{"id":1411,"date":"2007-10-11T10:43:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T10:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/10\/devils-and-dust-how-we-learned.html"},"modified":"2007-10-11T10:43:58","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T10:43:58","slug":"devils-and-dust-how-we-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/10\/devils-and-dust-how-we-learned.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Devils and Dust’: How We Learned to Torture (by Brian McLaren)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The New York Times<\/em> story<\/a> about the administration’s secret
\nauthorization of torture, one sentence is particularly chilling: “With
\nvirtually no experience in interrogations, the CIA had constructed
\nits program in a few harried months by consulting Egyptian and Saudi
\nintelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation methods long
\nused in training American servicemen to withstand capture.”<\/p>\n

Copying tactics used by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the former Soviet
\nUnion … what does this say about our nation’s trajectory? Since
\nreading those words last week, I can’t keep Bruce Springsteen’s song<\/a>
\nout of my head. First, he echoes what many
\nAmericans might say in response to the secret authorization of
\ntorture:<\/p>\n

Well I’ve got God on my side
\nAnd I’m just trying to survive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then he raises this question:<\/p>\n

What if what you do to survive
\nKills the things you love?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Springsteen then concludes:<\/p>\n

Fear’s a dangerous thing.
\nIt can turn your heart black you can trust.
\nIt’ll take your God-filled soul
\nFill it with devils and dust.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Springsteen’s words have me praying for
\nour nation today: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have
\nmercy.
\n

Brian McLaren’s<\/STRONG> new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope<\/A>,<\/EM> was released last Tuesday.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The New York Times story about the administration’s secret authorization of torture, one sentence is particularly chilling: “With virtually no experience in interrogations, the CIA had constructed its program in a few harried months by consulting Egyptian and Saudi intelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation methods long used in training American servicemen to withstand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-torture"],"yoast_head":"\n'Devils and Dust': How We Learned to Torture (by Brian McLaren) - God's Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/10\/devils-and-dust-how-we-learned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Devils and Dust': How We Learned to Torture (by Brian McLaren) - 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