All those wishing to exculpate Christianity for the death of Dr. Tiller (or Islam for the deaths of those lost on 9/11; or Israelites for forcibly ejecting the Canaanites from their ancestral homes, etc.), please join me in the following thought experiment.
Imagine yourself in the room with the person you love most in this world (wife, child, or parent). Imagine, then, that Jesus appears in the room with a loaded gun and asks you to kill the person you love most in this world. There’s no doubt that this man is really Jesus (he’s quite happy to have you place your hands in his wounds, and, if you need some extra intestinal fortitude, he’ll conjure up some wine from whatever beverage you have handy). In addition, there is no explanation for the request. He just says your choices are to do it or go straight to hell for eternity. How do you respond?
(1) If you agree to his request, you are a true believer – one of the faithful. Congratulations on siding decisively with the forces of irrationality. You, sir, are no hypocrite.
(2) If you refuse, you lack the faith of Abraham. Reason and reality are more important to you than obedience and fantasy. Welcome to the side of rationality. Please prepare yourself for the onslaught of the righteous.
(3) If you dispute the premise of the question – claiming, perhaps, that the Jesus you believe in would never ask such a thing – you are a hypocrite. You claim to have faith, but that faith is qualified. You will only believe in that which comports with your reasoned judgment. The god of the Old Testament would strike you down – fortunately for you, though, gods are the constructs of humankind and no one can stop you from enshrining the product of your innate reason as a sky god. You may be the happiest of us all.
You are invited, of course, to substitute another answer of your choosing. It is almost certain, however, that your ‘original’ answer will just be a variation on the third choice. Faith, whether you love it or hate it, does not really trade in partial commitments. That is the fundamental evil of religion – blind obedience to authority. Does it really matter if that authority currently comports with reason? Does it matter if any tyrant, divine or terrestrial, happens to advocate for good deeds? No. It is the process not the product that matters.
--- Update ---
I posted this in the comments, but it bears repeating:
Well, it seems the favorite response is ignore the question. A variant, I suppose, on option three - but I'm willing to consider it different (I'm just catholic like that).
By the way, feel free to insert anybody in any of the roles. That is:
a) The person making the request could be Allah, Jehovah, Stalin, George Bush, or Obama - it doesn't matter.
b) The person to be killed could be your mom, a stranger, or Osama bin Laden - again, it doesn't matter.
If you don't understand that, you don't understand the question.
(N.B. Osama may be a bad example since one could construct a reasonable argument, devoid of faith, for listening to the request.)
--- Update 2 ---
Please note, the question is about your morality and faith. It's not about the morality of Jesus. Assume he means what he says and it's not a test. Or is Jesus only what you say he is? (See option 3, above).