Operation Righteous Judgment: OR Calls for Excommunication of Late-term Abortionist George R. Tiller
Controversial Mailers Flood Wichita’s Christian Community
Wichita, KS — Operation Rescue has obtained an exclusive photo of late-term abortionist George R. Tiller and his wife, Jeanne, taking communion at Reformation Lutheran Church. The photograph has been featured in an ad distributed by Operation Rescue via the US Postal Service to thousands of Wichita households in a campaign seeking church discipline for the unrepentant abortionist. Thousands of E-mails have also been sent across the nation. The ad calls for Christians to contact leaders of Tiller’s church and denomination and demand Tiller’s immediate excommunication. (View full ad here)
Jeanne is a co-owner with Tiller of Women’s Health Care Services, the largest free-standing late-term abortion mill in the Western Hemisphere. Reformation Lutheran Church is a member of the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America, (ELCA), Synod.
According to the tenets of Christianity, to take communion in the willful state of impenitence is to dishonor Christ, whose body and blood are represented in the communion bread and juice. It is considered blasphemy.
In spite of this, the ad generated controversy even before its public release. A Christian newspaper rescinded its decision to run the ad after receiving negative input from area pastors who expressed concern that the contents were not “seeker-friendly.”
“Operation Rescue is calling for the excommunication of George Tiller and his wife, Jeanne, for willfully defying the Law of God by taking the innocent lives of pre-born children through abortion” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “While this has caused some in the Christian community to feel uncomfortable, it is nonetheless the right thing to do.”
Newman and OR staff member Cheryl Sullenger have met with Reformation Lutheran Church Pastor Tom Hallstrom, and requested that the Church do her duty to discipline church members by excommunicating Tiller. Those requests were rejected. OR has engaged in frequent First Amendment activities outside Reformation Lutheran Church during services to call the congregation’s attention to the fact that their church member kills innocent babies for a living, then shamefully partakes of the Lord’s Supper as if he and his wife were in a right relationship with God.
Hallstrom acknowledged that before joining Reformation Lutheran Church, Tiller had been excommunicated from Holy Cross Lutheran and “kicked out” of the church. In an act showing apparent disrespect for the disciplinary action instituted by Holy Cross, a member of the more conservative Missouri Synod, Reformation Lutheran Church willingly gave Tiller refuge.
“We cannot really think of a reason we would ask someone to leave our congregation,” Hallstrom said.
“Reformation Lutheran Church certainly bears culpability for enabling Tiller, in allowing him to act outside the conformity to God’s Word. But the rest of the Church Community in Wichita must also bear some responsibility,” said Newman. “Most pastors and laypersons alike stand idly by and say nothing while innocent children are slaughtered each year on the corner of Kellogg and Bleckley.”
“Just as Reformation Lutheran Church disobeys God when it refuses to rebuke Tiller for the shedding of innocent blood, so also the Church Community shares the responsibility of bloodguilt when it silently tolerates evil, neglecting to call out the sin of the ‘Butcher of Bleckley,’” continued Newman. “It is time for the Church to ‘judge righteous judgment’ as Scripture commands and expel Tiller from the congregation in accordance with Biblical mandates.”
Operation Rescue is asking for Christians everywhere to call or write the ELCA leadership and demand the excommunication of abortionist George R. Tiller.
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” -John 7:24
Bishop Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of ELCA
773-380-2600
bishop@elca.org
Rev. Don Just, ELCA Regional Coordinator
512-295-6330
don_just@ecunet.org
Pastor Tom Hallstrom, Reformation Lutheran Church
316-634-0586
info@reformation-lutheran.org
this pastor sounds like someone who needs to consider a career change. his biggest shortcoming is that he is obviously not acquainted with Scripture enough to know what his own role as pastor dictates. i’m not referring to excommunication, really, since that’s a last resort, but i am referring to the fact that if he were preaching righteousness from the pulpit (preaching against the evils of baby killing for instance) tiller would be so uncomfortable he’d either leave voluntarily or repent. THAT is the role of the pastor – to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. and tiller needs some heavy confrontation. OR has been good about giving him that, but it needs to come from his church, his pastor, fellow parishioners, neighbors, associates, etc…
it’s clear that tiller has managed to surround himself with people who lack moral conviction, and therefore present no threat to him, morally. they are not about to confront him when they can’t even discern good from evil themselves. but by their silence, they are complicit in his evil deeds.
so i feel that the pastor is a moral failure on a number of levels. one, he won’t preach against evil, but allows it into his midst. the church is the ‘Body’ of Christ, and to allow a murderer in your midst without confronting that person is to be a partaker in their sin. two, he claims that he could never envision asking someone to leave the church. the apostle Paul would disagree – he said ‘remove the evil person from your midst’. Paul taught that the church WAS to judge its own. thirdly, if this pastor had preached against baby killing, confronted tiller about his sin, and tiller still insisted on coming to church and taking communion, then he should take steps towards excommunication.
