Evangelicals condemn
treatment of detainees

Speaking of Religion
The Rev. Dr. Tim Griffin

And the Lord said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground." — Genesis 4:10

Last week, the National Association of Evangelicals, a national organization representing 45,000 evangelical Christian churches, adopted a statement rejecting the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of treatment in the "war on terror."
The document, which is entitled An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture: Protecting Human Rights in an Age of Terror, cites Scripture, papal documents, philosophical theories as well as international and national human rights law to make the case that torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are a violation of Christian social teachings and basic human rights.
The drafters begin the seventh and final section of the document by citing Genesis 4:10, which is quoted above. In this passage, God confronts Cain over the death of his brother Abel. The clear implication is that God is confronting us, as citizens of the United States, about the actions that our government has pursued in the aftermath of the terrorists acts of Sept. 11, 2001.
This is an important statement. First because it shows that the condemnation of practices adopted by the current administration is shared by the wider Christian community and not merely by those mainline denominations that are sometimes labeled "liberal." In fact, many of the evangelicals who endorse this document consider themselves conservative.
Second, although the statement is largely critical of the administration’s handling of detainees and its record on human rights since 9/11, it acknowledges the positive steps that have been taken to safeguard human rights. In particular, it praises the recently revised U.S. Army Field Manual for providing clearer guidelines for military personnel in the treatment of detainees.
But these safeguards do not go far enough. The declaration rightly condemns the past human rights violations of the administration in its prosecution of the "war on terror."
Citing a number of documented violations, such as those at Abu Ghraib prison, Bagram Air Base and others, the drafters of the declaration conclude that "the boundaries of what is legally and morally justified in war have been crossed in the current ‘war on terror.’" (Section 6.10)
And the declaration also condemns the policies and legislation created by the administration and in some cases endorsed by Congress.
Thus Section 6.12 reads in part, "the current administration has decided to retain morally questionable interrogation techniques among the options available to our intelligence agencies," and in Section 6.13 it notes, "from a human rights perspective, the Military Commissions Act includes numerous problematic provisions, such as one in which the CIA officials are not required to submit to congressional oversight and are not held to the same standards as U.S. military personnel. CIA ‘black sites’ may continue to exist, with interrogation rules established by the president, but not specified publicly, and now removed from the ability of Congress or judicial authority to review."
And finally, in Section 6.14, the declaration condemns a number of "procedural" matters in the Military Commissions Act, e.g., the elimination of habeas corpus petitions, indefinite detentions, the use of hearsay evidence against detainees, etc.
However, the declaration does not merely ascribe blame to the governmental entities and agents that have perpetrated these violations of Christian responsibility and human rights.
In Section 5.3 we read "as individuals, we are responsible for protecting the dignity of others" and later "the Lord brings justice, and governments have the resources not available to individuals, but that does not release each of us from an obligation to make an urgent and concerted effort to raise every bearer of the image of God to the dignified level at which he or she was intended by the Creator."
We cannot, in other words, simply sit back and passively allow abominations to be done in our name and deny responsibility. We are responsible for what our government is doing, and we have an obligation to raise our voice to see that justice is restored.
There are many important insights in this document, and this sketch in no way does the declaration justice. I encourage all of you to read it and, more importantly, to raise your voices so that we may protect the dignity of others of our brothers and sisters, and perhaps restore the dignity we have lost through this nation’s moral lapses. ••
For the text of the declaration, see www.evangelicalsforhumanrights.org