Pruning the Narrative of Murder

By Patrick O'Hannigan
6.8.09

The Pentecost Sunday murder of Dr. George Tiller by a man who shot him to death in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, sparked a lot of commentary. Tiller was in a controversial line of work, and known for "pushing the envelope" even there.

I do not write to speak ill of the dead. My argument here is with the living.

More specifically, I have a quarrel with Rev. Katherine Ragsdale and those others who imply that anyone killed on church property automatically becomes a martyr. It presumes too much to hint that the crime scene tape used by police officers has sanctifying power, yet this muddle-headed version of "murder in the cathedral" seems to be the prevailing view in places where the memory of people like Thomas Becket and Oscar Romero faded long ago. You'd think the president of the Episcopal Divinity School would know better than to suggest such a thing, but Ragsdale had already called abortion a "blessing," so perhaps foolish consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Sadly, Ragsdale shares her peculiar definition of martyrdom with other progressive religious leaders. A rabbi named Arthur Waskow echoed her in telling a reporter that Tiller was "a religious martyr in the fullest classical sense, killed for acting in accord with his religious commitments." the rest