Ted Peters on our government and torture

Thanks to Christian Scharen, in his blog “faithasawayoflife,” for reprinting a recent editorial that Ted Peters wrote in the Lutheran journal Dialog (you have to scroll down to the middle of his blog entry). Here’s an excerpt of the piece:

"...I’m so utterly ashamed that my government uses my tax dollars to support such activities that are not merely disrespectful of the Islamic religion but aimed deliberately at the destruction of this person’s inner soul. I feel as impure as did that Saudi that day. As an American, I feel unclean because of what that interrogator did.

My friends and colleagues complain occasionally about the division of red states and blue states, reminding us how during the 2004 presidential campaign the Republican party tried to get Americans to believe that churchgoers were Bush supporters. George W. Bush was identified with Christianity. Is Bush a Christian? Well, maybe. One Sunday in Washington I accidentally found myself in an Episcopal church with the president and family and a dozen secret service officers. Is this evidence that he embraces the Christian faith? The problem I see is this: the devout Christians I know avoid blasphemy. They also seek forgiveness for their trespasses.

In order for me to feel clean again, George W. Bush would need to do the following. First, he would need to repudiate the practice of blasphemy at Guantanamo Bay. While he’s at it, he might as well repudiate cruelty as well. Second, he would need to don sackcloth and ashes while apologizing to the entire Islamic world for this assault on one of their souls. Then, thirdly, he could turn the water on for this Saudi prisoner...."

I have been yearning for a public theologian to make a clear statement on this issue, and to do so from a place of feeling, not simply rhetoric. I think Ted Peters' editorial is a good start.