As much as I admire the media analysis of Bob "the Daily Howler" Somerby, an issue like this one is one in which his positivist approach makes him miss some essentials. (Not be pick on Bob; I haven't seem him comment yet on anything related to the George Tiller murder.) One of the things I've learned from reading him for years is how important it is to pay careful attention to how partisans are often all too quick to play mind-reading games with those taking a different position. While both fairness and accuracy require taking full account of what people actually say when they state their positions. It's especially important since our broken-down national press corps has been letting that practice atrophy in their ranks for two decades or so.
But political speech is very often symbolic and suggestive. And in the case of long-established movements, like the anti-abortion movement which became a favorite cause of what was then called by the press the New Right in the 1970s, words and symbols can acquire well-established meanings for participants that are not immediately apparent to those not steeped in the movement's ideology. That's especially true for groups that consciously project a very different image to the general public than they do to their activist base, which is very much the case for the anti-abortion movement in the US. While this is an intriguing linguistic phenomenon in itself, I'm more focused in this post on how people like Tony Beam go about distancing themselves from Christian terrorists and terrorist acts like the Tiller murder.
Flying into the cloud level of abstraction for a moment, let's start with the recognition that very few Americans are actually pacifists. Most American Christians recognize some form of a Just War concept, although in dealing with fundamentalist and Pentecostals, their theology tends to ignore the notion of just war as such, however much they may invest wars religious import. Most American Christians would also assume that it's morally legitimate to use violence to defend oneself or protect the innocent, and even most of the very few full-blown pacifists would recognize a right of personal self-defense.
When we read a column like Beam's, we have to keep in mind not only the plain meaning of his words to the general public but also how fundamentalists, movement conservatives and anti-abortion activists interpret the words. I have no reason to doubt Beam's sincerity when he condemns Tiller's murder as wrong. But does he present a framework for his opposition that is likely to present any challenge to the thinking of those who might be inclined to support or commit acts of violence against abortion providers? That's a whole different question. Here's how Beam opens his column:
The brutal murder of George Tiller inside the foyer of the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita may signal the end of reasoned discourse concerning controversial issues. Without doubt, George Tiller was a symbol of all that is wrong with the pro-abortion position in America. He performed late term abortions with some bordering on infanticide. While his actions were inexcusable, they certainly didn’t warrant the execution of vigilante justice doled out by a misguided crusader for the unborn. If our culture is going to survive we must all agree to adhere to the rule of law and keep our disagreements, no matter how passionate or critical, within the boundaries of reasonable protest and civil discourse.Tiller symbolized "all that is wrong with the pro-abortion position in America", he writes. Tiller was a guy who not only killed what anti-abortionists consider to be innocent unborn babies with at least some close to outright "infanticide". The Christian terrorist who allegedly carried out "the brutal murder" of Tiller was "a misguided crusader" delivering "vigilante justice" and sticking up for the "unborn", however "misguided" he may have been.
The bottom line on his introductory paragraph, which is sure to be read by more readers than the entire column, is that "a misguided crusader" executed "justice" (albeit of the vigilante variety) against a man responsible for killing innocent unborn babies in a way that bordered on "infanticide" in the most literal sense. It's impossible for me as a non-sympathizer with the anti-abortion movement to read that as anything but at least a partial defense of a terrorist murder. For those who do sympathize with the movement, only those who want an excuse to use in mixed company with non-sympathizers are likely to persuade themselves it's anything other than a partial defense of the killer. And for those who might be in some way inclined to instigate or carry out violent action, no way is that going to be taken as anything but encouragement.
That last sentence of the paragraph also strikes a weird note in the context: "If our culture is going to survive we must all agree to adhere to the rule of law and keep our disagreements, no matter how passionate or critical, within the boundaries of reasonable protest and civil discourse." Actually, democratic culture can survive a substantial amount of law-breaking. And any healthy democratic culture will have more than a little unreasonable protest and uncivil discourse. Do cable stars like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, or Web favorites like Michelle Malkin and Mad Annie Coulter, have even the vaguest aspiration for "civil discourse"? Please.
And, for that matter, a democracy can survive even horrific terrorist attacks like the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks without tossing out the rule of law and going nuts with fear, although as we saw during the Cheney years, those latter options are certainly possible ones. I read that strange appeal of Beam's as a preliminary scolding of pro-choice critics of the anti-abortion movement than as any discouragement to the violently inclined among the anti-abortion activists, who would surely brush off any such mildly worded caution as fluff or weak-mindedness among the faint of heart.
He follows that opening with ritual boilerplate about how George Tiller deserved the chance to get off his certain path to Hail before he died:
George Tiller’s murder illustrates the irony of ironies. The taking of a life in the pursuit of the sanctity of human life is absurd. It falls in the category of someone who would set fire to a forest to bring attention to the importance of trees. If life is precious it is precious inside and outside the womb. The life of George Tiller was precious because he was created in the image of God and he carried the possibility of redemption ... until Scott Roeder, allegedly acting as judge, jury and executioner removed that possibility. [my emphasis]This post is already longer than Beam's original column, so I won't try to "fisk" the whole thing. But his column is a good example of the problem faced by the real existing anti-abortion movement when they try to distance themselves from terrorist violence in support of their cause: they are proceeding from a set of essentially fanatical assumptions. They define the deliberate termination of a pregnancy at any point after the moment of conception as the murder of a human being, of an innocent baby. And they assume that this definition is a clear message from God Himself that should dictate both law and personal conduct.
Someone can be a political or religious fanatic without being violent. And someone can engage in political or religious violence without being fanatical. But political and religious fanaticism can and does breed violence and terrorism. Until the "mainstream" anti-abortionists of whom Tony Beam is presumably one can frame their opposition to abortion in a non-fanatical way, their agitation on the issue is inevitably going to encourage violence. Whether they invite hard-right Patriot-militia types like Randall Terry to speak at their churches or not.
And as long as their ideology remains what it is today, their attempts to discourage terrorist violence in the name of their cause will be stuck with highly ambiguous, blame-the-victim formulations like this one of Beam's:
Other than an act of barbarity (and yes, I realize Tiller was guilty of barbaric acts against unborn children) I fail to see what the murderer of George Tiller hoped to accomplish. [my emphasis]Tags: abortion, christian fundamentalism, christian right, christian terrorism, fanaticism, george tiller, terrorism
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