|
Never. Torture cannot be justified, nor can parsings of the meaning of torture, such as the evasions about waterboarding before the Senate Judiciary Committee by President Bush's nominee for attorney general. Any senator who votes for the confirmation of Michael Mukasey is disgracing his or her office, in both a moral and constitutional sense. How is it possible that my country now holds itself to such a low moral and legal standard?
This is a profound moral and psychological question--no less so for an atheist than for a religious believer. It is both a personal issue and, as demonstrated by Bishop Tutu's efforts toward reconciliation in South Africa, a social issue of vast importance. In the United States, however, the very word "forgiveness" has been cheapened by both secular and religious psychobabble implying that unconditional forgiveness, even when unaccompanied by any acknowledgment of responsibility on the part of the wrongdoer, is an absolute good.
This question has almost nothing to do with religion.I can't imagine that American Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Pagans, or atheists could be offended by a discussion of why so many family gatherings are filled with tension between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Spend a holiday with someone else's family, observe quarrels and tensions in which you actually play no emotional role, and you will see that heartburn-inducing gravy and inflated expectations induce snapping and growling among family members who actually love (and may even like) one another.
The American obsession with sex scandals--as opposed, say, to political scandals involving serious violations of individual liberties, abuses of government power, or torture--is often thought to be a product of our Puritan heritage. That's unfair to the Puritans, who actually cared a good deal more about integrity in non-sexual matters. Our preoccupation with the sex lives of public figures is simply one more manifestation of America's broader cultural immaturity.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
Comments (238)