And never the twain shall meet?

Had my eyes deceived me? No, there it was, in black and white. A friend of mine posted an in-your-face Facebook response to the recent murder of the Wichita, Kansas abortionist Dr. George Tiller, placing all of the blame for Tiller's killing squarely on the shoulders of the entire pro-life movement. He quickly added that pro-lifers everywhere are surely "rejoicing" over the crime.

The sheer ferocity of his comments, and of many more comments by others that soon followed, took my breath away. Maybe I've had my head in the sand over the issue of abortion in recent years; maybe I've forgotten the extreme passion that attends every abortion debate, but I was quickly and unceremoniously jerked back to the sad reality that the proponents of the two sides of this issue are worlds apart.

Thing is, I happen to know, or have known, scores (or more) of people on the pro-life side, and I'm hard pressed to think of ONE who is even capable of "rejoicing" over the broad-daylight slaughter of a human being, who at the time of his murder was preparing for Sunday morning church by handing out programs to entering parishioners. I'm certainly not naive enough to doubt their existence, but of all the pro-lifers I have rubbed shoulders with, I personally have never come across anyone twisted enough to proclaim the sanctity of life one day, and blow a man's brains out the next.

This killer acted alone, is way beyond sick, and carries 100% of the blame, leaving exactly zero percent to be shared by anyone else on the planet.

All the major pro-life organizations immediately went to the national press to condemn Tiller's murder, but one of those spokesmen, Randall Terry, made me wince when he declared that he was sorry that Tiller hadn't had a chance to prepare himself to meet God. If Terry had been privy to every single thought that passed through George Tiller's mind right up to the moment of his death, THEN--and ONLY then--perhaps he would have been qualified to make such a statement.

I suppose Terry's unfortunate statement may have seemed appropriate to most pro-lifers, but to me it came across very much like that of a self-righteous judge of men who incongruously claims to be a servant of the One who reserves all rights to judgment for Himself.

No, the two sides do not understand each other. And, for the present, at least, it seems that neither side really has any desire thereto.