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June 11, 2009 | 3:27 pm

Dr. George Tiller had been excommunicated

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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There have been a lot of stories about Dr. George Tiller since the late-term abortion doc was gunned down in the lobby of his church last Sunday. “Free abortion to honor George Tiller” is one headline sure to grab your attention. But a story you won’t see in any mainstream paper or on television or really anywhere beside the GetReligion blog is that Tiller, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran in America, had previously been excommunicated from the far more conservative (politically and theologically) Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Mollie Hemingway writes:

What none of these stories have explained is that Tiller had previously been excommunicated by a Lutheran congregation on account of his lack of repentance about and refusal to stop his occupation. That Lutheran congregation was a member of my church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Excommunication doesn’t happen terribly frequently in this day and age but it’s not unheard of. I don’t know any of the specifics about his past congregation or what led to the discipline and anticipated learning more about it when it was covered by the mainstream media. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.

When the news broke, I had many people who know that I’m Lutheran ask how it was possible that his church had not disciplined him or otherwise encouraged him to stop performing abortions. I had hoped that there would be stories exploring Tiller’s religious beliefs and church membership and that the stories would explain the difference between the ELCA and the LCMS. There is obviously quite a difference between a church body that would discipline a practicing abortion doctor and one that would welcome him in membership.

While we did get some stories about his religious views, none of them seemed to have any clue about his religious history. Note, for instance, this piece from the Salt Lake Tribune that was written Religion News Service’s Lindsay Perna and Tiffany Stanley:

Dr. George Tiller’s murder last Sunday morning in the lobby of his Lutheran church counters the secular image of a late-term abortion provider, pinning him more as a churchgoing “martyr” than a godless murderer.

Shot and killed while passing out bulletins in the lobby of his Wichita, Kan., church as his wife sat in the choir, Tiller is already challenging popular perceptions of both abortion providers and the abortion-rights movement.

“It shows a dimension of the movement that a lot of people don’t know about,” said the Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “This man was castigated for what he did — but he was a faithful member of the Lutheran church and that gives a different view of him and his work.”

Veazey sees the face of Tiller as more of “a martyr in the same sense that Dr. [Martin Luther] King was.”

The story goes on to quote various people about how Tiller’s church membership changes the dynamics of the abortion debate. How can they not mention that he was previously excommunicated for his abortion work? It’s such an interesting and significant part of the story! That’s just a huge hole.

To be sure, religious folks fall on all sides—not just both sides—of the abortion debate. Christians too. But the ELCA and the LCMS are two very different denominations. And Tiller’s church membership really doesn’t do anything to change the arguments for and against a woman’s right to kill a fetus and whether that unborn child constitutes a living human being.

What is curious is the way pro-choice religious leaders are trying to draw connections between George Tiller and Martin Luther King Jr. And Dr. King’s niece, who happens to be a pro-life activist, and also happens to be a pastor, is none too happy about the exploitation of her uncle’s name:

“For LeRoy Carhart to mention the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked through peaceful and non-violent means, in the same breath with that of George Tiller, whose work ended peace and brought violence to babies in the womb, is offensive beyond belief,” Dr. Alveda King, pastoral associate of Priests for Life, said in a statement. “The analogy is just wrong.”

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Dr Tiller believed in a cause and cared for his patients regardless of the obvious dangers and threat to his personal safety. A true courageous Hero. My sincere sympathy to the family, friends, colleagues, and members of Dr Tiller’s church.
I wish all the pro-lifers read the article “PROTECTING LIFE AFTER BIRTH” by Alice Miller in the link below and digest the information in it for them to see that nothing is what it seems and people that proclaim to be pro-life are really against life and people that are pro-choice are really pro-life. Please read the article in the link below to see the facts that people that proclaim to be pro-life are really ignorant that put all life in danger.
http://www.sylvieshene.com/articles-protecting_life_after_birth.htm
http://www.alice-miller.com
http://www.sylvieshene.com

Comment by sylvie shene on 6/11/09 at 6:16 pm

If the Abortion “Saint” would have stuck to late term procedures on horribly deformed babies who weren’t going to survive being carried out to full-term, he would have gotten much more sympathy. He aborted many healthy babies because the mom was too “depressed” to cope. Many people (including me) consider this murder. If it isn’t, Scott Peterson should have only 1 murder on his record (his wife & not his pre-birth son) since liberals think that babies in the womb should have no voice and aren’t human!!

