Christians Who Support Torture are Supporting Evil
There's nothing really usual about this — Christians have done this many times in many situations in the past. When Nazi Germany set Europe aflame and pushed Jews into the ovens, for example, it was with the active support of innumerable Christians. I think that American Christians imagined that they and their religion had grown beyond all that, but they clearly haven't. Indeed, it's possible that the arrogant belief in their own moral superiority has played a role in growing moral rot at the heart of American Christianity today.
Writing for Christianity Today, David P. Gushee offers five reasons why Christians specifically should oppose the use of torture:
1. Torture violates the dignity of the human being. Every inch of the human body and every aspect of the human spirit comes from God and bears witness to his handiwork. We are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Human dignity, value, and worth come as a permanent and ineradicable endowment of the Creator to every person.
2. Torture mistreats the vulnerable and violates the demands of justice. In the Scriptures, God's understanding of justice tilts toward the vulnerable. "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry" (Ex. 22:21-23). Primary forms of injustice include violent abuse and domination of the powerless.
3. Authorizing torture trusts government too much. Human beings are sinful through and through (Rom. 3:10-18). We are not to be trusted, and we are especially dangerous when in possession of unchecked power. This applies to all of us. ... Given human sinfulness, not only must people be told not to torture, we must also strengthen the structures of due process, accountability, and transparency that buttress those standards and make them less likely to be violated. This is what is so dangerous about the discovery of secret CIA prisons in Europe and "ghost detainees" who are located no one knows where.
4. Torture dehumanizes the torturer. Mark Bowden, a military scholar and author of Black Hawk Down, believes that sometimes torture is the right choice. Even so, he worries, "How does one allow it, yet still control it? Sadism is deeply rooted in the human psyche. Every army has its share of soldiers who delight in kicking and beating bound captives. Men in authority tend to abuse it—not all men, but many. As a mass, they should be assumed to lean toward abuse."
5. Torture erodes the character of the nation that tortures. A nation is a collective moral entity with a character, an identity that carries across time. Causes come and go, threats come and go, but the enduring question for any social entity is who we are as a people. This is true of a family, a church, a school, a civic club, or a town. It is certainly true of a nation. Sen. John McCain, who has led the Republican charge against torture, recently said, "This isn't about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies."
Gushee provides more detailed explanations for each point and I recommend reading the full article, but there is an important question that needs to be answered: are any Christians even bothering to listen to any of this? Indeed, aren't these arguments something that should be immediately obvious to Christians such that they shouldn't even have to be reminded? The answer to both appears to be "no."
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“It’s normal for Christians to see themselves as defenders of morality rather than defenders of evil. They must, however, come to grips with the fact that significant numbers of conservative Christians are openly and unashamedly defending the use of torture and abuse on suspects detained by America in the War on Terror. Christians are defending and advocating moral evil in the pursuit of political goals.”
Christians have to come to grips with what Conservative Christians say and do; therefore, christians are defending/advocating evil?
Could you explain this?
What does come to grips mean in this context? and how does the failure or the lack of coming to it somehow shift accountability?
Coming to grips means understanding how and why it has happened and coming up with a way to reverse it. If they do not, then they accept culpability.
For any group of people, if a subgroup exists that does not relate or even contradicts what defines that group, it is the members outside of that subgroup that are guilty of wrongdoing or worthy of condemnation? but not the subgroup?
As a Christian woman, I find it quite surprising, and even a bit disturbing that, as you preach against torture and murder, you continue to support a woman’s right to have an abortion. Apparently, the unborn child, because it is unwanted, does not feel pain, and is not a human being or a miracle of life. However, if this same child was indeed a wanted child, suddenly it is a human being and a miracle of life, and it would be wrong to kill it. Why the double standard, guys, especially since you atheists are constantly complaining about the so-called double standards and other acts of immorality that we Christians are said to commit? A baby is only a baby if it is wanted, but you are totally blind to the pain and agony it suffers during an abortion? And if abortion wasn’t so harmful, even to women, then why are so many woman coming forward and saying, “I regret having an abortion?” No matter how you choose to look at it, abortion is the torture and murder of innocent unborn human beings, and it’s a shame that society chooses not to see it that way.
None of that is ultimately relevant because not even a fully grown adult human being who can feel pain has a “right to life” that includes use of another person’s body in the way that a fetus uses a woman’s body. It’s a simple question of personal autonomy: people have a right to decide what happens to their own bodies.
Criminalizing abortion can only be based on the belief that the has more important rights than the right to autonomy and liberty of adult women. There is, however, absolutely no basis or precedent for such a premise in law or philosophy — at least outside of fascist political philosophy.
I doubt that there is anything that some person hasn’t regretted doing. That isn’t a sound basis for criminalizing the action, though.
biological procreation is no more a “miracle of life” because the animal involved happens to be a human versus some other animal. Human reproduction on the cellular level is not very different than that of most mammals. EVERY fertilized egg is unique but until sufficiently developed and differentiated is still just cells.
Joann, i favor a woman’s control over her own body and destiny over torture because for some of those fetuses, there are fates worse than abortion. Most Xians agree that abortion should be legal in cases of rape and incest, would you take away that too? Some girl should have to carry her father’s/rapist’s child? If you are ok with THAT, then admit that you just draw the line a little further back.
Most of the aborted fetuses would have awful lives, being the child of a teenager in poverty.
You should listen to what Reverend Carlin has to say about abortion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrXvDXVhqfU
As a Christian woman, I find it quite surprising, and even a bit disturbing that, as you preach against torture and murder, you continue to support a woman’s right to have an abortion. — Joann — October 15, 2007
I am an atheist. I believe that abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.
I wish that more of the theists who oppose abortion would support effective sex education, free and easily-available contraception, robust child welfare laws, and increased taxpayer support for college and vocational education.
Many of those oppose abortion don’t seem to care very much about what happens to a woman or her child once the baby is here.
Question in response to the opponent of abortion, which I, too, abhor, just why is it that most so called pro-life people will then look at a two-year-old with a brain tumor and feel perfectly comfortable if there is no money to pay for its medical care? I so often see families having to do fund-raising to pay for a child’s surgery or treatments. The pro-lifers only insist the child be born, but then don’t care if it dies after that for lack of treatment, or just good food and shelter.
Homosexuality was accepted and practiced in every society, with only the intrusion of the Judeo-Christian movement proclaiming it shameful. It is to be noted, however, that NOWHERE in the Bible does Christ condemn homosexuality.
B.K. Wright
Abortion should be legal. my religious preference has nothing to do with my favor of that. Having lived in a “Third-World Country” where it is illegal shows me that. Here, illegal abortions are done daily and the fetus ends up with its organs torn out and used for donations, or it’s just thrown into a river or left in a bag on the street. I dont agree with abortion but keepingi t legal keeps women safe. I think those who want abortion should concider adoption first and if they just cant afford it there are free/reduced health care alternatives (open adoption parents pay for everything even the delivery!)