No acceptable rationale for torture
by the Right Reverent Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo
January 2006

Editor’s note: In early November, some members of St. Barnabas’, Norwich, approached Bishop Ely to ask if he might be willing to speak out on the issue of torture and the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody throughout the world. He began a collaboration with them that spread to a larger group, including several members of the clergy. The result was the pastoral letter sent to Vermont congregations on November 16, 2005.

As a next step, the group began working on an editorial commentary to be sent to Vermont newspapers. Bishop Ely shared this effort with members of the Vermont Ecumenical Council (VEC), some of whom offered suggestions during the drafting process, and twenty ultimately signed as endorsers. The result of the collaborative effort, printed below, was published in the Sunday Burlington Free Press (December 4), The Sunday Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus (December 4) and in the Caledonian Record (December 6).

The Internet search company Google has elicited chuckles for its informal corporate motto, “Don’t Be Evil.” As individuals, we struggle daily with moral choices, and it would be a great relief to have those dilemmas answered by such a simple reminder as “Don’t be Evil.” As a nation, we also face difficult moral decisions where, at our best, our deliberations and arguments reflect the complexity of ethical choices. It is rare to debate publicly whether to choose deliberately a path that all acknowledge is evil. The recent controversy over U.S. treatment of detainees is such a debate.

Major religious traditions challenge believers to live by some version of the Golden Rule: do unto others as we would have them do to us. Because of this teaching, we are compelled to see in each man, woman and child held by U.S. forces another human being, made in the image of God, and to treat them as we would want to be treated ourselves. In the light of such beliefs there can be no acceptable rationale for torture. When we use torture we turn from the teachings of our faith and treat some children of God as mere objects to be degraded and abused.

While torture has a long and sordid history, in modern times the condemnation of torture as an unqualified evil has become the official position of nearly every nation on Earth. In 1948 this found expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” In 1994 the United States ratified the Convention Against Torture, which states that “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” By setting a global standard for the treatment of prisoners, these treaties were hailed as great victories for human rights. Sadly, numerous governments have ignored and violated these global imperatives, and since September 11, 2001 the United States is likewise abandoning this global consensus.

The notion that we can only defeat enemies by resorting to evil ourselves is an old and seductive one. Those who argue this side of the torture debate include some of the most powerful figures in our government. They would have us use “any means at our disposal” to “win the war on terror.” In recent weeks such officials have lobbied against a legislative ban on “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment of prisoners that was introduced by Senator John McCain, himself a victim of torture. Their reasoning does not persuade me. The end does not justify the means.

Some would have us view goodness as a weakness and the Golden Rule as a luxury that we cannot afford in difficult times. Evil feeds on our fear of being victims, of being powerless in the face of shadowy enemies. We are told to imagine scenarios where only torture can save the lives of innocent millions. We are urged to reject the fundamental beliefs of our faith in order to feel protected from the nightmares of our imagination.

Early in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus is told to imagine himself as ruler of all the nations—to think of all the good he could do with that power—if only he would bow to Satan. Evil tempts us with the idea that we can escape our fear and powerlessness if only we will bow to its seductive power. But however seductive, evil is evil. Terrorists who bomb a wedding reception may know that they are performing an evil act but are also convinced that they are advancing some greater cause. There are many possible re-sponses to such an atrocity, but surely the worst is to endorse its twisted moral logic.

We cannot control the acts of terrorists. We cannot guarantee ourselves perfect safety. But we can heed the appeal of the prophet Isaiah not to make a “covenant with death,” the exhortation of the apostle Paul not to “repay evil with evil...but overcome evil with good,” and Jesus’ words of warning that “If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” And, although the motto “Don’t Be Evil” may seem too simplistic for a complex world, surely there are evils we can choose to renounce, including that “cruel, inhuman or degrading” act called torture.

Faithfully,
+Tom