Religion & Torture - Washington Post Story

A friend forwarded to me this story from the Washington Post about religious leaders who have signed a statement urging the US to stop torture. It is a fascinating story and well-worth reading. (You first may need to register with the Washington Post site. It takes only a minute.)

Several aspects of the story are interesting. Perhaps most interesting to me is the diverse group of religious leaders who have signed the statement. They range from Jewish (Elie Wiesel) to Catholic (Cardinal Theodore McCarrick) to Greek Orthodox (Archbishop Demetrios) to evangelical (Rick Waren and Ted Haggard). They clearly see torture to be immoral and are troubled by the US government's actions.

A White House press secretary is quoted as saying "I'll simply repeat what the president has said many times, which is that this government does not torture, and we adhere to the international conventions against torture." But the religious leaders apparently are more persuaded by Amnesty International's studies of torture in world affairs, which led to news stories such as this one from the BBC, or the United Nations study of Gitmo, as reported in CNN.