Torturous Logic

THE SENATE Intelligence Committee finally released in December its long-delayed report on “enhanced interrogation techniques” employed by the CIA in the U.S. global “war on terrorism.” That these techniques—including waterboarding, “rectal feeding,” weeklong sleep deprivation, threats to harm detainees’ children—constituted torture, in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, is a reality that is difficult to deny. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her colleagues should be commended for facing and exposing the grim truths behind our nation’s post-9/11 conduct.

Unfortunately, recent polling has revealed some disturbing attitudes among Americans on this issue—particularly among Christians. A Washington Post/ ABC News poll conducted shortly after the Senate report’s release found that 59 percent of Americans believe the CIA’s treatment of suspected terrorists was justified, compared to just 31 percent who believe it was unjustified. Startlingly, among Christians who were polled, that number rises to between 66 percent and 75 percent who believe the techniques were justified. In this same poll, 53 percent of respondents indicated they believe these techniques produced important information that could not have been obtained any other way, compared to just 31 percent who disagree.

These poll results fly in the face of the Senate report’s findings. Some of the key phrases from the report summarize the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program as follows: “Not an effective means of acquiring intelligence”; “complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions”; and “damaged the United States’ standing in the world.”

Lamentably, this disconnect between the opinions of average Americans about this issue and the realities documented in the Senate report goes a long way toward explaining how these human rights abuses were carried out in the first place. The ideals that make us who we are as a nation were subverted and perverted in the name of our safety, and people let it happen because they were angry and afraid. And when, among Christians, anger and fear replace Christian thinking and acting, this is a theological issue and not just a political one.

There are many culpable forces and people behind this tragedy. For example, we have a pop culture that has consistently portrayed torture as a necessary tool to save innocent lives from imminent threats (the TV show 24 is a prime example of this). More recently, the film Zero Dark Thirty suggested that torture helped us find Osama bin Laden—a claim that is explicitly refuted by the Senate report. But since the film came out before the report was declassified, it’s possible that the fictional narrative of the movie has claimed a stronger hold over many people’s opinions on this issue than the truth of the report. Fiction replacing facts, fear replacing deeper wisdom on what really makes us secure, and anger replacing Paul’s clear instructions not to return evil for evil but to overcome evil with good—these are all core issues that must be addressed.

Of course, those most guilty are the government officials who devised and sanctioned these programs. The public face of this camp is surely former Vice President Dick Cheney, who to this day is completely unrepentant about this program and his role in it. Cheney’s aggressive arrogance and utter lack of self-reflection represent a real threat to national security and to the prospects of ever resolving our current global conflicts. Though it is certainly nothing new, it continues to be intellectually baffling and morally indicting to see Cheney’s persistent denial of any wrongdoing, even in the face of everything we now know. But it is at least clarifying to have one man so completely represent what has been most wrong with U.S. foreign policy. In contrast, Sen. John McCain, a traditional war hawk, has shown consistent courage in opposing torture in principle and practice.

We must now truly repent of this painful chapter of our history—commit to a true change of heart and mind that will take us in a new direction. The hopeful news is that despite large numbers of Christians who say they support the CIA’s techniques, other Christians are leading the way in opposition to torture, and they have been doing so for more than a decade. Leaders such as Ron Stief of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and prominent evangelical thinkers such as David Gushee have provided powerful moral and theological witness against U.S. torture, and they continue to do so in wake of the Senate report’s release. The prophetic leadership of Christians such as these has been a powerful voice for principled change in U.S. policy.

As servants of a Lord who was tortured to death, we must commit as the Body of Christ to healing the wounds we have inflicted on our fellow human beings—even and especially those we call our enemies. Only by doing so can our own wounds from this sad era begin to heal.