One is titled something to the effect of (I'm paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to find the links and actual titles) "The Abortion Dr. Killer is Not a Christian" and the other is "The Abortion Dr. Killer is Certainly a Christian".

There's truth to both contentions and it's worthy of discussion. Obviously, for the most part, the hatred against abortion providers begins within Christian communities in this country. Many churches have taken the stance that abortion is murder and thus there should be no wonder that, in a religion with one of its tenets being "An eye for an eye...", more radical and violent members of the Christian community could see murdering an abortion Dr. as a task sent down from God.

Also just as obvious is the fact that many Christian churches back away from the devine retribution and violent sections of the Old Testament and base their teachings on the peace, love, and forgiveness one can pull out of passages in the New Testament, those parables and speeches attributed to Jesus. If one believes in the latter philosophy and feels that is the "true Christianity" then their argument would be that an act like this is not Christian at all.

However, since I have assumed the title of "atheist", just as I had to carry the burden of having the vile and pushy Madeline Murray O'Haire as my official spokesperson and I must acknowledge that there have been self-proclaimed atheists throughout history that have done reprehensible things, so must Christians step up to the plate and be the first to condemn terrible acts carried out by members of their community. It is not a valid defense to proclaim this killer a "non-Christian" just as I cannot say Stalin was a "non-atheist".

All groups should learn this lesson. When terrible acts like this occur by a member, no matter how distant they might feel in their actions, the outrage should begin within that group. What we see instead is generally the opposite. The screaming comes from the polar opposite philosophy with a defensive attitude almost always developing within the affected group.

Let's just remember in all this that there is no such thing as a "true Christian" anymore than there is a "true Muslim" or a "true atheist". There are simply human beings with all their warts who happen to find themselves within some broad spectrum of philosophies and must settle upon some label to feel they belong somewhere. The person that did this I'm certain attached themselves to the "Christian" label. It therefore is up to others that choose that label to scream the loudest about the atrocity. Defensiveness is not necessary. Trying to prevent someone else from doing this in the future is.

Art