I am really, really confused. Christians looking the other way while other human beings are tortured and abused. I don't understand it. If the church (even the conservative church) cannot condemn torture, then isn't their moral voice useless?
Street Prophets suggest that the religious right is deeply embedded in this administration's horrific policies, and justify it on their Christian beliefs.
"The responsibility of the Religious Right for Abu Ghraib goes up the chain of command from there. According to Christianity Today, they 'were significantly involved in drafting policy memos that created the permissive climate in which the abuse of prisoners occurred'. Billmon writes that the team of lawyers who wrote the Pentagon's treatise on presidential torture powers was led by Mary L. Walker, a 'devout Christian' and co-founder of Professional Women's Fellowship, an offshoot of Campus Crusade for Christ. Walker also worked to 'shield Air Force headquarters from public criticism' for failing to control an epidemic of sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy.
Note that some of the torture at Abu Ghraib qualifies as sexual assault. This is the same military institution that faced complaints about preferential treatment for conservative evangelical Christians, where cadets faced 'a heavy and sometimes offensive emphasis on evangelical Christianity'. The Air Force is currently being sued over a recruiter in New Mexico being instructed to use Jesus Christ as a recruiting tool."
I don't even recognize this Christianity. It makes me sick.
1 comment:
Streak,
When I read Miguel's piece, I too was left scratching my head about the same questions . . . How can anyone seriously take the RR's condemnation of torture when they beat the drums of war - torture, death of the innocent, destruction, etc are all part of the package. These acts (torture) were NOT some rogue acts by a few "bad apples". Torture is incompatible with following Christ. Period. As Wendell Berry states: "We make war, we are told, for the love of peace. We subvert our Bill of Rights and impose our will abroad for the sake of freedom and the rule of law . . . And we sanctify all this as Christian, though the Gospels support none of it by so much as a line or a word." I think torture (or the use of 'aggresive interrogation techniques') would fit in this catagory as well.
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