June 25, 2008
by J. Bennett Guess

"Today I join many in saying to my President, ‘not in my name,'" said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a widely covered news conference held on June 25. "Not in my name will you justify torture and allow it to be used."

As a representative of the UCC's national setting, Thomas is part of a diverse coalition of 200 high-profile religious leaders, government officials and military officers who are calling on President Bush to ban torture.

Thomas spoke to multiple reporters from national media outlets, as did the Rev. David P. Gushee, president, Evangelicals for Human Rights; Alberto Mora, former general counsel to the U.S. Navy; Retired General Paul J. Kern, who led the internal Army investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib; and Douglas A. Johnson, executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture.

"To call for an end to torture is not to be naïve about the very real threats we face," Thomas told reporters. "It is, however, to attest to the truth that no threat is so great as to justify our surrendering the most central values of what it means to be a Christian."

The bipartisan, interfaith coalition includes former national security and defense officials from the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bush Administrations, as well as leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths.

The leaders' call coincides with ongoing debate over U.S. treatment of prisoners and comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of habeas corpus for detainees at Guantánamo.

The group's statement calls for the President to adopt an executive order affirming principles including legislative and judicial oversight of detention and interrogation of prisoners, as well as an end to waterboarding and other practices generally held unacceptable by the international community.

"Though we come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, we agree that the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners is immoral, unwise, and un-American," the statement reads. "Our President must lead us by our core principles. We must be better than our enemies, and our treatment of prisoners captured in the battle against terrorism must reflect our character and values as Americans."

Sign the Campaign to Ban Torture statement.

The complete text of Thomas' remarks follows:

I am the Rev. John H. Thomas. I am the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ and it is my honor to be a signatory to the "Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Order On Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty." Torture is an issue of deep importance to military leaders and to all who are concerned with insuring national security. But, at its heart, torture is a moral issue. Christians believe that all people, by the very fact of their creation, are endowed with the image of God, a source of dignity and worth that cannot be erased by thoughts or behaviors, no matter how reprehensible or dangerous. Just as my colleagues today will tell you that torture cannot be justified on strategic grounds, I tell you that torture cannot be justified on moral grounds, for it so demeans, so diminishes, and so denies the presence of God's image in a person as to be a violation of the very intention of our Creator.

We do live in a dangerous world. Those who would injure the vulnerable, those who would attack the innocent, do need to be restrained, brought to justice, and punished. To call for an end to torture is not to be naïve about the very real threats we face. It is, however, to attest to the truth that no threat is so great as to justify our surrendering the most central values of what it means to be a Christian. My faith teaches me that human life is sacred, even if that life is embodied in a person who considers him or herself to be my enemy. Such a faith challenges me to see the sacred even in the face of the enemy, to honor the integrity of God's image even when the person who bears it is threatening to me. Today I join many in saying to my President, "not in my name." Not in my name will you justify torture and allow it to be used.

I speak today not only as a church leader. I also speak as the father of a son currently serving with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan. With parents across the country I worry about my son's safety, and am deeply concerned when the use of torture by the United States could be used as justification for the use of torture against him or his fellow soldiers. Even more, however, do I fear how policies of our own government on the use of torture could place him not just in physical peril, but also in moral peril, making him complicit in acts violating his own faith.

As a citizen of the United States, it is shameful to live in a country that refuses to categorically ban torture. As a Christian, I am compelled to speak out against anything that denies and disgraces the integrity of the divine image planted within each human being. As a father, I plea for a ban that will help protect the physical safety of our children and, even more, that will protect them from agonizing and impossible moral choices. It is time to say, "not in our name." It is time to ban torture.

United Church of Christ News Service