In November, 2004, the New York Times revealed that the International
Red Cross had issued a report about conditions at the Guantanamo Bay Detention
Center in Cuba. What they found, the Red Cross said, was “tantamount to torture”
– in other words, torture – including both physical and psychological abuse.
Moreover, the IRC found that the abuse was aided by US medical officials who
were opening up the detainees’ medical records to “Behavioral Science Consultation
Teams,” or Biscuit teams, as interrogators refer to them. These Biscuit teams
use the information they get from detainees’ medical pasts and psychological
exams and treatment to give interrogators an edge, an idea of where to go with
their questioning and methods.
Investigative journalists later reported on soldiers who, anonymously, admitted to several forms of prisoner abuse, all of which are against long agreed to international law. These soldiers said that, among other things, they administered enemas to especially tough detainees as a way of softening them into releasing information. They also shackled prisoners, forced them to listen to loud music, stripped them, and froze them. In addition, they defaced the Koran and sent women in to sexually taunt devout Muslims. All on the American taxpayer’s dime.
Columnist Molly Ivins wrote an impassioned piece, “Torture In Our Name,” in which she pointed out that “our country has opposed torture since its founding. One of our founding principles is that cruel and unusual punishment is both illegal and wrong.” So, she asked the American people, “What are you going to do about this?” Ivins also asked the penetrating question, “What are our moral values? Where are our clergymen on this? Speak out, speak up.”
Good questions. We asked a few local religious leaders — Pastor David Chadwick of Forest Hills Church; Rabbi Judith Schindler of Temple Beth El; Andy Baxter, a Methodist Minister and Executive Director of Mecklenburg Ministries; Rev. Steve Shoemaker of Myers Park Baptist; and Rev. James Howell of Myers Park Methodist Church — how the reports of torture by American personnel had affected them, whether they considered it an important moral issue, and what, if anything, they had said to their congregations about it.
Regardless of religious affiliation, the clergy members we interviewed said they were opposed to torture, and found the torture at Guantanamo Bay to be especially unnerving.
“A follower of Jesus,” stated Pastor David Chadwick of Forest Hills Church, “who takes the scriptures seriously would have difficulty squaring this activity with teachings like love your enemy, pray for your persecutor, do not return evil for evil.”
All of the religious leaders quoted scripture that spoke against harsh treatment of enemies, and loving those who worked against you.
Opinions differed, however, on whether torture was ever acceptable. “In my religion, torture is never justified,” said Rabbi Schindler.
Pastor Chadwick, on the other hand, opined, “If information gained by putting someone under physical pain ultimately saved hundreds or thousands of lives, there’s a part of me that says that’s appropriate.” He emphasized that lines needed to be drawn, and that there must be a certain degree of certainty prior to the act that something extremely valuable would be gained. “I don’t think out and out physical pain without boundaries is appropriate,” Chadwick added.
Rev. Andy Baxter felt the opposite: “This mode of thinking — to torture one to save thousands — is antithetical to Christian tradition. Christians throughout time have been willing to suffer, even if the suffering killed them, because it would not be the final word. By abstaining from evil, the love of God would overcome.”
Some of the clergy members saw the Guantanamo Bay abuses as something other than a protective act. Rabbi Schindler remarked that Deuteronomy warns against the evils of war in its statement: “When you go out as a troop against your enemies, be on your guard against any evil thing.” Rabbi Schindler explained: “There is an awareness when you enter war, that the human inclination could lead to further abuses than what is justified.”
The view that the actions in Guantanamo Bay are a form of evil rising from war is reflected in the Christian faith as well. Rev. Howell said, “If you arm people raised on [violence] and put them in the presence of people they may have reason to fear, and before whom they feel a tad superior — why would anyone be surprised that some act out in ugly ways?”
Reverend Baxter feels similarly. “When I look at what is happening at the prison, and what is in the scripture, my response is that this is sin. This is committing evil in the name of preventing evil.”
Rabbi Schindler gave Israel as an example of proper conduct toward prisoners of war. Although the country is under near constant attack, it does not allow torture, including a specific ban within the legal system. “A reasonable investigation is one free of torture, free of cruel, inhumane treatment of the subject, and one free of any degrading handling whatsoever,” states the Israeli Supreme Court Ruling on Torture and Interrogation, “There is a prohibition on use of brutal or inhumane means in the course of any investigation.”