Comment by John Griffin on 6/11/09 at 9:19 pm

A Christian abuse problem all over again

Pro-Lifers should look at abortion the way Catholics look at symptoms of sexual abuse.  Symptoms are not the problem, but a sign of deeper issue.  Symptoms of priest sexual abuse include: suicide, alcohol, drug abuse, etc. Abused women, exhibit similar behaviors and often turn to abortion.   

Pro-Lifers ignore abuse of women the way Catholics ignored abuse of children.  Pro-Lifers need to admit something is wrong in society the way Catholics admitted something was wrong in their church. Catholics blamed children for symptoms of abuse.  It was double abuse.  Pro-Lifers do the same. 

Christians turned their back on abuse and created an environment in which healthy children turned to suicide. Pro-Lifers turn their back on abuse toward women and healthy women turn to abortion.

Making abortion illegal won’t solve the problem.  Women will only turn to back-street abortion providers in the same way abused Christian children found ways to commit suicide.

Comment by June12 on 6/12/09 at 6:39 am

John Griffin:  Please cite a source that Dr. Tiller performed a late term abortion because the mother was “too depressed”.  From what I understand, most late term abortions are performed on mothers who want their child but there is no chance of viability outside the womb.  How is this different than a DNR or stopping a ventilator on someone who is brain dead?

Comment by Lee on 6/12/09 at 9:34 pm

Oh, and “excommunication” is a loaded term and not the same in a Lutheran congregation.  Missouri Synod Lutheran Churches, like the ELCA, do not excommunicate on a denomination wide basis.  It is at the local, congregational level.

Comment by Lee on 6/12/09 at 9:36 pm

June12, sounds like you want us to go back to a less permissive society that runs on biblical law and conservative values.  we could do that, reinstate prohibition, make extramarital sex a felony, maybe even follow an islamic model.  women shouldn’t go anywhere unescorted really, lest they hook up with some abusive guy that loves her and leaves her.  they’ll complain about it of course, but it’s for their own good.  we’ll have to protect them from themselves since they have such poor judgement on these matters.

Comment by Proton Soup on 6/13/09 at 6:27 am

This response is for “Lee”—-There are several Tiller websites that have testimonies from past Tiller patients who went to his abortion clinic for reasons other than having a fetus with no chance of viability outside the womb. If this were the case, I wouldn’t be so critical of his work. There are women who now regret having their baby “euthanized” by Tiller and have been left traumatized by the experience. Can’t verify the accuracy of these stories but there are too many of them to say that at least some of them didn’t happen (that healthy babies were killed shortly before birth.) Tiller believed that a fetus was a guest in a woman’s body and she had the right to decide at any time whether this guest was welcome to stay till the end of development. He was outspoken in this belief and was willing to pay for it with his life. I admire his courage but feel he was wrong in thinking that the unborn should not have a voice too (if our mothers thought like Tiller, we wouldn’t be here to have this discussion!!)

Comment by John Griffin on 6/14/09 at 1:33 pm

John and friends,

Here’s one such account: http://www.imnotsorry.net/elena.htm.  I certainly don’t condone Tiller’s murder.  I’m not even “pro-life:” I fully support a woman’s right to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy for any reason and later for health reasons.  However, when you bring up the case of Elena to pro-choice ideologues, you’re immediately shouted down.  It’s for this reason that I’ve become completely disenchanged with the organized pro-choice movement as a whole.

Comment by Emilia Liz on 3/10/10 at 11:15 am

Sorry, I meant “disenchanted,” not “disenchanged.”

Comment by Emilia Liz on 3/12/10 at 8:21 pm

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