Presbyterian News Service
See this story and photos at http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06288.htm
06288 May 24, 2006
Presbyterians urged to fight torture
'Torture Awareness Month' includes Chicago gathering
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE - As the Bush administration
continues defending its treatment of terrorism suspects, Presbyterians and other faith followers are being urged to participate in "Torture Awareness Month" activities in June.
A number of human rights, civil liberties and religious organizations have declared the month-long observance to protest the practice of torture wherever it occurs, especially amid growing evidence that the United States government is systematically engaging in the use of torture and inhuman treatment against prisoners held in connection with the war on terror.
"The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program encourages Presbyterians to identify appropriate ways to participate in Torture Awareness Month," said the Rev. Mark Koenig, the peacemaking program's associate for resources and publications. "Our confessions affirm that human beings are created in God's image. Rooted in that affirmation, Presbyterian General Assemblies have consistently spoken against the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment."
Koenig said the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program (http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/) is also encouraging Presbyterians to take part in the June 26 United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (http://www.un.org/events/torture/).
The initiative is being spearheaded by the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition International (http://www.tassc.org/) (TASSC), a coalition of torture survivors from more than 60 countries. TASSC is planning a number of events and activities during the month including prayer vigils, fasting, education and advocacy.
Coinciding with the start of Torture Awareness Month, a grassroots network of Presbyterians called the No2Torture (http://www.no2torture.org/) movement will hold a gathering in the Chicago-area to demand fair treatment for prisoners and to educate people about the U.S. government's questionable interrogation methods.
The two-day event, which will feature speakers, worship, and the stories of torture victims, will kick off June 2 at First Presbyterian Church in LaGrange, IL.
Organizers of the symposium say that the use of torture for any reason - even in the name of fighting terrorism - is immoral and ineffective, a crime against humanity that cannot be justified.
"Torture is just an absolute violation of God's creation of human beings in God's image," said the Rev. Kirsten Klepfer, a Presbyterian pastor in Iowa who is helping organize the gathering. "Torture, both for the person being tortured and for the person torturing, is a violation of who we're created to be."
In January, the No2Torture group held a similar gathering in Miami, FL, calling for an end to inappropriate detention practices. Most of the 50 participants were Presbyterians. The turnout included pastors, church members, military chaplains, college students and seminary professors.
Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was a catalyst for the group's first meetings during the 2005 Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference along with the Rev. Carol Wickersham, a Presbyterian minister and sociology professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Christians are obligated as a matter of faith to speak out against severe human rights violations such as torture, according to Luis R. Rivera, an associate professor of theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
"The heart of our faith and gospel links us directly to the issue of torture," said Rivera, who will speak at the gathering. "After all, we live our faith and mission sustained by the memory, presence and hope of a tortured Christ who through resurrection became survivor and savior."
Rivera will be joined by other speakers at the event, including keynoter Rear Adm. (retired) John D. Hutson, the former chief Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy, a prominent attorney and the current dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, NH.
"It's important to us (to hear) what the military has to say about this because they are involved," Klepfer said. "His talk will be an important piece."
Also speaking will be the Rev. Jean Marie Peacock, vice moderator of the PC(USA)'s General Assembly and associate pastor of Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans; Catherine Gordon, the associate for international issues in the Presbyterian Washington Office; Doug Johnson, executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, MN; and Wickersham.
Wickersham said in January that the PC(USA) has condemned torture, specifically in a statement passed by the denomination's General Assembly in 2004, but never "got up above the noise."
"This is a moral outrage, and the faith community's voice needs to be weighing in on this," she said of torture.
United States Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) will receive the group's 2006 No2Torture Award, which recognizes the exceptional effort of an individual or group that takes pragmatic steps toward ending the practice of torture.
Durbin has co-sponsored legislation prohibiting torture, including the McCain amendment that bans cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees in American custody. He is also co-sponsoring legislation currently before the Senate that would prohibit the "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners to other countries that practice torture.
McCormick seminary is among the event's co-sponsors along with the Peacemaking Mission Team of Chicago Presbytery, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), a newly formed group organized by the Rev. George Hunsinger, a Presbyterian minister and theologian at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.
More than three-dozen faith organizations including the PC(USA) have already joined NRCAT, which was launched during a conference convened by Hunsinger at Princeton seminary in January. The group represents Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions.
Religious leaders such as Ufford-Chase have signed up to support the faith-based group at the NRCAT website: www.nrcat.org.
NRCAT hopes to convince prominent religious and political leaders to endorse an ad campaign it plans to start up next month to raise awareness about torture and to generate grassroots support for the group.
"We are gathering the forces that can and, I believe, will make a difference," Hunsinger said.
Allegations of torture have dogged the Bush administration since April 2004, when photographs of Army reservists mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq became public.
Since then, evidence of other abuse has surfaced from the deaths of U.S.-held detainees to secret CIA prisons with "unique" interrogation methods, extraordinary rendition, and the torture of prisoners at facilities run by the U.S.-backed Iraqi regime.
These revelations have sparked a roiling debate centered on human rights, international law, and judicial argument.
"I think having Torture Awareness Month is a crying need right now in American public life," Hunsinger said. "Torture presents a threat to our national security and even to our democratic form of government. This is no time for complacency or for turning a blind eye to what is happening in U.S. detention facilities abroad."
Another group with which the No2Torture movement and Presbyterian Washington Office has been working is Stop Torture Now (http://www.tortureawareness.org/). The coalition of NGOs plans a daylong teach-in on June 25 in Washington, DC that will focus on extraordinary rendition.
On June 26, the group will hold a "Lobby Day" where activists will fan out across Capitol Hill to visit members of Congress to seek their support for legislation that would end the use of extraordinary rendition.
For more information about Torture Awareness Month and a schedule of events and activities, log on www.tassc.org.
For more information about the No2Torture Chicago-area gathering, log on www.no2torture.org, or call (319) 268-1132, or by email at LaGrange2006@No2Torture.org.
For more information about events sponsored by Stop Torture Now, log on http://www.tortureawareness.org/registration.html.
For more information about the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), log on www.nrcat.org, or contact Hunsinger at (609) 252-2114, or by email at george.hunsinger@ptsem.edu.