The words of Jesus are unambiguous when it comes to expressing how we
are to love each other–we are to love others as we love ourselves. In
fact, the paradigmatic, the normative test case for Christian love is love
of enemy. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Jesus tells us that we
are to love our enemies and to do good to them. Surely we can agree that it
is exceptionally difficult to see how one can genuinely love the other who
is enemy to us at the same time that one is engaged in their torture. In

addition, experts tell us that torture is a very unreliable means of
gathering data. One wonders, then, why so many have allowed fear to drive
them into embracing what surely is a great threat to our own humanity.
I am glad to announce that the National Religious Campaign Against
Torture is making available, free of charge, the film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib to
the first 1,000 churches that are willing to screen the movie in their
community during the week of Oct. 21 to 28. The film, made by HBO, is a masterful
examination of one of the great moral issues of the 21st century.
You can get a copy for your congregation by clicking here. Please forward this link to as many of your friends as you think might be interested. I would be delighted to hear from any of you who decide to show this important movie.
Chuck Gutenson is chief operating officer of Sojourners/Call to Renewal.