The pro-life community reacted with shock after George Tiller was shot to death Sunday morning as he was serving as an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kan.
Tiller was well-known as one of the only physicians in the country who performed late-term abortions.
"We are shocked by the murder of George Tiller, and we categorically condemn the act of vigilantism and violence that took his life," Dr. James Dobson said in a statement. "America has from its foundation respected the rule of law, by which every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those constitutional rights are forfeited only when crimes have been committed, and the perpetrator is charged and found guilty by a jury of his or her peers in a court of law.
"Our condolences are extended to the Tiller family. The person or persons responsible for his death should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Focus on the Family board, said Tiller's death presents the pro-life movement in America with a crucial moral test.
"Violence in the name of protesting abortion is immoral, unjustified and horribly harmful to the pro-life cause," he wrote on his blog. "Now, the premeditated murder of Dr. George Tiller in the foyer of his church is the headline scandal — not the abortions he performed and the cause he represented.
"The horror of abortion cannot be rightly confronted, much less corrected, by means of violence and acts outside the law and lawful means of remedy. This is not merely a legal technicality — it is a vital test of the morality of the pro-life movement."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said Scripture could not be clearer: "For anyone to intentionally murder another human being is wrong," he wrote to supporters.
"As Christians, we pray and look for the end of all violence and for the saving of souls, not the taking of human life. We strongly condemn the actions of this vigilante killer. I ask you to join me in praying for the Tiller family in their grief, and for the nation — that we as a people might embrace life."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read Dr. Dobson's statement.
Dr. Albert Mohler says the death of George Tiller presents the pro-life movement in America with a crucial moral test.
Watch the Turn Signal video report on this story.
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