Why aren't the Bigmouth Preachers Speaking Out Against Legalising TORTURE?

[elehhhhna]

?

[NOLADEM]

1. Because they feed their flocks with hate, vengence and fear

...sate their pallet on war reports, and pray for Armegeddon.

They are truly enemies of peace in every sense of the word.

[elehhhhna]

2. FOUND SOME!

Torture is a Moral Issue


EDITOR'S NOTE: This statement was issued Friday by a group of religious leaders and people of faith in Connecticut, in cooperation with Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, which is a member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Signatories are listed at the end of this essay.

As religious leaders in Connecticut we are deeply concerned, indeed horrified, that Congress is poised to legalize torture. Earlier this week, at a press conference at Hartford Seminary, we spoke in one voice to say emphatically: No torture anywhere anytime--no exceptions. We joined our voices with those of national religious leaders in the National Religious Campaign Against Torture who published an advertisement signed by national figures in Washington's Roll Call on the same day.

We are compelled to speak again because the just-announced Republican "compromise" threatens to compromise the rule of law and the laws of God. Torture is a moral and legal issue; it is also a profoundly religious issue, for it degrades the image of God in the tortured and the torturer alike. Our moral compass is swinging wildly. To tolerate, or worse decriminalize, torture jeopardizes the soul of our nation.

If we were not to raise our voices in outrage at this time, the very stones would cry out....

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/moral_compass

Signatories

Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree, Conference Minister of Connecticut Conference of United Church of Christ

Bishop Andrew D. Smith, Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut

Rev Judy Allbee, Executive Minister of American Baptist Churches of Connecticut

Rev. Dana Lindsley, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Professor of Islamic Studies of Hartford Seminary and President of the Islamic Society of North America

Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman, Temple Beth Hillel, Wethersfield, Connecticut

Rabbi Donna Berman, Executive Director, Charter Oak Cultural Center

Rev. Allie Perry, Coordinating Committee of National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Badr Malik, Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Connecticut Chapter

Rev. Kathleen McTigue, Unitarian Society of New Haven

Rev. Dennis Calhoun, Middlebury Congregational Church

John Humphries, Hartford Friends Meeting

Rev. Thomas O'Rourke, Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension

Rev. Susan Power-Trucksess, Presbyterian Minister

Carl S.Dudley, Faculty Emeritus, Hartford Seminary

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I'm sure many liberal, mainstream Christians oppose torture.

Many of them are appalled at a lot of the things going on in the name of their religion. My wife was just mentioning how her minister deplores the rise of fundamentalism & sees creationist doctrine as symbolic of the calculated promulgation of ignorance.

[elehhhhna]

10. Funny the MSM hasn't found any yet.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. They can't find any Democrats with coherent plans either.

Nor could they find their asses if Bush told them they didn't have any.

[dkofos]

3. What, and loose another xtian value

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. !

:yoiks:

[Gregorian]

5. I think many (not the 700 Club types) are.

But how often does a sermon from Stanford University Memorial church make it into the news. And that I think is the short answer.

I'm quite surprised at the silence, also. One would think the churches would have collectively hammered the media on this from the beginning.

I think speaking out has always been discouraged in this country. People feel it's counterproductive.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. They don't get any better press coverage than other liberals.

And the IRS is breathing down their necks about tax-exempt status if they dare to speak out, while leaving the fundie wingnuts alone to spew their hatred.

[Cha]

7. Oh, cause they just

love it, doncha know, when chimp talks about Torturin' all those suspects!

[DemoTex]

8. Tomorrow is Sunday. If the pulpits in this country don't reverberate ..

If the pulpits in this country don't reverberate with anti-torture messages tomorrow, then what - in the name of all that is holy - can they rail out against? Bill Clinton's BJ?

If the parishioners don't demand that their churches take a stand against the evil insinuation of torture into the warp-and-woof of the fabric of this nation, then they have allowed (in keeping with the pop-theology of the 1960s) their God to die.

What better time, what better place to stand up to the specter of our nation stooping to torture - and thus becoming, truly, a rogue nation - than in the houses of worship? Would one dare try to justify torture with New Testament scripture? I shudder when I contemplate the answer to that one.