First Hate, Then Murder

On Pentecost Monday, George Tiller, an American physician, was assassinated. Tiller ran an abortion clinic. Christian “pro-life” activists hounded him for years. Now, their propaganda has resulted in blood letting. Why do people who claim to be “pro-life” resort to murder?

Anyone looking for proof that fanaticism isn’t the province of any particular religion and that any of them can be likened to the Taliban got it at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas on Pentecost. Tiller was occupied with his voluntary religious duties when he was shot dead by a single bullet in the foyer of the church. Three hours later, police arrested 51-year-old Scott Roeder, who witnesses identified as the shooter. Witnesses had noted Roeder’s license plate number at the church.

It’s immaterial what facts are turned up by the ensuing investigation. This murder should not have come as a surprise to anyone. For years, the 67-year-old Tiller had literally become a target for the rabid propaganda of fanatic so-called “pro-lifers.” The physician and director of an abortion clinic quickly became the most hated enemy of the “pro-life” movement. The clinic was bombed in 1985. In 1993, Rachelle Shannon tried to kill Tiller but managed only to wound him in both arms.

When news of the doctor’s murder became known, many abortion opponents hastened to distance themselves from the deed and to console Tiller’s family. But many found it difficult to hide what they were really thinking. “Good riddance,” wrote a Canadian blogger who uses the name “Ransom.” He would shed no tears for Tiller, he said. The prominent Catholic, Randall Terry, founder of “Operation Rescue” and leader of protests and picket groups against Tiller gave him this obituary: “We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God.”

How well meaning people can do evil

Tiller was dubbed “Tiller the Killer” in an Operation Rescue video titled “Operation Save America,” the stated aim of which is to rescue the entire nation from its moral descent. Tiller is called corrupt, perverse and evil in the video; he’s called a liar, an alcoholic, a blasphemer, a molester and a butcher. Anyone looking to describe Satan would very likely end up with a very similar list. And what did Tiller do to deserve this? He worked in accordance with the laws of the nation. That was decided in a court proceeding against him last March. But what use are man-made laws and court decisions when fanatics believe they have God exclusively on their side?

What deludes people into wishing for good (saving life) and practicing evil (taking life) has been exhaustively researched since the 1970s by psychologists like Stanford’s Albert Bandura and Philip Zimbardo. One common aspect of these studies stands out in regard to Tiller’s murder: the dehumanizing of the potential victim. This also explains why many radical abortion opponents sentenced to death by courts arouse little public sympathy. Didn’t the condemned criminals forfeit their own humanity by doing what they did? Surveys confirm that not only religious radicals share that opinion. Especially heinous crimes such as the murder of a child bring it out in everyone.

The dehumanization of suspects leads to aggression

Nothing, however, seems to engender aggression and the desire for retribution as much as the dehumanization of the accused. This was also confirmed recently by research carried out by social psychologist Kenneth Locke at the University of Idaho. Locke discovered how “useful” not only branding the enemy as Satan is in fostering aggression, but how narcissistically beatifying one’s self at the same time helps as well.

Self-righteous and supposedly God-fearing people spent years dumping the most horrifying abuse on Tiller in order to make him into a monster in the public’s mind. Who is to blame when the last moral light in an upright and God-fearing person’s mind is finally extinguished and this “monster” finally kills someone?

One of the mottoes of the fundamentalist “Operation Save America” group is “Turning Theology into Biography.” This guiding principle was realized in Wichita this week: a sanctimonious theology of self-empowerment and hate led to the bloody end of George Tiller’s biography.