A Tortuous Reflection Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen once wrote, “It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.” His comment makes us laugh for two reasons. On the one hand, we all know the ‘torture’ of being subjected to the often truthless spin of journalists and the corrupt agenda of many politicians, therefore, in a joke of no real seriousness, we think they could use a dose of their own torturous medicine. On the other hand, we laugh because we know it is a joke and, no matter how aggravating certain journalists and politicians may become, we know we will not resort to torturing them. Sadly, in recent months the issue of torture as a viable method of interrogation for prisoners of war has been in debate among American politicians, keeping our journalists working overtime. Exactly two years ago CBS stunned the world with its televised photos of Iraqi prisoners from Abu Gharib standing naked, hooded in humiliating positions with smiling U.S. soldiers standing by. I’ll not soon forget the morning I logged onto cbs.com and saw the pictures for myself. In that moment I experienced a mixture of conflicting emotions. I felt fear, knowing full well the devastating effect such pictures would have in the Muslim world, in the least increasing their cynicism about the Americans who had launched an invasion a year before in order to ‘help’ the Iraqi people. I feared for American credibility in the world, and such fears proved true. At the same time I was shocked and, for that moment, ashamed to be an American. My heart echoed the sentiment of one senator who remarked, “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management.” But I recall a third reaction filling my mind, especially as the outrage of the scandal broke wide open and spread across our landscape. “It is war. And this is nothing compared to the recent atrocities in the Sudan or Serbia or Rwanda, or even some which our own troops committed in Vietnam. Put it in historical perspective.” Like most Americans bombarded each day with more suffering and sin than God designed us to be able to process and thoughtfully respond to, I experienced the conflicting feelings about Abu Gharib I’ve expressed above and then went on with life. Yet, in the past few months my conscience has come back to haunt me not only with remorse at not more fully responding to the scandal at the time but beginning to wrestle through the question, “How should a Christian uniquely respond to torture, either as an isolated incident or as official governmental doctrine and method in the interrogation of people it perceives as a threat to our national security?” Was Abu Gharib an isolated incident? Many in positions of power think so, and perhaps it was. Scholars such as Alfred McCoy, historian at the University of Wisconsin think otherwise. In his recently released book A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation From the Cold War to the War on Terror, he writes, “[The snapshots from Abu Gharib] show torture methods that have metastasized like an undetected cancer inside the U.S. intelligence community over the past half century.” You will have to thoughtfully examine the evidence that McCoy and others present to decide for yourself. My ultimate concern is not the official doctrine of the American intelligence community. I am concerned to help each one of us think through our obligation before God to respond to governmental torture in a decidedly biblical manner. My concern is that we do not bury our heads in the sand, blindly trusting our generally trustworthy democratic system. My concern is that we individually and corporately use such instances in the life of our nation to speak a prophetic word from God to our leaders and our institutions, proving our ultimate loyalty to God and not country. As a Christian pastor I missed such an opportunity two years ago and am now seeking to redress that wrong. Therefore, let me go on record in agreeing with the following biblical convictions, expressed by Christian thinker David Gushee, which must influence us as believers as we come to grips with the practice of governmental torture perpetrated by Americans or anyone else:
“Amazingly, the evangelical community in America remains grotesquely silent about [torture]. Silence in a court of law implies agreement, and the court of world opinion watches and waits for an evangelical response.” -Christian editorialist Dan Karns
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