"Take special care to guard your tongue before the morning prayer . . .
A person who wakes up in the morning is like a new creation.
Begin your day with unkind words, or even trivial matters,
even though you may later turn to prayer,
you have not been true to your Creation."
Hasidic Teaching
It's astonishing that individuals who often underscore America's Christian heritage can support the possible use of torture for prisoners in U.S. custody. Fortunately, combating terrorism through mistreatment of prisoners is not widely supported by the country's electorate, or most members of Congress.
This discussion comes at a time when American citizens learned the existence of secret CIA detention camps in the fledgling democracies of Eastern Europe to hold and interrogate terrorist suspects. Depending on the news source some of these suspects have been drugged, beaten, and subjected to electric shock. Independent of the inhumane tactics being administered is the dark irony that the United States is using former Soviet satellites where the KGB and its local counterparts used such tactics against pro-democracy, anti-Communism activists.
Although President George W. Bush has been clear that America will not torture prisoners, it is troubling that key aides are attempting to influence his views that run contrary to fundamental Christian principles. Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss tried to stop a torture ban introduced in Congress.
Late last month, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, a former Vietnam POW, attached an amendment to a military spending bill to prohibit inhumane treatment of those held in U.S. custody. Despite Cheney and Goss it passed by 90 votes.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Chair of the Armed Services Committee Senator John Warner, and former military judge Senator Lindsey Graham, were among the 46 Republicans supporting the torture ban. As recently as Sunday, November 6, 2005, Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel told a national audience that the Administration was "making a terrible mistake. Why in the world they're doing that, I don't know." The House is expected to pass a similar amendment.
Other supporters of McCain's initiative include Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs John Shalikashvili, the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference and the American Jewish Committee.
Initially, President Bush said he would veto the entire spending bill with its torture ban. He has now modified the position seeking only to allow intelligence operatives to use torture. Cheney and Goss are lobbying members of Congress again to modify the McCain amendment. They want aggressive interrogation by CIA operatives permitted for those held overseas so long as it's approved by the President of the United States. McCain has called the revision "totally unacceptable" and has pledged to get a torture ban in all situations attached to every major bill in Congress until one passes.
On the floor of the United States Senate McCain said: "to fight terrorism we need intelligence. That much is obvious. What should also be obvious is that the intelligence we collect must be reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women."
McCain set out three reasons for his position. Prisoner abuse leads to bad intelligence because a detainee being tortured will say anything to stop the pain. One need only think about the Spanish Inquisition where thousands confessed to sins they never committed. Mistreatment of prisoners will endanger U.S. soldiers who are captured. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth standard seems to be McCain's concern here. The Arizona Senator finally points out that prisoner abuse takes "a terrible toll in the war of ideas, because inevitably these abuses become public. When they do, the cruel actions of a few darken the reputation of our country in the eyes of millions. American values should win against all others in any war of ideas." Prisoner abuse tarnishes America's image.
Although I agree with all of the reasons McCain outlined, there is a spiritual dimension that Americans should consider. The reaction to injustice, in this case terrorism, helps define an individual's Creation. It determines the depth of a person's humanity. It measures the relationship a person has with God who created each human child in divine likeness.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the most remarkable and inspirational men in the modern Christian world wrote: "during the darkest days of apartheid I used to say to P.W. Botha, the president of South Africa, that we had already won, and I invited him and other white South Africans to join the winning side. All the 'objective' facts were against us --the past laws, the imprisonments, the tear-gassing, the massacres, the murder of political activists-- but my confidence was not in the present circumstances but in the laws of God's universe. This is a moral universe, which means that, despite all the evidence that seems to be to the contrary, there is no way that evil and injustice and oppression and lies can have the last word. God is a God who cares about right and wrong."
The mere possibility of inhumane treatment to a detainee rejects this wisdom. It is contrary to the beauty of our individual Creation to which we are called by God. America cannot react with emotional vitriol causing the pursuit of justice to sour and turn into the seed of hate, further nurtured by the evil of vengeance.
Terrorism must be defeated. The victory, however, must occur without compromising one's humanity, not for the sake of those who behave in a barbaric or uncivilized manner, but in order to be true to our Creation. To do otherwise means America has used the tactics of those it seeks to stop. A corrupt method makes for a corrupt goal and wounds the soul in the process.
The Most Rev. Paul Peter Jesep is Chancellor of the Archeparchy and Syncellus of Government Relations and Public Affairs for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. His Excellency is also a lawyer, a former legislative analyst to U.S. Senator Susan Collins, and has taught the Legislative Process at Boston University. He may be reached at VladykaPaulPeter@aol.com.
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