wfn.org | [ENS] 'Torture is unacceptable,

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

November 11, 2005 -- Friday Forum

'Torture is unacceptable,' NCC general assembly declares

Episcopal bishops share concerns

[ENS, Source: National Council of Churches] Delegates to the 2005 General
Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service,
held November 8-10 in Hunt Valley, Maryland, have deplored the fact that,
as the House of Representatives begins debate on anti-torture provisions
in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill, some high-ranking U.S. government
officials have declined to support the provisions.

"We find any and all use of torture unacceptable and contrary to U.S.
and international legal norms," the delegates said in a November 9
statement that passed unanimously. "We find it particularly abhorrent that
our nation's law makers would fail to approve the pending legislation
disavowing the use of torture by any entity on behalf of the United
States government."

Bishop Christopher Epting, ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Church,
said, "Our entire delegation fully supported this important moral
statement with our sister communions. We encourage all members of
the Episcopal Church to make their views known particularly to their
Representatives in the House and Senate as soon as possible."

In an October 11 letter to Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), an
Episcopalian, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal
Church thanked him for offering and gaining passage of an amendment
establishing uniform standards for the conduct of U.S. military
personnel when interrogating those held in U.S. custody, including
detainees being held at Guantanamo Naval Air Base in Cuba. [Full text:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_68525_ENG_HTM.htm]

A similar letter was sent to the House and Senate FY'06 Department of
Defense appropriations conferees who form the "Conference Committee"
to work out differences in the defense appropriations bills.

"This issue is currently a stumbling block for final passage of the
appropriations bill because of strong opposition from the White House,
which has threatened to veto the bill if this is included," said John
Johnson, domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church's Office
of Government Relations. "The resolution of this issue could depend
on constituents calling their members of Congress to urge conference
committee members to retain intact Senator McCain's detainee language."

"Torture, regardless of circumstance, humiliates and debases torturer
and tortured alike," the General Assembly declared by unanimous vote.
"Torture turns its face against the biblical truth that all humans are
created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). It denies the preciousness of
human life and the dignity of every human being by reducing its victims
to the status of despised objects, no matter how noble the caused for
which it is employed."

The full text of the NCC statement can be found online at:
http://www.ncccusa.org/torture.html.

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