Southern Baptist Convention Condemns Torture
I haven't considered myself a Southern Baptist for some time, partly because of the pronouncements of their national political spokesman, Richard Land. Normally, he can be counted on to say whatever annoys me most about the Religious Right and whatever confirms popular misconceptions of Evangelicals as a tool of the Republican party.
This makes me all the more thrilled that Land, speaking on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention, has come out against torture and, specifically, waterboarding under any circumstances. Given that Land is right smack in the Religious Right, that's a courageous thing to say. He's going to be harshly attacked. Maybe this is a sign that a consensus is building against torture.
The money quote: "It does cost us something to play by different rules than our enemies, but it would cost us far more if we played by their rules."
This makes me all the more thrilled that Land, speaking on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention, has come out against torture and, specifically, waterboarding under any circumstances. Given that Land is right smack in the Religious Right, that's a courageous thing to say. He's going to be harshly attacked. Maybe this is a sign that a consensus is building against torture.
The money quote: "It does cost us something to play by different rules than our enemies, but it would cost us far more if we played by their rules."
posted by Ben at
5:28 PM
1 Comments:
My favorite quote so far about the Christian reaction to torturegate comes from the estimable Leonard Pitts in his Wednesday column: "That Christians are not lining up to say [torture is bad, mm-kay?] is glaringly ironic in light of what happened to a Middle Eastern man who was arrested by the government, imprisoned and tortured. Eventually he was even executed, though he was innocent of any crime. His name was Jesus." (Full article here if you're interested.)
Land's quote is pretty good too. I'm glad to see someone on the Religious Right take a stand against this. (Of course, it's probably happened before, but the media has likely ignored it in favor of the more sensationalist story. But anyway.)
By
Mike, at 5/08/2009 10:05 AM
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