A site I encourage all who read this to visit is: http://www.nrcat.org

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is another incredible organization (started up less than a month ago) dedicated to fighting against torture. Torture is a reality of our present day military and covert operations all around the world.

We are battling terrorism, and acts of terror. What is more full of terror than the acts committed to the Abu Ghraib detainees, stripped of their dignity, their identity and often their entire lives.

We condemn rapists to death in Texas, but our Texas-run government condones (or doesn’t not condone) the sexual abuse, religious persecution, and brutal torture of American-held detainees across the world. And not only is this action condoned, it is taught. We do everything the best here in America.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has included in their new website a complete guide to leading discussions about torture with your study group, family, lecture, or anything else. They confront the subject tastefully and gently. They have included the PDFs at no cost, for both leaders and participants.

When I was in touch with the founder of the young organization, Dr. George Hunsinger of Princeton Theological Seminary, he wrote:

I believe that the voice of religious concern can make a difference in bringing about a total ban against existing U.S. policies that permit or authorize torture…

There is a fantastic article on Pbs.org about the organization. Check it out here:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week921/exclusive.html

They are also asking for donations, and at this point, those would be very significant in making an impact. Dr. Hunsinger is known for his powerful, and outspoken leadership, and I trust that this organization will make a real impact on the nation and the government.

Now is the time to talk about torture. We all know that it is a reality. Even the most naive, or most oblivious among us have seen the result of our practices in Iraq following the Abu Ghraib debacle. That was no isolated incident. President Bush said in no uncertain terms that he would not follow the legislation that he himself ratified with his signature (proposed and put through by Republican senator John McCain) — he wouldn’t torture anyone, but it depended on the definition. He wouldn’t torture anyone unless the security of the country was at stake.

Clearly, we have seen the results of a regime that cares little for the morals of its people, or even (in George Bush’s sake) for its own deeply conservative religious beliefs.

It’s not an issue of liberal and conservative. It’s an issue of good and bad. Do we want to be bad people, bad citizens (of our country and the world), bad Christians, Muslims, Jews… Yes, there is a ‘bad.’ When we do things despite our conscience. When we do things to fleece our pockets regardless of sacrifice.

This is an era of change. We can change things one by one — and in this case, it’s not a huge thing. Simply sign your name to the petition at Nrcat.org, and you will have changed something that you can change — your reticence to speak. Our reticence to speak. As Christians, Muslims and Jews, as Americans and citizens of the world.

If you can support the National Religious Campaign Against Torture with money, they are also looking for sponsorship. I don’t think there could be a better tithe. Give something back to our God of the Psalms, who is there with orphans and widows. Give something back to our God of the New Testament, who sits by the tomb of his friend and weeps.

Thank you to the wonderful work of Dr. Hunsinger and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. You can also visit Church Folks for a Better America, the founding group for the Campaign Against Torture. There are hundreds of links at that site for progressive Christians and others interested in speaking out or informing themselves… Pacifism, Resistance, Peace…

Non-violence takes action, and we might not have a great capacity for changing the world, but we can start with ourselves, and that is what the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s site reminds us: we can do something. We can love our enemies.

In all of the doctrine that our president, Pat Robertson, and so many other deeply religious politicians and leaders, pour into their actions, very little of Jesus’ words slide through the sieve into their hearts… Let us remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, this week of his wife’s passing:

So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.” And I’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed.

And then we will be in God’s kingdom. We will be able to matriculate into the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us.

We have the power to love our enemies, to bless those who have cursed us, and to decide to be good to those who hate us. We have the power to love those who commit acts of torture, the soldier-pawns of a governmental policy of terror. We have the power to be good to even those who are the leaders and the inciters of violence. Our power is in our individual voice, and our witness.

Witness to the violence of this country, and the world, in this time. Check out the site of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and support them as you can.