The Moral Authority for Torture

Yesterday afternoon Jerry Bott sat in for Mark Belling on WISN. During the first hour he discussed the topic du jour, the recently released report on how we interrogated terrorists. He laid out the general Democratic talking points; the US should be ashamed, the US should apologize and we acted in an immoral fashion. His opinion and the opinion of many conservative pundits has been to stand proud of our actions and make no apologies for the actions we took. They claim they were justifiable because the resulting outcome was worth the use of advanced interrogation techniques.

Prior to the listening, I had been trying to format a definite opinion on how to react. It is easy to take a position in which the ends justify the means. It is just as easy to allow harm when the those being interrogated have committed atrocities both domestically and worldwide. However, I am slow to announce a moral authority to extract information by any means, regardless of the info. I also have deep concerns over the notion that we can simply puff our chests to the rest of the world and demand they accept our actions.

As my belief systems are formed by Christian doctrine, I wanted to approach this through that prism. Conservatives will always promote that the US was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. That these principles should be built up and maintained in our country. Yet, this is cast aside when some political issues come to light. In fact, Bott made a point to say that he was so confident that his position was the right course for the country, that if it was ultimately immoral, it is worth God’s final judgement. Combine that with an ends justify the means response and suddenly Judeo- Christian doctrine means very little.

My Christian stance on torture is as follows. God’s Word says that we live in world broken by sin (Romans 8:19). Wars and conflicts are a result of that brokenness. In response and with the focus on order God has granted His authority to governments (1Peter 13+14). Therefore, they are given the authority to act as God’s judge here on earth. As result, there can be instances of war in which the Christian duty is to head into battle, in whatever capacity that may be, in defense of his country.

This authority granted to governments must be tempered with the knowledge that the men in power are imperfect (Jeremiah 17:9). Much of what a government does is neither moral or immoral and the Christian is left to make his/her own decision. However, governments can use their authority to conduct immoral activities and it is up to the Christian to determine which of those activities fall in line with God’s Word.

Torture is defined as the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. Bible doesn’t give us a clear yes/no answer on the use of torture. Much of the torture described is either 1) the government punishing law breakers or 2) the government punishing Christians. No where does it describe a situation in which torture is used to prevent future harm.

As stated, Christians accept that God has granted his authorities to governments. Part of the that authority is the right to judge and bestow punishment for those that break the law. As individuals, Christians are granted the ability to use self defense when being attacked. This notion of self defense extends to the authorities of the government as well. However, no clear doctrine exists as to the extent of force allowed to either punish or when engaging in self defense. We must impart the wisdom of the BIble as a whole to make a determination.

The way I see the advance interrogation techniques is as follows. I believe the government has the authority to use some methods of physical or mental harm if there is a high probability that its use will protect the US public. What and how much must be evaluated on a case by case basis. As far as I can tell, much of what was done was mentally taxing and highly uncomfortable, but the harm caused was in line with the extent to which the terrorist wished to prevent the US from properly protecting its citizens. (I am against any torture of a sexual nature and believe that is immoral.) From the information released, I also feel comfortable in saying that none of the torture techniques were sadistic in their approach, but rather designed to break the will of the individual and not simply inflict pain. That also mean knowing that our CIA members only subjected terrorists to torture if we had a reasonable belief that they had information. The most recent document, filled with poor info gathering, fails to detail the known info we received.

With respect to how the US should handle this situation on the public stage, I disagree with many other conservative pundits. Many of them seem to relish in the ability of the US to inflict harm as a means of exacting information. It comes off as revenge for the harm they have caused us. That is not a Christian stance. I believe the US should be remorseful for their actions but not apologetic. Causing any harm to individual, regardless of their deeds is no cause for rejoice.

The position we were put in as a country in the early 00’s was a direct result of failure to make good leadership decisions regarding foreign intelligence in the decade preceding. Those actions left our government with little choice for self defense. We should hate that our country needed to do this, not because our country is evil; rather, because their are evil groups in the world. This recent report released as a government document tells the world that the US is evil for this conduct. Apologizing for what needed to be done, only ties our hands in the future.

*Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net