Christians and Torture

by Al Benson Jr.

Much has been said and written in the past couple years about the use of torture on terrorists and other "military" prisoners. Many seek to justify the use of torture with the explanation that it may "save American lives" if we engage in it. Like most others, I'm sure, I have no wish to see American lives lost, but I think we need to ask ourselves, in regard to saving American lives--what price are we willing to pay?

Sadly, it seems that a large segment of the Christian population in this country seems to have no problem with the torture of suspected terrorists if so doing will "save American lives." Unfortunately, once you buy into this rationale you can expand the use of torture into all sorts of possible scenarios.

At what point does torturing suspected terrorists to save American lives become a situation where the end justifies the means?  Under the guise of "saving American lives" do we then become practicing Marxists--because the end justifying the means is a favourite maxim of the Marxists. That being the case, Christians ought to know better, but, it seems that in this shallow age the high-water mark of Christian patriotism is to show how much you support the federal government, no matter what it does. Christian support for everything George Bush wanted to do in the eight years he was dictator (I mean president) got to be sickening.

There was a time in this country when Christian patriotism called for Christians who loved their country to stand up and point out to their leaders when and where they were wrong. No more! Now Christian patriotism is exhibited by showing how much you love Big Brother and his actions, no matter how reprehensible they might be. The goal of Christian evangelicalism today seems to be how closely you can be married to the Republican Party. Even if there is a Christian running on a third party ticket, don't vote for him if you can find a Republican that even claims to be conservative (though in most cases he isn't). Evangelicals have become "religious Republicans." In this Christians have erred greatly and the church will suffer for it, make no mistake about that.

Please understand that I am NOT a liberal Democrat. I used to be a conservative Republican until I started really doing research for the book Donnie Kennedy and I co-authored, Red Republicans and Lincoln's Marxists (iUniverse publishing). Once I discovered the Red roots of the Republican Party I found I could not continue therein. When it comes to elections now I support good third party candidates. But I digress.

Regarding the use of torture, I can't help but wonder if that old question "What would Jesus do?" might apply here. Many evangelicals and dispensationalists today openly condone torture if only it will "save American lives." I wonder if they should ask themselves if Jesus would have condoned torture of Roman soldiers in order to "save Jewish lives." Somehow I rather think not. Jesus died and rose again to set men spiritually free, to release them from the bondage of their sin, not so they could use their faith as a cloak to condone the torture of others, no matter how horrible their acts might have been.

I realize there have been times in the past where the church did such things, the inquisition, etc. However, that didn't make them right, then or now. Human beings are created in the image of God, even those who are or have been terrorists. If we lower ourselves to practice the same kind of barbarism much of the rest of the world does, are we any more moral than they? I realize that torture does have its precedents in this country. You can find evidences of it during the Lincoln administration during the War of Northern Aggression, although it's not much talked about. However, it is mentioned in Mark Neely Jr.'s book The Fate of Liberty (Oxford University Press, 1991). Still, that doesn't make it right.

I have no problem with holding actual terrorists prisoner if the case against them is proven, or even with executing them if the case against them is proven. After all, abolitionist/terrorist John Brown was executed back in 1859 for his leadership of the Harpers Ferry Arsenal seizure. Too bad those who financed him, the infamous "Secret Six" didn't meet the same fate for their open complicity in his terrorism. However, there is no record of Brown having been tortured before his execution.

Even terrorists or suspected terrorists should be treated like human being, not animals. By no means am I advocating "country club" conditions for them while they are being detained, but they still ought to be treated like human beings.

Might it just be possible that some of our problem with terrorists, especiallly the middle eastern variety, might be lessened if we just quit sticking our national nose into everybody's business around the world? How many countries do we have troops stationed in now? Over a hundred I'm willing to bet.

President Hussein was elected on the promise that he was the "candidate of change"--part of that change being that he would work to get our boys out of Iraq and back home. Guess what? How he's taking them out of Iraq and sending them on to Afghanistan! Big improvement, no?

The church in this country (and I don't mean the raving liberal apostates) would do better if it started advocating decent treatment instead of torture for suspected terrorists.

Torture is not Christian and we should not support it.