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Torturing the Very Idea of America
Over three decades ago, a friend visiting from Sweden taught me a valuable lesson on the deeper dimensions of politics, human history, and national identity.
As a part of his visit to the USA, I spent a day showing him major points of interest in Washington D.C. We ascended the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a beautiful morning, not crowded by the usual swarms of tourists. In the calm and beauty of the setting, we each began to read silently the words of Lincoln’s second inaugural address engraved upon the wall: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in __.”
As I read Lincoln’s words I found myself seized by their power in a completely unexpected intensity. I looked over at my Swedish friend and could immediately see that he was even more transfixed by the moment. We stood there and talked of the terrible period in history in which Lincoln spoke; of the preceding years of savage conflict claiming over half a million lives, tearing this nation asunder; and of the transcending, enduring power of Lincoln’s words of mutual forgiveness and steadfast love.
Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that systems of justice and mutuality among peoples cannot “maintain themselves without inspiration from a deeper dimension of history.” He believed that the natural historical process could never satisfy the human spirit. We need another resource beyond our historical experience to feed our yearning for meaning that transcends simply survival. Surely to speak of charity for all, the love of neighbor, in the midst of a savage civil war seems, by any rational analysis, the height of foolishness. Lincoln knew better. His words continue to inspire and lift persons across the globe beyond the burdens and travails of the historical moment.
Writing from behind the bars of the Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King stated “that any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Reagan called the Declaration “a standard by which any humble person on Earth can stand in judgment of any government on Earth.” Pope John Paul II said that the Universal Declaration is “one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time.” Article 5 of the Declaration proclaims: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Whether motivated by revulsion of the act of torture, pity for the victim, respect for human dignity, compassion for all who suffer, or charity (love) for all; most human beings and most nations regard torture as a moral evil. And yet the torture debate in this nation seems caught in a wilderness of mirrors, a maze of false images and meaningless echoes. Where is the accountability at high levels for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal? Why does it still seem likely that waterboarding is an approved interrogation technique? Why does the Senate Judiciary Committee have to guess what Michael Mukasey, nominee for Attorney General, really means when he calls waterboarding repugnant? Why is almost every policy statement on torture made by our policy leaders so nuanced I am left guessing what it really means? Lincoln knew our nation was better than this. We the people need to insist that our leaders refuse to accept the lowering of our standards as we strive to finish the work we are in.
By
James Anderson
|
November 11, 2007; 4:59 PM ET
| Category:
Morality
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Posted by: Hugh (Bart) Vincelette | January 7, 2008 1:26 AM
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I think "the jury is still out" about whether "the human spirit", as Rev. Anderson used that term, is or is not "a supernaturally-based concept." For most intents and purposes, however, that does not really matter. "Evolved" or "endowed," our human spirit casts its leading light like an unquenchable candle aflame in the nights. It guides so many walking determined through dark historical periods, vision unblurred, mission crystal clear.
If we hold on to it, steadfast, undistracted, at the very least, we can hold on to what people like Lincoln, Gandhi, Rosa Park, and their like, treasured and left behind as legacy most precious. The human spirit: It is next to godliness. If there be God, then the human spirit is God permeating us; if there be none, then it is all that brings to the world the concept of godly.
How can one man or group of men torture another? First they must cast off the human spirit. They must de-humanized themselves in an attempt to dehumanized their victim.
Sure, we will be derided for harboring such "wooly" ideas and "whoozy" feelings. Sure, it is so "impractical," even seemingly inane and useless. So "unheroic," so "wishy-washy." So "defeatish." Such can be said too of what are elemental to it: love, justice, charity, trust and hope, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, etc. These that make us human.
Ah, but the prices we sometimes must keep paying for it!
Posted by: AJdelosReyes | November 11, 2007 10:41 PM
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Not so fast, Jimmy.
You are calling for the impeachment, conviction and punishment of bush and cheney, right?
If not, well..............
Posted by: Smacksof hypocracy | November 11, 2007 3:50 PM
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Frankly, I have a hard time taking anyone who claims there is any religious or humanistic justification for torture seriously.
Posted by: Viejita del oeste | November 10, 2007 11:29 PM
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I think the best part is bringing *this* up:
"President Reagan called the Declaration “a standard by which any humble person on Earth can stand in judgment of any government on Earth.”"
Cause the pro-torture Fundamentalist minority which holds sway in our government now bases, well, pretty much *everything* they do on the presumption that only *they* are qualified to make moral judgements for others, whether it's what sexual orientation gets equal protection under the law, what religions will be treated as equal in American society, even how many diseases parents should be able to protect their children from.
It's all part of the same thing, really.... claiming that they, not we, get to say what's acceptable or not.
Even when the majority's against them on something like torture, or health care, or our children's future... they insist they are the only ones who get to say.
We have to say no. All of us. To all of that.
'America doesn't torture' should be a no-brainer. That's why all the obfuscation.
Posted by: Paganplace | November 10, 2007 7:16 PM
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Rev Anderson -- Lovely - and thank you evoking the human spirt and not the holy spirit, and for not mentioning God (except in quoting Lincoln) Jesus, faith, or religion in your anti-torture appeal.
Obviously, you understand that none of those supernaturally-based concepts are necessary to explain the rationale for not torturing our fellow human beings.
Posted by: E favorite | November 8, 2007 9:16 PM
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I'd like to offer some brief comments on morality and absolute truths vis a vis sexual orientation. Homosexuality is far more about who one is 'programmed' to fall in love with; than actual sex acts. And apart from the murders of thousands of European homosexuals in the Nazi death camps along with the Jewish and Slavic peoples ; the most horrific crime against homosexual persons took place at the hands of conservative Christians.During the early years of HIV/AIDS,the religious right fiercely opposed any public finding for research into HIV and the development of treatment options.The subsequent delay in acquiring pharmaceuticals to counter HIV replication, denied thousands even a fighting chance at additional life. By any standards, their actions were utterly devoid of morality. This is not an exercise in painting all Christians as bigoted and hostile.