Original Date: 6/2/2009.  Updated 6/9/2009.

As of roughly 10:00am-ish, this past Sunday, Tiller departed this world in a not substantially different way than tens of thousands of other people have departed this world... murdered, disembowelled, and mangled and dismembered in his clinic.

Let's face it - this guy mangled human bodies beyond recognition, and did it for money. They say a friend is someone who will help you hide.  And a true friend is someone that will help you hide a body.  I suppose that makes George Tiller the friend of many thousands of women.

Pro-Lifer's and Christian Ministries of all kinds have been quick to distance themselves from this (or this guy who did it).  And for good reason.  God says that HE (and only He) has the power to exact vengeance.  He makes His rain to fall upon the just and the unjust, the good and the wicked.  And, blast it all, we have to admit George Tiller into that "fellowship" too. 

I suppose it's possible that this could be viewed as one way of God exacting his vengeance, but I do not think so.  I do not see God conducting a man in a way that He has told him not to conduct himself.  I don't see God driving a man to sin in order to accomplish something that could have been done with a hydrualic brake failure at no one's expense.  'Course, there is that whole pesky Judas thing to contend with, then.  And that Pharoh guy.  And Esau... and... Er... But that's a whole other article.

What bothers me most of all is that he was killed in a church.  I'm not opposed to people being killed in a church any more than any other place.  If there's gonna be some killin' done, a church is as good as a dark alley.  Maybe even better, if the timing is right.

No, what bothers me is this: what kind of "church" would have this man as anything other than an occasional guest?  I can see the church tolerating his presence if he comes in, sits in the back and sulks through a sermon or two.  Perhaps he's mulling over things he wouldn't normally think about when jerking the arms off of children. 

But this guy was practically on the staff!  An usher.  His wife was in the church choir! And a "reformed" church at that - if the title is any reliable guide.

So while everyone is publically stating "Oh, how horrible!", on the inside we are all thinking "Well, I'm glad someone finally did it!"  You know it's true.  I'm just willing to say it.  Even though none of us would dare to usurp God's authority and step up and do it ourselves, we are still relieved that someone did it.

It's funny how nobody has any trouble calling Joseph Mengele, or Adoph Hitler "a monster who's better off dead".  It's easier if we are not likely to run into any friends or contemporaries of the person being castigated.  It's easier to villify someone who's dead along with just about everyone who knew them.  That's almost like villifying an imaginary person.

But when we might have to face someone who actually knows the person, and knows them well, why then we are not so bold.  Then it's "hush hush".

But, 60 years gone makes it easier to do publically what we are all doing privately right now.  60 years from now, everyone will look back at the murder of George Tiller and regard it like the death of Mao Tse Tung, or the execution of of the Rosenthals.

It seems time does heal those sorts of wounds.

• Auburn, Alabama. 


• Panama City, Florida. 


• Shawnee, Kansas. 


• Great Falls, Montana. 


• Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 


• San Angelo, Texas

What about them?  I'll tell you.  Each one of these towns represents a population wiped from the face of the earth by one man: George Tiller.  This man, single handedly killed as many people as live in any of those American cities.  And here in Oklahoma, Muskogee - if you also throw in Weatherford and former state capitol Guthrie).

(Updated 6/9/2009) Over this past weekend, a memorial service was held for Tiller.  It was interesting how many references to "George in Heaven" were made.  Almost as if these people's consciences burned as much as the killer they were eulogizing - as if they knew, deep in their hearts (where they mull things they'd rather not think about closer to the surface) - that there was no chance in hell that Tiller was in heaven.  And they all knew it.  But to ease their guilty consciences, with extraordinary effort they manage to pull out tortured claims of heaven for a man who has virtually no chance whatsoever of actually getting there.  And they knew it.  Much as if they thought they could slip Tiller into heaven under guise of flattery and desperate hope.  Hope made desperate by the knowledge that thier own outcome is irevokably linked to Tiller's because they are all of like mind.  And if they can sneak him in, perhaps they will get in too. 

"Dear God, get heaven ready because Mr. Enthusiasm is coming." What?  Being enthusiastic about your sin is hardly going to get you into heaven!

And Tiller's son, in a supreme act of blasphemy, remarked "Heaven is a better place, because George is in it?" 

Because George is in it? 

Heaven is a better place only becuase GOD IS IN IT! 

And neither your murderous father, nor any man, can make it "better".