Memo to Real Christians: Jesus Was Tortured to Death

When Not Yielding Unreliable Intelligence, Torture is a Barbaric Means of Execution

Somewhere I read “As you do unto the least amongst you, you have done unto me.”

The Bible is something ultra right wingers seem to detest more than the atheists do. The former do it via avoidance and misrepresentation; so as to make the atheist saintly by comparison. Usually the atheist hasn’t bothered to read the book. As such, the atheist can at least say his actions come from his own sense of morality and respect for human rights. Hateful pseudo-Christians can’t say that.

That said, be very, very careful who you listen to in the torture debate, whether right or left, popular or unpopular. They who support it under any circumstances will surely “have their reward.”

You need not be a minister or priest to know this. It is self-evident to anyone with a conscience and fear of God: Jesus would not approve of torture not just because he died in agony from torture himself; indeed through the most brutal torture ever conceived because it could take days to die, but also because it is a manifest sin.

In fact, the very symbol of Christianity, the Lord dying on the cross, is a graphic and visual representation of a man TORTURED to death when he died on the cross.

Already I can hear the echoes of the Sanhedrin and Pharisees past, droning in the commercial media, shameless apologists saying crucifixion was a form of execution, not torture. Execution, however, is not specifically designed to inflict pain but to expedite death. Hanging, beheadings, firing squad, lethal injection aren’t designed to kill via deliberately prolonged torture. But crucifixion is.

How far has hatred perverted our minds and conscience that good is now evil, and evil is good? A psychologist, Alyssa Peterson, shoots and kills herself rather than participate in torture. That’s how far.

Is it not telling that the organization most at odds with Christianity, the secular ACLU, remains the only face of conscience in this debate?

Also see:

• Fuck Yoo Very Much. John Yoo, Bush’s torture policy architect and  father of the term “enhanced interrogation techniques” is called out while teaching a law class in Berkley.
• Cheney’s Torture Fetish
• “Involuntary Brain-Wave Cessation” Memo