(This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the interaction of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”)
HIGHLIGHTS OF TODAY’S BLOG…
* What would happen if the world stopped lying?
* A Libyan leader tells the truth about torture
* Are we really ready to know about ourselves?
* Where is the spiritual justification for all this?
So now we have it — officially. Governments of sovereign nations do, in fact, torture human beings in order to get “confessions” out of them.
Not that we needed to actually hear it. But it feels good, nevertheless, to have our innermost awareness confirmed, even about such an ugly thing. Yet we are led today to a larger question: Is the human race ready to really hear all about itself?
The other day the son of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi told the world press that Bulgarian medical workers, who have been in jail in Libya for nine years and have just now been released, were tortured in captivity. The workers — mostly nurses in a Libyan hospital — were accused of, and eventually admitted to, infecting children with HIV.
Now that they are free, the nurses said that their admissions of guilt were obtained from them under extreme duress — namely, physical beatings, threats to their family back home, electrical shocks, and the threat of rape — and they have all recanted their confessions.
Somewhat shockingly, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the Libyan leader, said “Yes, they (the medics) were tortured by electricity and they were threatened that their family members would be targeted.” He made the statement in an interview with the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, excerpts of which were aired Wednesday, according to a copyrighted story from the Associated Press. Gadhafi made no apology in his statement, but he did admit the facts.
The younger Gadhafi, who is 36, is seen as the heir apparent to his father’s position at the head of the country, and is viewed as somewhat of a reformer by nations in the West. One of the nurses held captive for so long thanked him publicly after her release for at least confirming what the medics and nurses went through. “The fact that a Libyan, and the son of Gadhafi at that, has told the truth is very gratifying and I thank him for it,” Snezhana Dimitrova told the AP.
So now we know. I mean, now we know for sure. Governments torture their prisoners. I understand that this is no great “revelation,” but Seif al-Islam Gadhafi may be the first voice connected with any of the world’s governments to have acknowledged it so blatantly.
The question now before the house: How can a civilization which imagines itself to be evolved justify such behavior? I know all the rationalizations, of course. The “Greater Good” Theory of Torture is chief among them. But how can…
…any human being even do such things as electrocute another human being into submission, even in the ’cause of good’? Doesn’t this freak you out?
The answer is that people long ago learned to justify their barbaric behavior with the “ends justify the means” theory. Yet where is spirituality in all this? Why is a man, whose very name includes the words “al-Islam”, not immediately and roundly brought to task by Islamic religious leaders throughout the world? And why is his country’s behavior not publicly denounced?
Does religion carry a responsibility to tell the truth, to call a spade a spade, to stand as the moral guardian of humanity, in moments such as this? And in ALL moments, for that matter?
I have been so amazed these past several years that so many fundamentalist Christian leaders in the United States have so openly supported — rather than sternly criticized — the use of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by a government saying that it is searching for weapons of mass destruction, and, well, yes, killing countless innocent civilians in the process.
“Collateral damage,” the military calls this. A regrettable but acceptable rate of collateral damage in a praiseworthy effort to make the world a better place. This is what we told ourselves. This is what our own religious leaders, many of them, assured us of from their pulpits. Yet is our world better or safer today than it was before all of this started? You be the judge.
When will those who call themselves “spiritual” stand up to our world’s political leaders (if not to say, its despots) and simply say, ‘No! In a civilized society, no. We are not going to condone violence as a means of producing peace. And certainly not pre-emptive violence.”
Self-defense may be one thing (although all attack is called ‘self defense’), but I get to punch you in the face before you even do anything at all — because you look like you might? Wow. Amazing.
What is so amazing to me is not that men will order these kinds of things to be done, but that religion and its leaders will stand by and support it. Where is religious courage?
Let me see if I have this right…was it not Christ who said…
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you….”?
Do I have this wrong? Did I quote this wonderful soul and Son of God inaccurately? Did I misinterpret what he meant when he said….
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.”
Somebody help me out with this. I need someone from the Religious Right to help me understand Luke 6:27-36.
I mean, really.
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