< Back to front page Text size – +

Religious leaders praise Obama torture ban

E-mail|Link|Comments (6) Posted by Michael Paulson January 22, 2009 05:05 PM

Multiple religious groups are celebrating President Obama's signing today of an executive order barring torture.

Here's the statement from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace.

“Based upon the teachings of the Catholic Church, our Conference of Bishops welcomes the executive order. Together with other religious leaders, we had pressed for this step to protect human dignity and help restore the moral and legal standing of the United States in the world. A ban on torture says much about us – who we are, what we believe about human life and dignity, and how we act as a nation.”

Faith in Public Life compiled statements celebrating the ban from Evangelicals for Human Rights, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Rabbis for Human Rights North America, and Faithful America. Here's the statement from Faith in Public Life:

"For three years, religious leaders and organizations from across the faith and ideological spectrum have worked tirelessly to end America’s torture of detainees in its custody. Today, the faith community applauds President Obama’s executive orders banning torture, closing the prisons at Guantanamo Bay and secret locations, ensuring Red Cross access to all detainees, and ending extraordinary rendition. Together, we call for continuing diligence in the effort to ensure the US government never tortures again."

UPDATE: The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has issued a statement from Rabbi David Saperstein also praising the executive order. An excerpt:

"Ending the use of interrogation methods that amount to torture will help our actions once again reflect the ideals on which our nation was founded. We must remain equally committed to providing law enforcement with the tools necessary to combat terrorism at home and abroad and to preserve the principles and ideals that the terrorists want to destroy."

(Photo by Larry Downing of Reuters.)

« Back to front page

6 comments so far...

If these leaders were working to tirelessly to stop torture, why did they help elect W to a second term??? We could ask the same for war, the death penalty, economic justice and truth.

Posted by lookingfortruth January 22, 09 07:48 PM

What a mistake we, (USA) are making with torture against the law. The CIA gains insight into what terrorists know and therefore help save lives of many innocent American citizens by heading off any potential threats.

Have we forgotten 9/11 so soon?

What President Obama did today was to make America a little less safe.

God save the USA.

Posted by Rich Walbridge January 22, 09 09:49 PM

Rich - Torture does NOT produce credible evidence. This is proven. So quit with your 'torture makes us safer argument'.

Posted by LM January 22, 09 10:11 PM

LM-Let's hope that it is not your family, town or area that is atomized by terrorists who would have given up the information a priori. Nothing is "proven" except your ignorance. Do you really feel safer now?

Posted by Edgar January 22, 09 10:35 PM

Obama's ban on "torture" is not a ban on real "torture". It is an attempt at re-defining torture. There is no real torture going on at Gitmo, nor was there ever any systematic acceptance and use of torture.

It will not be long before the same idiots that made up new definitions of torture will be crying about how convicted criminals are somehow "tortured" and subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" in domestic prisons. So who are these whiners and complainers really working for anyway? Are they working for members of their churches and communities? No, they are fighting for the lowest of scum on earth. They preach morality all day long and then they work to free scumballs to get released from prison so that they can victimize more innocent people.

These people of "religion" are some of the biggest hypocrites on the planet. They are no different than the Catholic priests that preached morality all day and then molested and raped little boys in their spare time.

It is no wonder I find organized religion distasteful.

Posted by Richard January 23, 09 02:40 AM

Faith leaders did NOT elect President Bush, especially not this group of leaders. NRCAT and others have worked to end torture for three overwhelming reasons: it is utterly immoral and against every principle we've stood for as a nation; it is utterly illegal by terms of every treaty we've signed; it flat out has never worked. We gained NO useful information according to testimony from interrogators who were there. Intelligence information came entirely from those interrogators who worked long hours to gain the subject's confidence. The only thing gained from torture were names of more people, innocents, whom we then also tortured. This Executive Order begins the process of regaining our moral core and our national security.

Posted by Churchlady January 23, 09 01:46 PM

You must be logged in to submit a comment.

This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.

Blogger

Michael Paulson covers religion for The Boston Globe. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, won the Mike Berger, Templeton and Supple awards in 2008, and is a four-time winner of the Wilbur Award.
E-mail mpaulson@globe.com.

Articles of Faith on Twitter

Follow GlobePaulson on Twitter

views

Harvey Cox, the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard University, marks his retirement by asserting a little-used right of his professorship -- to graze a cow in Harvard Yard. Photo, by Barry Chin of the Globe staff, taken on Sept. 10, 2009 in Cambridge, Mass.