but i don’t see where this pastor is even doing the basics, and that’s why he won’t consider excommunication. he’s too much of a worldly compromiser to even preach on sin, let alone excommunicate an unrepentant sinner like tiller.
if a pastor is preaching truth, those who dislike truth will leave, and those who love truth (even if made uncomfortable by it) will stay and grow there. but if a pastor is not preaching truth, then those who ‘cry and lament’ over the sins that are being committed will be the ones who leave. (“Come out of her….”)
obviously, this church is one where the lovers of truth have decided to leave, and only those who are complacent and may even condone evil remain.
Great flyer. Folds good for mailing.
I Xeroxed a few off and sent to every church in my city. I’ll do more as I can.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Sadly this is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ compared to what is going on in liberal theological circles all across our land. The practice of church discipline is rare in the US and hardly ever taught. It kind of goes against a membership drive, trying to keep the numbers up, and the other misguided motives that take place too often. This pastor is doing no favor to the Tillers. If there is anyone in this church that cares, they should confront this couple with the truth.
i just don’t understand how this immoral, evil man and his equally as bad wife can partake in any type of church activity.and shame on reformation for allowing it.
“a girl”
the reason the Tillers participate in ‘church’ activities is because they want to paint over the evil of what they do with the ‘legitimacy’ of ‘church’ involvement. in the Old Testament, you find false prophets who tried to ‘whitewash’ the sins of Israel instead of boldly confronting those who were involved with those sins, and God roundly condemns those false prophets.
today, we have much the same thing, as Steven mentioned.
jerry,
true, i never thought of that and anyone who knows anything at all about the bible (and i will be the first to admit that i don’t know as much as i should) knows that murdering babies is the most evil act on the planet and no matter how he and jeanne to to “whitewash” it, murder is still murder and they are going to hell.
So Hallstrom “can’t think of any reason we would ask someone to leave our congregation”. . . Really? Has Hallstrom, or any of his allies, ever asked ORW to leave their premises? So the deliberate, premeditated, cold-blooded murder of thousands of innocent children is not a reason to ask someone to leave? That in itself is an excellent reason for this tragic mockery of a “church” to ask Hallstrom to leave.
See also Ezekiel 34…
and i can tell you all that tiller treats women badly as well.as a former (and very repentant) 3rd trimester patient of his, i can tell you that he is all a front.i have permanent cervical scarring and damage from repeated rough insertion of laminaria.there is no way any church should justify what he does to women and their babies.
I wish you would give more credit to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, of which Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Wichita is a member. There is a huge difference between the E.L.C.A. and the LC-MS! We are pro-life and have always been so. We practice close communion, which means we will not ordinarily communion members of the E.L.C.A. just for such reasons. Such flyers can help reveal such heresies, if you will help Lutherans see the differences.
Wow…this story seriously makes me ill. I have called that church before….asking them if they knew what Tiller did for a living but I guess they did. What a bunch of fake christians! & for once…it’s not the catholics that have to denfend themselfs. (sorry Lutherans..). Now, Lutherans all over our nation have another thing to worry about that people DON’T or SHOULDN’T need to worry about if our nations churchs would actually read the bible! Lutherans…I am sorry..I bet you are upset…Christians…hang in there….pray for hope, okay?
Re: NARAL pulling ad. I’m happy for the fact that they did. I am wondering Re: Grassfire.org’s warning applies: the Left is attempting, with Specter to derail our awareness and concern that this will be a big battle. I wonder..
I did email the pastor Hallstrom and expressed, as politely as I could, my concern that there is no church discipline with the Tillers. I have heard no response now in over a week.
What an abomination!!
I too have e-mailed this church and expressed a desire to have them confront Tiller on his actions. I will continue to do so as I hope that others will also. Blatant sinfulness is not to be accepted and he deserves to be reprimanded. If he chooses to repent and stop killing babies, then he could be accepted as a member of a church that follows God. Why allow a killer to continue to kill and go to church and fellowship with others as though he has no blood on his hands!!
If he is ostracized by community and friends, maybe he will stop and think! Don’t give up on the fight! He deserves the same mercy that he doles out; God will be the final judge. “Mothers Against Abortion,”
alaynastaggers@yahoo.com
Go by the Holy Bible & take it for the truth & put them out of the Church & stop associating with Satan & his demons. Killing is wrong .
Attacking a community of faith because your interpretation of scripture is different than theirs must be terribly distressing to the heart of God. Followers of Christ do not all agree, but we share in our commitment to honor the God we know in the written and the living Word, and rely on God’s grace for our brokenness.