The Christian Ethics of Torture

A Southern Baptist ethicist is appalled at the proposed appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

BY: Miguel De La Torre

Reprinted with permission of EthicsDaily.com. EthicsDaily.com is an imprint of the Baptist Center for Ethics.

We, as a country, are attempting to make history without God. And although we've been flaunting the previous election as the triumph of "moral values," in reality we have exchanged the biblical mandate for justice for a human mandate determined to secure the power and privilege of the world's few at the expense of the world's many.

To achieve this goal, we are willing to participate in immoral and unbiblical actions. The angel of darkness, which clothes itself in light, has seduced us into devouring and torturing those created in the image of God, all the while claiming that the blood we spill is the will of the Almighty and we are but God's instruments.

It is bad enough that the abuses of Abu Ghraib have been swept under the rug. The shock expressed when the story made headline news has been conveniently forgotten, reducing justice to the scapegoating of a few low-level military personal, thus constructing a false reality that this was but an aberration instigated by a few "rotten apples."

This present administration has continued to insist that the horrific photos we witnessed were but isolated incidents, and the atmosphere that contributed to these abuses has been rectified. Although we continue to publicly proclaim our respect for international law and the Geneva Convention, privately, we continue to participate in human rights violations.

Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a report charging that the prisoners held at Guantánamo are being subjected to abuses that are "tantamount to torture."

The mistreatment of prisoners in Guantánamo resembles the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. They have been exposed to sexual humiliation, prolonged isolation or prolonged "stress positions," and beatings.

What is new in the torture chambers at Guantánamo is the use of medical personnel during the "interrogation" process, in complete violation of the Hippocratic Oath. The only progress (if you can call it that) reported by the 2004 report over the 2003 findings is that female interrogators have ceased, during the interrogation process, to expose their breasts, sexually touch prisoners or exhibit pornographic material.

What would happen if good American Christians took time to discuss our use of torture during their Sunday school classes?

How has this administration handled the Red Cross's findings on prisoner torture? They simply ignored the report, stating, according to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's office, that this is simply the Red Cross's "point of view" not shared by Bush.

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