From Douglas Crist, EHCC Adult Ed. Team

Eagle Harbor Congregational Church will consider the morality of state-sanctioned torture—and our proper response as people of faith, compassion and peace—in an adult education series in June. 

Pastor Dee Eisenhauer will address the issue from the pulpit on Sunday, June 8.

The following Wednesday, June 11, we will screen the Emmy Award-winning documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which examines the psychological and political context in which torture and humiliation occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The screening will be at 7pm in our fellowship hall.  Free and open to the public.

An after-church discussion will take place on June 15; study materials in advance of the meeting can be found online at www.no2torture.org. (See the "Out of Horror, Hope" curriculum at the bottom of the main page.)

Then, after the worship service June 22, EHCC congregants who so choose can be photographed en masse with a "Torture is a Moral Issue" banner in front of the church. The photograph will be sent to the organization National Religious Coalition Against Torture, as a statement of solidarity with their goals and efforts.

—Douglas Crist, Adult Education Team

From Pastor Dee Eisenhauer

            A couple of months ago, Barbara Linsert, who serves on our church council as a service team representative, brought a proposal to the council from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, suggesting that we join other churches in posting a banner reading “Torture is a Moral Issue” on the church building during the month of June.  The NRCAT group plans to take pictures of participating churches to legislators as they lobby against using torture as an interrogative technique.

            That is how we ended up planning to participate, in a limited way, in what  NRCAT has named as “Torture Awareness Month”—even though torture is one thing most of us would strongly prefer not to think about or talk about.

              The conversation taking place in one or two corners of the church over torture as a moral issue has raised a number of vexing questions among those who have discussed it thus far.  Is torture a moral issue?  Is it wrong?  Is it always wrong?  Are there extenuating circumstances that make torture morally acceptable?  What leads one human being to torture another?  How does it hurt the one who perpetrates the torture as well as damaging the victim?  Is psychological torture less reprehensible than physical torture?  How do we define torture?  How do the governing authorities define it?

              The conversation around the council table was focused less on the specifics of torture as a moral issue and more on the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using our very visible church location to advertise what some would interpret as a moral statement and others would interpret as a political statement.  So from those conversations arose another bundle of questions. 

              When, if ever, is it appropriate for a church body to take a stand on an issue with political implications?  Would we need a total consensus of the church members to take a very public stand on something?  Can the council speak as a body without implying that they represent the whole church?  Are there any moral issues without political implications?  How much should a church be focused on individual spiritual transformation as opposed to social transformation?  Is it possible to hold those in balance?  Should we risk action that has potential to offend members of the church who might subsequently leave our fellowship?  Should all discussion and action with social or political connotations be left strictly to individuals?

These are all complex questions, worthy of our attention and respectful dialogue.  I think we have already had some fruitful discussion.  I hope such questions will not recede into the background of our consciousness without further conversation, although it is uncomfortable.

                  I have two very personal things I wish to say in what I hope will be an ongoing dialogue.  First, I found it quite disturbing to hear that some of our own young people think that torture is justifiable in certain circumstances.  I fear that we may have failed to teach our youngsters Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves with appropriate moral seriousness, and our silence on an issue like torture has ceded the moral instruction ground to the surrounding violent culture.

              Second, I live in hope that the church can offer moral leadership on real-life issues that matter to real live people.  During the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote these words of challenge to the churches:

“Only a ‘dry as dust’ religion prompts a minister to extol the glories of Heaven while ignoring the social conditions that cause men an earthly hell.  By ignoring the need for social reform, religion is divorced from the mainstream of human life.  A pulpit committee listed as the first essential qualification for a new minister: ‘He must preach the true gospel and not talk about social issues.’  This is a blueprint for a dangerously irrelevant church where people assemble to hear only pious platitudes.” 

              I do not think that EHCC is “dangerously irrelevant”—but remaining relevant takes our constant vigilance and effort.

              — Shalom, Dee Eisenhauer

From Barbara Linsert, EHCC Service Team

             During the church council meetings in April and May, your council members discussed the issue of US-sponsored torture.  These discussions were prompted by an organization called National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT).  This organization was started in 2006 as the outcome of symposium on US-sponsored torture in January 2006.  NRCAT has designated June as Torture Awareness Month, as a way of increasing the awareness of people that US sponsored torture is something that we need to address.

              NRCAT is encouraging churches to hang a banner on church buildings during June that says “Torture is a Moral Issue,” or alternatively “Honor the Image of God: Stop Torture Now.”  The request that the church council hang a banner during June is what prompted the discussion in April and May.  After spirited discussion, it was clear that while there was general support on the council for the idea that torture is a moral issue, there was not support for hanging a banner on Eagle Harbor Congregational Church.

              The council, as a whole, voted to support the Mission Statement of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and appointed Council President Reed Price to write a letter to NRCAT informing them of our support.

              NRCAT Mission Statement: Torture is a Moral Issue

              “Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved—policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.

              “Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now—without exceptions.”

              During June, EHCC will focus on the issue of US sponsored torture during some adult education sessions and possibly using some liturgy focusing on this issue.  We invite you to participate and learn more about this important issue.