Religious Leaders Urge U.S. to Ban Torture

AS REPORTED IN THE WASHINGTON POST religious leaders have begun an anti-torture campaign:

"By suggesting that recent abuse of prisoners may not be just an aberration but a reflection of U.S. policy, the statement contains an implicit challenge to the Bush administration, according to some signers.

'I'm not persuaded that this issue has been put to bed yet by the Bush administration,' said David P. Gushee, a philosophy professor at Union University in Tennessee who wrote an influential article against torture this year in Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine. 'I'm worried that we still don't truly know what is going on in all our detention centers around the world.'

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said the administration has 'the utmost respect for all these religious leaders.' But, she said, 'I'll simply repeat what the president has said many times, which is that this government does not torture, and we adhere to the international conventions against torture. That is our policy, and it will remain our policy.'"

You can see a copy of the ad run in the New York Times here. This is the text in the ad:

Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished values. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.

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?

Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions.

Is it possible that what the White House says is true? What if American statute law, as well as specific policy, is that torture is not used by our government, and that our government adhere's to international conventions against torture? If true, then what can such a statement mean?

I do not think our government should use torture. Yet, I don't think I could sign the statement as it appeared in the ad because the statement is clearly premised on the belief that our government does use torture. If I believed our government did make the use of torture a matter of law and policy today, then I would support changing those laws and policies.

My best assessment at this time comes from reading news reports of allegations of torture, and from reading and hearing interviews of various people on the allegations and on the practices and policies of our government. And, my assessment of course includes what our President has said about torture. My best assessment is that it is neither law, nor policy, to use torture, and further, that any proven allegations (and therefore no longer just allegations) to date that specific individuals in our military have violated law and policy have resulted in those individuals being punished for their violations of law and policy.

My conclusion, therefore, is that the statement of the religious leaders in the ad makes little sense to me. Calling for the Congress and the President to change law and policy, when the change requested already seems to me the law and policy of Congress and the President makes no sense. One implication of all this is that such a nationally publicized statement seems motivated by pure politics rather than by a commitment to a moral view.

Perhaps I am incorrect in these conclusions. Perhaps I am wrong and it is the law and policy of the United States to use torture. Unfortunately, neither the ad, nor the web site of the organization paying for the ad, provides any reference to specific law or policy that would contradict my conclusion, or contradict what the President has said about law and policy.

I'm thinking that if I bring my faith to politics and political discourse there are at least 2 things that I would want to do. I would want to bring clarity and truth to the discussion. It seems to me that these religious leaders have not done that. Am I wrong?