wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 696-Church, president must say 'no' to torture

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Church, president must say 'no' to torture

Dec. 15, 2005

NOTE: A photograph of the Rev. Mike Macdonald is available at
http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Mike Macdonald*

Like the biblical prophet Nathan confronting King David, it is time for
the church to find its voice and tell our president that in the name of
God, humanity and national integrity, he must renounce the use of
torture - categorically.

As a pastor serving a local congregation with both Democrats and
Republicans, liberals and conservatives, I avoid partisan politics.
Torture is not a partisan issue. Forty-six of the 55 Republican senators
voted to ban the use of all torture by any U.S. government agency. The
bill was sponsored by John McCain, R-Ariz., a man of impeccable
patriotism, a genuine conservative and a supporter of the war in Iraq,
and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a former military lawyer and a colonel in
the Air Force Reserve, which he still serves as a military judge. Former
Secretary of State Colin Powell and a slew of other high-ranking,
retired military officers have called for such a ban.

There have been two primary arguments advanced for why such a ban should
be in place.

The first is that the use of torture, for any reason, violates
everything that we stand for as a nation. We claim to believe in justice
for all; torture and justice are mutually exclusive.  We claim to
believe in the dignity of every human being; torture violates the human
dignity of the tortured. But in one sense, the torturer - and the
country that sanctions the torture - violates his own human dignity even
more profoundly than the dignity of the person he tortures.

The second argument is that not only is torture ineffective, it is
counterproductive.  Experts claim that torture does not produce a high
quality of intelligence, not even in the so-called "ticking bomb"
scenario. While producing questionable results at best, there is no
questioning the hatred that the use of torture creates for us in the
rest of the world.  The fact that the administration wants to make an
exception for the use of torture by the CIA completely undermines any
claim to moral integrity or moral leadership. It is hard to understand
why the president will not agree to a policy to ban torture if we do not
intend to use torture.

Both of these arguments are completely valid and true. As is most often
the case, the moral thing to do is also the wise thing to do in the long
term. Torture is both immoral and imprudent.

There is a third reason that torture should be renounced, and why it is
the church's place to be a modern-day Nathan. In a debate among
Republican candidates for president on Dec. 13, 1999, President Bush
named Jesus Christ as his favorite "political philosopher."  Since then,
he has invoked the name of God in the battle of terrorism and allowed
Franklin Graham to conclude his inaugural prayer with, "In Jesus' name."
Because of this, it is appropriate to ask the president if he truly
believes Jesus would ever sanction torture, even in the name of national
security.

The irony is that Jesus himself was tortured to death in the name of
national security.  The Romans did not crucify Jesus because of his
religious beliefs. They held all Jewish theology equally in contempt.
Christ's crucifixion was a political execution. And crucifixion was
intentionally designed to be used as a form of torture. It is impossible
to reconcile the claim to follow Jesus as a "political philosopher" and
to justify torture.  These two ideas are mutually exclusive - one must
be renounced.

It is the church's duty to tell the president, and all who would condone
torture while claiming to be Christ's disciple, that they must make a
choice: to follow Christ or to abandon Christ.

The use of torture is not morally ambiguous. The call to reject torture
is not partisan politics.

*Macdonald is pastor of Broad Street United Methodist Church in
Mooresville, N.C.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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