Conservative Christians are invoking their God-given right to support torture. Somehow, this does not surprise me. After all, conservatives are people who like to ignore the transcendental and instead refer to the Bible as a cosmic penal code.
The Catholic Church has an unfortunate history in these matters (as do the Protestants) but I don’t think anyone should claim those episodes as templates. Or as truly Christian. But that’s just me!
The author quotes Thomas Aquinas reducing criminals to beasts. Maybe Tom was just having a bad day:
Perhaps before he had a chance to clarify his writings on the matter, St. Thomas Aquinas declared he would write no more. On 6 December 1273 he reportedly experienced a long episode of ecstasy during Mass, and later said that such things had been revealed to him that his previous writings seemed nothing in comparison.
You see? He had a transcendent experience that put his writings in a whole new light.
This has always been the problem with religions. Somebody has a transcendent experience, he or she tells their friends, who eventually try to form a group and try to codify the sublime. It’s silly. And conservatives do love their rules, so when you give them authority to use a Bible as a blunt instrument, they’re never happier. Imagine how disingenuous the author of this statement must be:
If we choose not to torture someone so we can save a life, then we are placing the dignity of the criminal over the life and dignity of the innocent person who is about to die.
You have to love that. You’re not “choosing” to torture, the circumstances force you. It’s actually the Christian thing to do! But here’s the hole in that little scenario: The times of which we speak are not episodes of “24.” Nope. There is no timer on a nuclear bomb, we do not “know” anything. We torture on the off chance we’ll get some useful information. And if the person we torture gives us gibberish (because he’s being tortured), let’s torture him some more.
For many years now, representatives of our nation (propped up by the bed-wetting night terrors of our neocon establishment) used this morally bereft argument to torture. And conservative Christians embrace it! The author argues at great length and with a deep fervor that God wouldn’t have a problem with torture. She quotes the Old Testament (conservatives love the Old Testament — none of that pesky “turn the other cheek” stuff) to illustrate that God is actually quite bloodthirsty. So there!
You know, you can argue all you want about torture (incidentally, we did sign the Geneva Conventions, promising not to use it), but don’t go fucking blessing yourself over it. Just don’t.
Everyone knows the Devil can quote Scripture for his purposes — and in this case, does.
The other night a film (1957) starring Richard Burton as Alexander the Great was on. He was speaking with his father Phillip II of Macedon who was accusing some poor soul or other of treason. Alexander wanted to know where the info came from and his father said that they’d tortured it out of another poor soul. To which Alexander replied that any information gained from torture was nonsense at best and complete lies more often than not. That’s the nature of the thing.
The first prerequisite to being a “good Christian” or Jew or Muslim is fear. Which is why conservatives make such great religious followers. They’re afraid of everything.
People who are afraid of everything can easily be led because what they crave the most is someone who is brave. Or pretends to be. Someone who will quell their fears. A hero type. Like Mitch McConnell or Benny Netanyahu.
Of course these hero-leaders have only one tool in their tool box. Which is brute force. These fakers know that fear works because everyone who believes in them is fearful themselves.
So they torture. Not to gain information, but to scare the shit out of their followers. Torturers (psychological and physical), killers and warmongers practice the dark arts to maintain their power and their wealth. And for no other reason.
So it was with the Catholic Church. They tortured their own to keep them in line and they tortured the Jews and everybody else to gain converts.
More asses in the pews means more gold in their pockets.
Corrupt bastards all.
There’s an epiphany in there somewhere.
Thanks Jack Bauer. Thanks Bill Clinton for handing media over to the 1%. Thanks pollsters. Morality is now a question of popularity.