CNN recently pubished survey results showing the more often people attend church the more likely they are to approve of torture. What's more, the most torture-approving denominations are the mainline Protestants like us.
I woud like to think that's a fluke survey. But I remember a diocesan convention in the "liberal" Diocese of Atlanta on the brink of the Iraq War. Several anti-war resolutions were offered, but the Committee replaced the anti-war statements with a resolution simpy affirming St. Augustine's criteria defining a "just war." This led to an extended debate over the critierion that a just war does not target civilians. We wound up passing a resolution endorsing St. Augustine minus the protection for civilians -- a standard the military upheld while the church abandoned.
I don't know what to think -- even less what to say. But it seems to me we have some big time soul searching to do.
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The Baptismal Covenant asks:
WILL YOU RESPECT THE DIGNITY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING?
Kinda hard to do that torturing them, which given their confined state, just war theory/self-defense does not apply. I'm not sure you respect the dignity of every human being by killing someone, but I would make an exception for self-defense, defense of the nation, etc.
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