Do good Christian Republicans support torture? Of course not.

[rhett o rick]

This is my response to a republican that I correspond with:

“I am glad to read that you don’t support torture. However, I am concerned when you hedge and say you do support “heavy interrogation”. I am sure you will agree that the line can be a little blurry between the two. In fact Alberto Gonzales says, speaking for the Bush Admin, that you don’t even call it torture until bones are broken or internal organs are permanently damaged. I certainly hope you are a more compassionate republican than he is.
You say “heavy interrogation” is ok. Does that include placing plastic over a persons face until they pass-out? How about pushing their head under water until they almost drown? These would all pass the Admin test. How about tying up a person and sticking them head first into a sleeping bag and sitting on their chest until they are dead. If “heavy interrogation” results in death, is that too heavy?

I do have to give you credit for stipulating that you only think “heavy interrogation” should be used on people that might know something. Curious who gets to make that call? I bet you think that all 450 people that were rounded up and sent to Guantanamo all knew something and therefore it was acceptable to “heavy interrogate” them for years.

Since our government does its “heavy interrogation” in secret, even to the extent of moving prisoners to secret prison around the world, we don’t really know how heavy the interrogation is until it is leaked. And then we see abuse. The government secrecy of course is for our own good. For me not to see the abuse and be outraged and for you not to see the abuse to rationalize that all is hunky-dory. Rationalization is a Republican's key to happiness isn’t it.

In spite of your weak attempt of rationalization, torture by any other name is still f****** torture.”

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Love your neighbor as yourself

was the second commandment of Jesus to His followers. I don't see how torture fits in with this commandment.

[Jade Fox]

2. Be sure and show him this photo....

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/fr/ev.php-URL_ID%3D14980%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html&h=355&w=500&sz=46&tbnid=ZvL3apU0uoC9LM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=127&hl=en&start=378&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diraqi%2Bprisoners%26start%3D360%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DHPIC,HPIC:2005-41,HPIC:en%26sa%3DN

[rhett o rick]

3. Do Republicans turn a blind-eye to torture because it isn't Christians

being tortured? Is it easier for them if they don't consider the tortured to be humans? Someone please help me understand how Christians can rationalize allowing our government to torture similar to Nazis.

[gratuitous]

4. Christians don't rationalize torture

At least, none of the Christians in my congregation rationalize it. But there sure are a lot of people who hide behind the cross while spouting the most odious nonsense possible about torture, "heavy interrogation," "extraordinary rendition" or any number of other topics.

But just as I don't consider Moussaoui a spokesman for Islam, I don't consider the jock-sniffers and torture groupies to be legitimate spokespersons for Christianity.

[lwcon]

5. It's handy for the Religious Right...

... if you cease to be a spokesman once you take a terrible position. Some of the most powerful figures in the Christian Right completely condone the current administration and all of its most extreme policies.

True, they don't speak for all Christians, but they are rarely repudiated as they should be, and it's always A-OK, even ennobling, for the likes of John McCain to play footsie with these characters.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[rhett o rick]

6. It is not the radicals i am talking about. It is the everyday Christians

that continue to support the Bush Administration and their torture policies. It is not the small number of radicals that openly support torture, it is the millions of Christians that claim they don't support torture but then turn a blind eye and let Rummy get away with it. If they aren't against it they are enabling those who are for it. The whole point of my post was to point out how people say they don't condone torture then turn around and say "heavy interrogation" or rendition is ok. That is called rationalization. I have talked to these people. They don't want to know that their government is torturing or whatever they rationalize to call it. It is like in the school yard. When the bullies are beating up the nerd, the crowd stands around w/o helping. If you ask them, they will say they don't support the bullying, but their presents w/o helping enables the bullies. Christians that don't speak out against torture are turning a blind-eye and enabling this Administration. This applies to everyone, not just Christians.

[gratuitous]

7. You'll get no argument from me

But I don't know what the solution is. The practical upshot so far has been that neither active engagement with the issue nor standing mute on the sidelines has done a damn bit of good in terms of ending this corrupt administration's brutal policies. But I don't think that excuses doing nothing; outfits like the Christian Peacemaker Teams advocate doing one’s level best to resist and end violence, and then letting go of the result. Unfortunately, we humans are hard-wired for results, and society reinforces that idea. You’ll even see threads here at DU arguing against impeachment resolutions from municipal, county and state governments; what good does a resolution do?

In the concrete, here-and-now? The resolution probably does very little good. In terms of rallying people’s support and signaling to the wider public that their feelings of discontent are not isolated? It does quite a bit of good.

I can't answer for everyone, just myself. But I am resolved to keep after folks who identify themselves as Christian and challenge them not to be silent while our country gives away its soul.

[rhett o rick]

8. If we could only expose them to the truth. Open their eyes to the

atrocities that our government is doing in our name and their name. I think they want things to be so right (no pun intended) they are willing to believe the snake charmers who promise them everything will be just fine if they only resist the truth. It seems to me that there are so many gullible people out there. We must fight with everything we have to get out the truth. The NeoCons are killing this Country (the goose that laid the golden egg) and the worst part is that the gullible republicans are rooting them on.