WHAT IS TORTURE?

Not too long ago--while I probably should have been busy doing something else--I got involved in watching the Senate Armed Services Committee attempting to find out just how high in the Administration the decision to torture suspected captives went. The President, and the officials who were testifying, claim that the United States doesn't torture anyone.

If you define a rattlesnake as having three foot long fangs, striking everything in sight without provocation, and automatically dividing into ten other snakes more deadly than the first, you can look around and say with a straight face, "See, there are no rattlesnakes here." The Administration has simply redefined torture as--get this--activities limited to extreme mental or physical suffering, organ failure or death. Eliminated from the definition are all those other activities that international law and the Geneva accords define as torture. Among them: drowning, nakedness, the use of dogs, sexual humiliation, keeping detainees awake for days at a time, extreme temperatures, confinement for years without any charges--- on and on and on--Since these do not meet the newly minted definition, voila---we don't torture.

It became obvious during the hearings that the disgraceful events at Abu Ghraib were not simply the night tricks of a few "bad apples"--privates and corporals, but practices authorized far up the chain of command by official memoranda. In the midst of the investigation by Congress comes the Supreme Court saying that the Constitution guarantees even to these detainees.

Two things strike me. First, I just cannot believe that my native land--this nation committed to justice and liberty for all-- is involved in torture--not only in a off-shore prison, but also in private prisons all over the globe. This can't be the America I love. We must be better than that. But the evidence is spotty at best.

Second, I am appalled that the church has had so little to say about this obscenity. At last comes George Hunsinger, Professor of Systematic Theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary, who has focused Christians and other people of faith on this issue, leading to the formation the National Religious Campaign Against Torture of which DJAN is a member and founding organization. But, aside from DJAN and a hand full of our churches, where are the rest of us? Where are you, and what are you doing about it?

At last years General Assembly, with the help of DJAN and the sponsorship of Shepherd Park Christian Church in the nation's Capitol, the Disciples did pass a solid resolution on torture--one that condemned torture, aligned us with NRCAT, and encouraged other Disciples to join and support this important ecumenical and interfaith effort to end torture. But since Fort Worth, I haven't heard a word from anybody about how we might actually implement that statement. Without anybody in the general offices focused on these sorts of issues, and with no meaningful financial or institutional support for those organizations that do, even critical resolutions dissolve with the morning mist.

The chances that our denomination will, in any meaningful way, invest itself in this or other crucial issues are remote. I have read the recent recommendation of our Administrative Committee that we eliminate all General Assembly Resolutions on these issues--a move supported by our GMP! This seems to mean that we may discuss, discern, hold workshops, listen ad-infinitum, but will always, at the end of the day, refuse to take a clear position.

The move in this direction originated in response to a large Oklahoma church, whose more vocal members objected to a resolution calling into question the current war against Iraq. In response, the thinking of many in our denomination's leadership seems to be this: since these questions might divide our already fragile church, we must be silent. However, even if we continue to take a public stand on hard issues, with no official device to put teeth into our words, we haven't done much that matters.

I hear from scores of retired ministers--and many more still active--who no longer even bother to participate in corporate church life--at least not ours. In my staff work with Progressive Christians Uniting, I am in touch with large numbers of committed young people who refuse to get involved in what they believe in that great conspiracy of silence called "the church."

If the General Assembly descends to a "How are you?" family reunion--with what is left of the family--it will simply lose a substantial part of a new turned-on generation.

I love the church--this church--but I guess I have other things to do than to spend what time I have left saying, "it might be this and it might be that, but since we do not all agree, we should be content to say nothing."

But that's just my opinion. What's yours?
Charles Bayer
candwbayer@verizon.net


To read Sense-of-the-Assembly Resolution 0721 on 'The Elimination of Torture, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To read more about the Campaign to End Torture,
PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To join the1800 people who have signed the Statement Against Torture, PLEASE CLICK HERE.