Rare News Desk
Last week’s release of the Senate’s report on the CIA confirmed what many Americans had long suspected: Our government tortured people.
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The torture was not effective in obtaining life-saving information, it set back counterterrorism efforts and even endangered American soldiers’ lives.
The methods used by the CIA are exceedingly gruesome and uncomfortably close to techniques used by the Soviet KGB and, yes, the Nazis. At least 26 of the 119 people tortured were entirely innocent—and many were detained even after the CIA realized its mistake in arresting them.
One of those 26 was a mentally challenged man who was tortured so that his cries of pain could be taped and played to his family to coerce confessions. And all of these activities were highly illegal under our Constitution as well as multiple treaties our government has signed.
This is really horrific stuff.
Perhaps equally horrific is how few Americans object to torture—no matter how illegal, inhumane, or useless it may be. With imaginations shaped more by television than real life, up to 71 percent of Americans consider torture acceptable in some situations.
But even worse—from my perspective, as a Christian—is another statistic: In May 2009, a study was released which showed that white evangelical Christians with high church attendance rates topped the charts for approving of torture. Christianity Today reported:
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 18 percent of white evangelicals said use of torture against suspected terrorists can often be justified and 44 percent said it can sometimes be justified. That adds up to 62 percent. […]
One more factor to consider: attendance at religious services. Fifty-four percent of those who attend religious services at least weekly say torture against suspected terrorists can be often/sometimes justified compared to 51 percent of those who attend monthly or a few times a year and 42 percent of those who attend seldom or never.
At the time of this survey (and to my knowledge there isn’t a more recent poll to update these religion-specific numbers), that 62 percent was the highest approval rate of torture of any group surveyed.
We evangelical Christians were the most bloodthirsty.
We were the most willing to presume guilt.
We were the quickest to deem ourselves worthy judges of the value of another’s life.
And arguably, we were the least like Jesus—because there’s no good way to argue that Jesus would support torture. On the contrary, Christianity most centrally means following a God who allowed himself to be tortured to save his enemies.
Non-denominational pastor and author Brian Zahnd writes:
Jesus was a victim of torture. He was tortured to death. But Jesus not only died on a cross, he called his disciples to take up their cross and follow him! Why? Why does Jesus call his followers to carry an instrument of torture? To torture enemies? Of course not! We take up our cross because in following Jesus we are prepared to choose suffering over security.
Being a Christian is not about being safe; it’s about following Jesus, who was painstakingly clear that we should love our enemies.
Just punishment for a crime is one thing, and faithful Christians have long disagreed about participation in war.
But is it possible to love someone while you’re torturing them?
While you let them freeze to death, chained to an icy floor? While you deprive them of sleep for more than a week, hands shackled above their heads? While you aggressively shove undigested food into their rectum?
I don’t think so.
There is something fascinating about that 2009 survey of evangelical Christians: When researchers connected support for torture with the Golden Rule, the proportion of Christians “who said torture was never or rarely justified rose from 38 percent to 52 percent.”
As Christianity Today commented, “Ask Christians to think in such Golden Rule terms, and they do change.”
That’s really good news, because Jesus said we should apply the Golden Rule even to people who hate us. He commanded Christians to love God, neighbors, enemies—everyone. The Apostle Paul wrote that no matter how much good and righteous-looking stuff he does, it’s all worthless if he acts without love. And “God is love,” said the Apostle John, so “[w]hoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”
In other words, love is the nuts and bolts of the Christian life. If we aren’t making decisions—even (or perhaps especially) about torture—in light of love, we aren’t being like Jesus. We aren’t following God’s commands. And our conclusions are totally worthless.
When Christians support torturing our enemies, we look more like the Romans who crucified Jesus than we look like the Son of God himself.
Love and torture are incompatible. Following Jesus and supporting torture are incompatible, too.
