“There is an evil in today’s world greater than slavery.”
That’s what anti-abortion activist and Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry said Wednesday morning at The Rutherford Institute’s kick-off for the 2009 Summer Speaker Series. Terry arrived at the Institute to give a speech entitled “Obama, Abortion and the Notre Dame Protests,” a reponse to President Barack Obama delivering this year’s commencement address at Notre Dame.
|
Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry spoke at the Rutherford Institute Wednesday morning. His speech entitled "Obama, Abortion and the Notre Dame Protests" included remarks on the recent death of Dr. George Tiller, who was killed inside his Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas |
Controversy centered around Obama’s stance on abortion, which conflicts with Notre Dame’s anti-abortion position. Some questioned whether the president should have been invited as this year’s commencement speaker. Since 1973, the Supreme Court has upheld a woman’s right to have an abortion.
Terry objected to the president’s speech, because he believed Obama did not have the right to discuss his policies about abortion while speaking at a religious, private institution.
“You have a room full of Catholics being talked down to by a child-killer…It was like have Heinrich Himmler at a Jewish university in 1942,” said Terry, upping the rhetorical ante right away.
Recent Notre Dame graduate Frances Thunder was at hand at Rutherford today and said that students were very proud to have Obama at their graduation and wanted to hear the president speak rather than the protesters.
“It was frustrating to have the campus infiltrated by people who weren’t alumni when the graduates wanted to stay focused on our achievements and our day,” she told C-VILLE.
According to Rutherford Institute President and Founder John Whitehead, at the time Terry was invited to Charlottesville, the discussion was meant to focus on President Obama’s policies, abortion and the protests at Notre Dame. After recent events, however, Terry also discussed the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions. Tiller was shot Sunday in the foyer of his Lutheran church in Wichita, Kansas. Authorities have arrested Scott Roeder as a suspect in the case.
Terry said that he “truly grieves” for Tiller, and does not condone the murder, but went on to say “George Tiller was a mass murderer. He will be remembered in life and eternity with all the contempt that we remember the Nazi war criminals…He has reaped what he sowed,” said Terry.
But Whitehead said he believes Terry’s rhetoric could encourage some to act violently. Reading an e-mail from Terry that claims “Those ‘doctors’ like George Tiller who slay the innocent are hired assassins whose hands are covered with blood,” Whitehead pointed out that, if read a certain way, that rhetoric might encourage people to turn to violence.
Still, Terry was invited to the Institute because it is an establishment that advocates free speech.
“The First Amendment was established to protect the words of the minority from the majority and Randall Terry is a member of that minority,” said Whitehead.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
