For a long
time I’ve suspected that many American Christians are decidedly Americans
first, Christians second. For these
individuals, in the hierarchy of personal identification, being an American comes
before being a Christian. A recent poll
by the Washington Post/ABC seems to support this suspicion. In this poll, taken after the CIA documents
relating to prisoner torture were released, a substantial majority of respondents
identifying as Catholics and an overwhelming majority of those identifying as Protestants
answered that CIA torture tactics to obtain information from prisoners were
justified.
As Americans, I can understand why a majority
believe that torture is justified. If
torturing a few terrorists can prevent a future attack that could potentially
kill hundreds or thousands of fellow citizens, the utility of these tactics can
readily be justified. The invocation
that “the end justifies the means” may be considered ethically appropriate
where terrorist activities are concerned.
But the
teachings of Christ don’t follow a utilitarian ethic.
Even if one
discounts Jesus’ entire teaching on how to treat one’s enemies……”turn the other
cheek”, “do not recompense evil for
evil”, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”, “do good to
those who hate you”…. it can hardly be disputed that at the very least – the
lowest possible bar for a Christian to set as treatment of enemies – is not to demean
their essential humanity. It is a Christian concept that we are made in the
image of God, that we are a reflection of deity in some essential way. Torture, by its very nature, is designed to
degrade and devalue what is human in the one being tortured and by extension profanes
the image of God itself.
Given that government
policy supports torture and Christian principles prohibit it, polls should
indicate a decidedly negative response from Christians when asked if torture
tactics are justified. The fact that
just the opposite occurs is indicative that between two ideological identifiers
– American citizen and Christian believer – American citizen overwhelmingly
wins out.
