A Brief Critique of Torture
Early on in my blog career I considered posting on torture when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. I'm not quite sure why I eventually didn't post anything. But the topic nags me periodically and today I felt like saying something.
My thoughts are not a well developed nuanced political philosophy. They more flow from some personal growth I've been experiencing in my own Christian life. Believe it or not I'm going to link my sinful tendencies towards worry, anxiety, and fear of the future to torture. I believe them linked because both seek knowledge of the future which isn't available to us as mere creatures. That is both are an idolatry, a seeking to be God instead of a mere creature.
Let me carry this brief critique forward with some questions.
1) Do individuals and governments have a responsibility to care for life taking measures to protect it? Yes. The positive side of the sixth commandment requires caring for our lives and the lives of others.
2) Can torture by a government be a legitimate means of caring for the lives of the people governed? No.
I know that seems bold and narrow and straight forward with no gray areas. Personal and and national security can be an idol. Perhaps you know a germophobe. They're miserable to be around because they try to so protect they and their children's lives from germs that they can hardly do anything with anybody. They're paralyzed by their fear. They do foolish things because of their fear of the future; knowledge of which is unavailable to them.
I liken torture to this same kind of thinking. Unwilling to trust God with what may well be a violent end to the lives of some of our citizens we instead disobey God through dehumanizing people. The seeking of information about the future can be an idolatry in itself. Is torture really something different than other clearly pagan ways of trying to find out the future? Isn't all this an inability to reconcile our finitude as creatures with our lust for knowledge? Isn't this precisely what Eve and Adam sought in the garden, to be like God?
These are preliminary thoughts for sure. But it's an angle on torture that I haven't heard but which needs to be heard.
My thoughts are not a well developed nuanced political philosophy. They more flow from some personal growth I've been experiencing in my own Christian life. Believe it or not I'm going to link my sinful tendencies towards worry, anxiety, and fear of the future to torture. I believe them linked because both seek knowledge of the future which isn't available to us as mere creatures. That is both are an idolatry, a seeking to be God instead of a mere creature.
Let me carry this brief critique forward with some questions.
1) Do individuals and governments have a responsibility to care for life taking measures to protect it? Yes. The positive side of the sixth commandment requires caring for our lives and the lives of others.
2) Can torture by a government be a legitimate means of caring for the lives of the people governed? No.
I know that seems bold and narrow and straight forward with no gray areas. Personal and and national security can be an idol. Perhaps you know a germophobe. They're miserable to be around because they try to so protect they and their children's lives from germs that they can hardly do anything with anybody. They're paralyzed by their fear. They do foolish things because of their fear of the future; knowledge of which is unavailable to them.
I liken torture to this same kind of thinking. Unwilling to trust God with what may well be a violent end to the lives of some of our citizens we instead disobey God through dehumanizing people. The seeking of information about the future can be an idolatry in itself. Is torture really something different than other clearly pagan ways of trying to find out the future? Isn't all this an inability to reconcile our finitude as creatures with our lust for knowledge? Isn't this precisely what Eve and Adam sought in the garden, to be like God?
These are preliminary thoughts for sure. But it's an angle on torture that I haven't heard but which needs to be heard.
posted by Matthew Bohling @ 1:33 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Pastor Matt,
Spot on, and I'm one that has to counter those "evil men" some would argue torturing.
There are a grunchload of verses that apply also-Love thy enemies..., A soft answer turneth away wrath...., Be wily as serpents but pure as doves.
Pastor Matt,
Is a government caring for the lives of its citizens by not extracting information from a source they believe has said information, say, regarding the detonating of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the middle of Time Square?
One could, it seems to me, make the same argument from the 6th commandment in defense of some use of "torture."
Another problem with this debate is in defining "torture" so as to get clear on what is, and what isn't, "torture."
On a related point, what about police who pay "informants" for information regarding possible crimes? Is this an "idolatrous" search for knowledge of "the future?" Is it "immoral" to give money to informants who are, usually, lower-tier criminals themselves and will use that money for drugs, etc?
I just don't think we can broad brush this debate with charges of "sin" and "idolatry." Certainly we all have sin and idols. The desire to be safe may well certainly be an idol. But that doesn't mean that we should not have alarms on our homes and cars, that we shouldn't have police to keep the streets safe, etc.
I think your argument proves too much. I see no line of demarcation in your argument. Seems subject to reversal. That's my two cents.
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