HELP US END TORTURE

The issue of torture has been much in the news lately including questions about whether the U.S. should engage in torture. For the followers of a tortured and crucified Savior, torture is unambiguously wrong. Whether physical or psychological, torture is destructive of the human spirit for both the tortured person and the torturer. Moreover, intelligence experts question whether information derived through torture is useful, and these practices degrade the standing of the U.S. as a beacon of democracy and weaken its moral authority at home and abroad.

Torture is one of the worst agonies that one human being can inflict upon another. As Christians, we believe that each human being is made in the image and likeness of God, and that whatever is done to the prisoner (one of the least of these) is also done to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So when someone tortures another child of God, they also torture Christ.

The 2007 General Assembly. of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), meeting in Fort Worth, TX, passed Resolution 0721, a sense-of-the-assembly resolution calling for the elimination of torture. Among other things, this resolution urges all Disciples members, activists, and leaders to engage in "serious consideration of this issue," and invites individual Disciples to join 30 heads of communion, more that 80 other communities of faith and faith-based organizations, and over 18,000 individual people of faith in endorsing a Statement of Conscience prepared by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT).

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Disciples Center for Public Witness, the Disciples Justice Action Network, and the Disciples Advocacy and Witness Network in the Christian Church Capital Area are among the institutional signers and supporters.

Please join us in signing this statement and declaring your opposition to torture.

To read the Assembly resolution calling for the elimination of torture,
PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To read the Statement of Conscience prepared by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To sign the Statement of Conscience Against Torture,
PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To support the work of The CENTER on this issue,
PLEASE CLICK HERE.