Schindler said that by the very act of keeping Afghani prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the US is in violation of the Geneva Convention. “In the war between Afghanistan and America, the Geneva Convention accords allowed the US to hold as prisoners, without charges, members of the Taliban government’s armed forces,” noted Schindler, “but the war ended in June 2002.”
According to the Bush administration, torture and imprisonment restrictions no longer apply to what occurs in these US detention facilities. The New York Times reported that “Mr. Bush was not bound by either the International Convention Against Torture or a federal anti-torture statute because he had the authority to protect the nation from terrorism.” This view was supported by a legal team working in conjunction with the Justice Department. Thus, according to the administration, the United States government is legally empowered with the ability to imprison and torture in the name of Homeland Security.
Rev. Steve Shoemaker of Myers Park Baptist is appalled by the forms of religious abuse being used at the Guantanamo facilities, as was reported by the New York Times. “The forms of torture that involve the use of the Koran and Muslim moral principles to humiliate prisoners seem especially abhorrent, and especially dangerous in a time when we want to play down any hint that what we are about is a Holy War against Islam,” Shoemaker commented, noting that the hazardous practices employed by Guantanamo interrogators can be taken as a form of religious persecution. Religious persecution by the United States Government.This brings up an interesting question: with the recent elections highlighting the concern of many Americans about our society’s moral values of our society, why is there not more public uproar about our own government carrying out torture, specifically the religious torture, of another human being — maybe not with our graces or consent, but at least our lack of intervention?
“In the post-9/11 era, we’ve barricaded ourselves into some notion that America is right, no matter what, no matter what it takes, all bets are off, we will win, we will never forget,” comments Reverend Howell. “I’m not sure people pay attention to the war itself, much less what happens with prisoners.”
Pastor Chadwick, remembering the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s, said that change is possible through civil protest. The problem is the people are lacking one thing: “The right pictures were seen,” said Chadwick, referring to images of police dogs attacking praying civil rights marchers. He says we’re lacking the images needed for outrage. “Like Abu Ghraib, that really didn’t affect anyone until the pictures were shown.”
Rabbi Schindler responded to the moral values issue by saying that the government is “using their moral meter as a political tool. The government plays the morality card when it is politically advantageous for them to do so.”
Howell stated, “You squander your moral capital, if in the name of defending moral values, you stoop to the level of those you are fighting. Too often, when Americans talk about moral values, they mean something about how we live here among ourselves — but do not think much about how we relate to other nations and people in moral ways.”
Baxter sees this as a very grave problem: “People have made a split between public life, which includes things such as politics, economics and government, and their private life, which includes religion and morality. Religion is kept separate from public life.” This split creates the possibility for people to continue through their lives seeing themselves as generally good, without having to speak out against political and governmental abuses. Baxter feels this attitude is shared by both conservative and liberal Christians. It’s also something he sees as especially dangerous. When living this way, he says, “You lose the ability to talk about moral decisions from a collective standpoint. Going to war is a moral decision, but it can’t be discussed that way.” This split is hard to remedy, and religious leaders constantly battle the attitude that by attending a service, a worshipper has redeemed himself or herself for the week.
So far, despite their feelings about the issue of torture by Americans, the clergy members we spoke to have not done much to broach the subject with their followers.
“Say you give a sermon on something like these abuses,” Baxter explained, “You might get a few good responses, but spend the week with a lot of angry calls and emails. You can’t become too busy with one issue, you still have to take time to talk about religion.”
In addition, pointed out Pastor Chadwick, there are many other issues out there. “It’s not a major blip on my radar screen,” he admitted.
Rabbi Schindler, who has in the past spoken to her congregation on the war in Iraq and the abuses at Abu Ghraib, said “Now would be a good time to speak about it, now I would plan on it.”
As for the greater religious community, groups such as the Jewish RAC and the National Council of Churches, which lobby government officials for change, seem to be moving toward action. Religious leaders are coming together and signing official documents and letters urging for change and the elimination of all torture in interrogation.
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2005.
