Arguments and incitements

I went over the top in claiming that everyone who ever said “Abortion is murder” has George Tiller’s blood on his hands, and a reader called me on it. There’s a difference between a seminar-room argument and public incitement.

In terms of traditional Christian theology, suicide is also “murder,” and it used to be a crime under secular law; attempted suicide was a felony, and successful suicide resulted in denial of Christian burial and forfeiture of the decedent’s estate. (That’s why coroner’s juries invented “self-defense” and “suicide while not of sound mind”; see the Gravedigger scene in Hamlet.

Most Christians, even those who continue to think of suicide as a variety of homicide in moral terms, are OK with not having the secular law enforce their viewpoint. And the last time I checked, right-wing bishops weren’t withholding the Eucharist from polticians who refuse to criminalize suicide. So it’s possible to fully respect the conviction of the Right-to-Lifers that abortion is murder in the eye of God without allowing them to impose that view on others who don’t share it.

The link has my reader’s note and my full response, as updates to the original post.