WHY PAUL HILL WAS WRONG
by Sam Taylor Vol. VIII, No. 6, June/July 1995
[Sam Taylor is Senior Pastor, Jerusalem Baptist Church, Fairfax Station, VA]
Violence is on the march in the pro-life movement. On June 24,1984, the Ladies' Center for Abortion in Pensacola, FL, was bombed. Six months later, that same clinic along with the offices of two abortion doctors was bombed again. Since then, antiabortion violence has continued to increase. In February 1993, abortion clinics in Venice, FL, and Corpus Christi, TX, were burned. The following month a clinic in Missoula, MN, was also burned. On March 10, 1993, the violence took on a new dimension when a pro-life activist named Michael Griffin shot and killed an abortion doctor named David Gunn. (1)
Still, the violence has continued. In August 1993, in Wichita, KN, abortionist Dr. George Tiller was wounded by a gunshot. In May of that year, an abortion clinic in Boise, ID, and another in Forest Grove, OR, were burned. In September 1993, a clinic was burned in Bakersfield, CA. That October, another clinic was burned in Houston., TX. (2)
Recently, on July 29, 1994, a former Presbyterian minister named Paul Hill, who was excommunicated because of his pro-violence stance, shot and killed abortionist Dr. John Britton and his bodyguard, James Barrett, in Pensacola, FL. Even more recently, John Silva III, a deranged man, has been accused of a shooting spree that left two abortion clinic receptionists dead in Boston, and another clinic sprayed with gunfire in Norfolk,VA. (3)
Ironically, there is a small constituency of pro-life activists who approve of Paul Hill's deadly strategy. One such person is Reverend Michael Bray, co-pastor of the Reformation Lutheran Church in Bowie, MD. Bray is the author of the book A Time to Kill, (4) which advocates using lethal force to stop doctors who practice abortion. He writes, "... we simply declare that the slaying of... government-sanctioned childkillers is justifiable ... (5)
Another pro-violence advocate is Father David Trosch, pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at Magnolia Springs, AL. Father Trosch has been dismissed from his parish and officially silenced by his Archbishop. But he has refused to be silent. Father Trosch has said, "If 100 doctors need to die to save over one million babies a year, I see it as a fair trade." (6)
All pro-life Christians need to loudly and clearly distance themselves from those of Michael Bray's, David Trosch's, and Paul Hill's persuasion. It is grossly inaccurate and flagrantly unfair to associate radical pro-violent extremists with the vast majority of pro-life supporters who are law-abiding and non-violent. But that is what is happening. This can only result in dishonoring Christ, discrediting the church, and discouraging Christians from participating in legitimate forms of opposing abortion.
Pro-life supporters believe that except in the case of saving the life of the mother, doctors who practice abortion are guilty of unjustly taking the life of pre-born human beings. If this is true, and it is, why is it wrong to shoot and kill doctors to defend the pre-born child? Here are three reasons why Paul Hill was wrong.
First, the use of lethal force is not justified because it does not truly defend the unborn against abortion. The Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention recently published a position paper denouncing the use of violence in the pro-life movement. (7) That paper was drafted by David Gushee, Ph.D. who is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He reminds us that the abortion doctor is only one participant in the act of elective abortion, and he is not the most important one. It is not the doctor, but the mother seeking an abortion who drives the process. Dr. Gushee writes,
The killing of an abortion doctor does nothing in itself to diminish a woman's demand
for an abortion. If abortion is legal, and she perceives no alternatives to abortion, she
will find another abortion provider. (8)
His point is crucial. To defend a pre-born child against abortion one must persuade the child's mother not to have an abortion. Any action that does not dissuade the mother, does not in reality defend the child.
Second, using lethal force cannot be justified because punishing wrong doing is never the prerogative of private citizens. During the first three centuries the Roman government was an evil empire. It practiced slavery. It forced citizens to worship Caesar. For entertainment and amusement, it threw Christians to the lions. During the first century, the Apostle Paul, himself a Roman citizen wrote to Christians in Rome telling them to obey their government. He reasoned that despite it's abuses, the government, like the home and the church, was a divinely established institution. According to Paul, God's purpose for the institution of government is to be "an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil." (9)
Nowhere in Scripture outside a theocracy are private citizens assigned the prerogative to take the law into their own hands. Clearly, that responsibility belongs to government. To usurp the role of government is to rebel against God who established it. (10)
Finally, killing doctors to stop abortion is wrong because Jesus rejected using violence as a method of establishing His kingdom. The historian Luke records a time when Jesus sent his disciples into a Samaritan village to find a place to spend the night. The Samaritans refused to allow Jesus to stay there.
When His disciples saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (11) Jesus disapproved. He reprimanded His mistaken disciples for their intemperate spirit. Jesus has not changed His mind. Force is still not the way to bring about God's kingdom.
1. James Holly, Violence in the Prolife Movement, (unpublished manuscript), p. 1
2. Ibid., p. 1.
3. "Shooting to save lives?," The Washington Times, Tuesday, January 3, 1995, p. A14.
4. Michael Bray, A Time to Kill, (Advocates for Life Publications, Portland, Oregon, September, 1994)
5. Ibid., pp. 173ff.
6. "Church rebukes priest who wants abortionists dead," Beaumont Enterprise, August 18, 1993.
7. David P. Gushee, et. al., The Struggle Against Abortion: Why the Use of Lethal Force Is Not Morally Justifiable, (The Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, TN, 1994).
8.Ibid, Section 5.13
9. New American Standard Bible, Romans 13:4
10. There is an exception to this principle. When a government coerces its citizens to do wrong, Christians must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). While this is occurring in regard to China's policy of forced abortion, this is not the case with regard to the practice of abortion in America.
11. New American Standard Bible, Luke 9:54