You cannot be Christian and support torture. I want to be utterly explicit on this point. There is no possibility of compromise. The support of torture is off the table for a Christian. I suppose you can be some version of a “patriot” and support the use of torture, but you cannot be any version of Christian and support torture. So choose one: A torture-endorsing patriot or a Jesus-following Christian. But don’t lie to yourself that you can be both. You cannot.
(Clearly you do not have to be a Christian to reject the barbarism of torture, you simply need to be a humane person. But to be a Christian absolutely requires you to reject the use of torture.)
I remember when Pew Research released their findings in 2009 revealing that six out of ten white evangelicals supported the use of torture on suspected terrorists. (Patton Dodd talks about that here.) The survey stunned me. I spoke about it from the pulpit in 2009 and have continued to do so. I said it then and I’m saying it again today: You cannot support the use of torture and claim to be a follower of Jesus.
Any thoughtful person, no matter their religion or non-religion, knows that you cannot support torturing people and still claim to be a follower of the one who commanded his disciples to love their enemies. The only way around this is to invent a false Jesus who supports the use of torture. (The Biblical term for this invented false Jesus is “antichrist.”)
When I survey some of the methods used (here: http://www.blackmediascoop.com/cia-torture-report-reveals-anal-feedings-sexual-assaults), it is pretty obvious that the people, the institutions and the nations who cooperated to use them can no longer play the victim card or the patriot card or the security card. This is about none of the above. Those are pure rhetoric for masochism designed to employ extreme cruelty to ignite the enemy to wrath in order to justify massive build-up of militarism to support global domination and call it 'freedom.'
This report is a mirror, just as the Cross was, exposing the depths of depravity associated with violence in the name of god and country. Our reactions to the report, just as to the Cross, stand as our own self-judgment. How we respond IS the judgment. We render our own verdict. Our most appropriate response is 'Lord, have mercy,' and immediate national repentance marked by indictments and policy change. Will that happen?
Meanwhile, there's this ridiculous notion that releasing the report makes the world a more dangerous place and makes America and her lackies (Canada included) more vulnerable. Why would this be. Do we think that the people we tortured and the groups they worked for didn't realize that we were torturing them? Or that the 25 partner nations weren't aware? Or even that the American people weren't aware? It's not the report that created the danger, but the torture itself. And associating that torture with freedom and associating our freedom with Christ is, as BZ says, anti-Christ ... not as a pejorative label, but by the simplest of descriptive definitions. That this is not self-evident to some betrays the depths of our delusion ... but does not excuse it.
Posted by: Brad Jersak | December 11, 2014 at 09:36 AM