of life. For everybody. And that includes being in favor of life for people who disagree with us.

Violence is not a solution to the debate over abortion. And for those who claim that they believe the Bible, they should remember that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV). In other words, other people – even those who most strongly disagree with the sanctity of life – are not the problem or the enemy. The battle to protect the unborn, like many battles before it, is really a battle to change people’s hearts and minds. You can’t do that with bullets or violence. The only way to do that is through love.

Pro-life means that everybody’s life is important and has irreplaceable value. Let there be no confusion in thinking that a person who would murder another human being, for whatever reason, is “pro-life.” They’re not.