Sherry Chandler » 2006 » November » 14
TPM Muckraker points toward this very important article in the NYTimes, which includes this position statement from The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (made up of prominent religious leaders, mainline and evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim):
“Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved — policy makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation’s most cherished values. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.
“Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed?
“Let America abolish torture now — without exceptions.”
The article is a review of the October issue of Theology Today, which featured a series of articles by leading religious thinkers on the subject of torture. They point out that torture was not part of the debate in the 2006 elections:
That cannot simply be because of the government’s insistence that the United States abhors torture and does not practice it. The government insists on many things — about the war in Iraq and economic prosperity, for example — that its political opponents do not hesitate to challenge and challenge vociferously.
Torture is different. It is such a stain on personal and national character that nothing but appalling photographs could have forced the subject to the fore. When it comes to pressing the question of official complicity, no stack of equivocating documents can have similar force. In a season of shameless attack ads, torture is still too shameful to be debated.
This post was written by sherry
