The Workday Liberal

Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word, but allowed in deed?

As a liberal Christian, I would like to whole heartedly endorse the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

As a matter of course I try to keep my personal feelings about God's will, judgement or what not out of my blogging. I think that to rely upon what one believes to be a divine truth in order to justify yourself is to cut off all meaningful debate. To invoke God as the author of your opinion is the end of conversation really... what point is there to continue at that point? Besides which, how is it that you or I as human beings (presumably!) pretend to comprehend the will of God in these matters? To do so is arrogance of the highest degree.

Furthermore, I'm not one to use normally meaningless terms like "soul of our nation". That sort of language is normally used by a politician trying to show an empathy for the viewer, in a crass but meaningless attempt to gain approval. However, in this case, I think that term is apropos. American ideals, principles and more's through out our existence have been shaken to the core by this one issue. It is a question of the basic meaning of America. Do we stand for what we always have stood for, or have we allowed the terrorists to render those former truths meaningless. I say to allow torture to stain this nations honor is to give a part of our soul away. It is to lose an intrinsic part of what it once meant to be an American.

There is a clear line of before and after in our nations history. Before we condemned torture in all it's forms. After, we caved in to our basest elements, allowing fear to take hold and decay our principles. American honor already has been stained by this horror, but I believe to my core that Americans must take action to cleanse ourselves of this stain to the best of our abilitities. We must do what we can to reclaim what it meant to be American. That starts with the denunciation of torture by the people as a whole and NRCAT is a part of that.

On to my interpretation on spirituality and torture. Despite my misgivings at granting Godly approval on an issue I feel strongly about, I can not grasp any spiritually sound argument that would allow for the use of torture by a moral nation. I can not imagine any person honestly convincing themselves that Jesus would condone it. Maybe I have fallen into a trap I studiously try to avoid, but so be it. If anyone who considers themselves to be spiritually in touch would care to enlighten me as to how I may be interpreting this wrongly, please feel free to give me an education on the matter. Until such point as someone can show me the error in my determination on this matter however, I feel confident in drawing a hard line on the issue: Torture is not moral and can never be so. A nation that strives to be moral will not allow it, in any form, period and end of story.