they also have this strange idea that roeder did that he was one of the actual jews in the old testament. i mean, this is one of the most unusual ideas that runs through this whole mentality. that they are the actual chosen people, people of the old testament. roeder bought into that. and it s one of these streams that runs through the whole thing. and apparently when you get to that level, all you have to obey is god s law, not man s law. that s always the rationalization for this kind of violence. that man s law is in effect. obedience to man s law would actually be a sin. it would be discounting your own devine inspiration and instruction, right? more it is, it just overrides the rule of law, which is one of the foundations of our society. in the state of kansas, you have someone like phil klein, the attorney general, the highest elected official in the state. using the power of law to go after dr. tiller in every
book. his latest book 25 years later is about the assassination of dr. george tiller by scott roeder in 2009. mr. singular says he thinks the book about dr. tiller is a sequel of sorts to the book about alan berg s murder. he says, the overwhelming difference in the united states between 1984 when alan berg was shot in an act of domestic terrorism and 2009 was that extremism was no longer extreme. the sense of victimization that had once fueled the order was now broadcast 24 hours a day on talk radio, on cable television, and encouraged in countless other respectable venues. stephen, you talk a lot in this book about the mainstreaming of what used to be fringe ideas. do you see parallels in the motivation of these different fringe fir figures who committe these two murder s 25 years apart?
16th century, but we ve brought it back into this time so they could finally get him in court and try him and use due process. and the citizens of witchta acquitted him of 19 charges in 25 minutes. and after it was over, they went to the judge and they said, we would like to express an opinion to him or our feelings to him after the verdict, which was highly unusual in any criminal case. and they wrote a letter and said, thank you for doing this for the city of witchta. this is a man who had been shot and bombed and everything else. so he had carried on this tradition and he had provided this service. so that s his story. that s one part of the book. he was sucked into this war. he never wanted to be demonized or targeted or hated or any of that. he just wanted to be a physician practicing his trade. scott roeder was going to be a salesman or, you know, work in that area, but he started he got connected with the anti-tax movement. that s how he was sucked into all this. and that even
a 1994 incident in which a grenade was left outside tiller s apartment. an anti-hoax letter sent in 2002. and also a woman with history of threatening dr. tiller who planned to finish the job on the doctor. we knew that his clinic was bombed in 1996, we knew that thousands of protesters converged on his clinic in 1991 to physically blockade his entrance. we know that dr. tiller was shot in both arm hs in 1993, and that he was murdered, gunned down in his church in 2009 by the anti-abortion extremist, scott roeder. but now we know when there wasn t actual violence in dr. tiller s life, there were threats of violence, and lots of them. because apparently if you are a doctor and you want to provide this legal, supposedly constitutionally protected service to women in this country, this is the kind of life you re forced to have. a life of violence or threats of violence or both. anti-abortion activistsรง used
people, people of the old testament. roeder bought into that. and it s one of these streams that runs through the whole thing. and apparently when you get to that level, all you have to obey is god s law, not man s law. that s always the rationalization for this kind of violence. that man s law is in effect. obedience to man s law would actually be a sin. it would be discounting your own devine inspiration and instruction, right? more it is, it just overrides the rule of law, which is one of the foundations of our society. in the state of kansas, you have someone like phil klein, the