City on A Hill

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going. – John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few abortion providers in the state of Kansas, was shot and killed today in Wichita while attending services at the Reformation Lutheran Church. Tiller had long been the focus of anti-abortion groups: In 1991 he was the object of a summer-long protest; he was shot in both arms by a protester in 1993; in 1985 his clinic was bombed. More from the A.P. here.

Police have apprehended a suspect, Scott Roeder of Merriam Kansas, a member of Operation Rescue with a past link to the Montana Freeman militia group. Back in 2007, someone named Scott Roeder posted this on an Operation Rescue website called Charge Tiller:

It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the "lawlessness" which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp "Mengele" of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement upon our nation.

Does the United States really need to have some special relationship with God? Isn't it enough simply to be a nation among nations?