Religious Leaders Urge U.S. to Ban Torture

Twenty-seven religious leaders, including megachurch pastor Rick Warren, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, have signed a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now -- without exceptions." The statement, being published in newspaper advertisements starting today, is the opening salvo of a new organization called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which has formed in response to allegations of human rights abuse at U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Titled "Torture is a Moral Issue," the statement says that torture "violates the basic dignity of the human person" and "contradicts our nation's most cherished values." "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?" it asks.

The signers come from a broad range of denominations and include notable religious conservatives, such as the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; and the Rev. William J. Byron, former president of Catholic University. 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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201484.html

their website and their ad
http://www.nrcat.org/

would advocate the US banning torture!

professed Christians actually make an effort to actually follow Jesus Christ! What an idea!

I am happy to see that, at any rate...I've been displeased and saddened by so many of my brethren. It breaks my heart to see anyone trying to justify torture, we couldn't stoop any lower to repudiate and spurn our own humanity than that.

Todd in Beerbratistan

In front of his parents by sticking a plastic Flashlight up his rectum

Read the Taguba report.

"Just a few frat pranks" --- R. Cheney

it's too little too late. It's the fundies that have allowed this administration to get so out of control that nothing can stop them. They are the ones who see Bush as infalliable and have even come so far as to equate the GOP as the party of God. They wanted this administration. They got exactly what they voted for - a bunch of out of control lunatic business men who are far more concerned with profit (and stealing our tax dollars in the process) than they are for the good of the country. We cant ever let them forget that.

Don't they know that our Komandant-in-Chief gets his marching orders from the Almighty and that if GAWD says that torture is not torture, then it isn't!

though the more voices the better, especially religious ones being this is a religious nation and the neoCONs are trying to monopolize it.

Chimpy's signing statement obviated that part of the amendment.

On the road to declaring that all war is sin. When you get there, you'll find the Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren have gone ahead and prepared a nice place for you in the palace behind the ramshackle hut of redemptive violence.

Bush that God loves OIL and that he should get more regardless of the cost.

Gushee is really putting his livelihood on the line.

and promote brotherhood in the name of one world government.

This is the first major break I've seen between *'s base and him yet.

The President of the NAE is a huge blow to the administration. The NAE IS THE RELIGIOUS BASE.

Members:

Advent Christian General Conference
Assemblies of God
Association of Life-Giving Churches
Association of Vineyard Churches-USA
Baptist General Conference
Bi-lingual Churches of America
Brethren in Christ Church
Christ Community Church
Christian Church of North America
Christian Reformed Church in North America
Christian Union
Church of God
Church of God (Holiness)
Church of God Mountain Assembly
Church of the Nazarene
Churches of Christ In Christian Union
Congregational Holiness Church
Congregational Methodist Church
Conservative Baptist Association of America
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
Conservative Lutheran Association
Elim Fellowship
Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches
Evangelical Church of North America
Evangelical Congregational Church
Evangelical Free Church of America
Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region
Evangelical Lutheran Conference
Evangelical Methodist Church
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Evangelistic Missionary Fellowship
Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches
Fellowship of Evangelical Churches
Free Methodist Church of North America
General Association of General Baptist
General Council Christian Union
Hispanic World Harvest Churches
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
International Pentecostal Church of Christ
International Pentecostal Holiness Church
Midwest Congregational Christian Fellowship
Missionary Church, Inc.
Northern Pacific Latin American Assemblies of God
Open Bible Churches
Pentecostal Church of God
Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church Inc.
Presbyterian Church in America
Primitive Methodist Church USA
Reformed Episcopal Church
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
Southern Pacific Latin American Churches
The Brethren Church
The Christian & Missionary Alliance
The Salvation Army
The Wesleyan Church Corporation
Third Day Worship Centers
United Brethren in Christ
US Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches
Worldwide Church of God