Torture . . . really?

My friend Jonathan just posted a blog citing the Daily Show interview with the guy defending governmental rights to torture. To read, go to www.stormented.org. He ended by asking his readers to respond whether Christians can support torture. And the first two comments can be summed up as affirmative . . . . really.

One comment gave the same tired "if someone were attacking my family/wife" line that's generally proposed by Fox News, and anyone who's dumb enough to listen to Fox News. For now, I'll post my comment, and suggest you go read his blog if you want more context.


"I love how predictable this is. Our country is founded by people fleeing oppressive rule which commonly engaged in torturous acts. Our founders do their best to set up our country to be better than the ones they were fleeing from. Now, that we’ve achieved status as imperial empire, we wish to justify ourselves in doing the things which were the impetus for our escape. Our capacity to willingly adopt what we hate is ridiculous.

I think it important to remember the situation in Rome. We tend to be anachronistic and cast Rome in the perverse mold of Nero and Caligula. Yet, in Jesus’ day Rome was still run under the values of Augustus. Or should I say: the good, moral, family values of Augustus. He being the emperor who demanded marital fidelity, and the proper raising of children within the nuclear family, favoring what we in America would otherwise cast as “good Christian values”.

These being the ends Augustus sought to uphold, he saw no problem using any means to achieve them. Thus why he and his immediate successors saw no problem crucifying any foreigners who potentially undermined such a good, wholesome society. Thus, crucifixion saved countless (Roman) lives, just as water-boarding, among other heinous practices, saves (American) lives today.

Even still, the ends do NOT justify the means, when the means mock the foundations not only of this country, but of any humane society. Our attempts to justify ourselves by recourse to our values of family and “democracy” are a farce that prove only that we have sided with Rome and against the Kingdom of God. Our hypocrisy is further revealed when we now attempt to spin our torturous acts as “mild”, especially since we have previously called those who performed such acts on our people “war criminals” and sought their execution. When Christians seek to vindicate torture in any form, there is no gospel. Just more of the same."