Fw: Is Torture a Religious Issue?
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Is Torture a Religious Issue? Act Now! | |
| Dear friends, For the sake of God and human decency, PLEASE FORWARD AT LEAST THIS SECTION OF The Shalom Report TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CONGREGANTS, and share this with them at religious services this weekend and next, and on into January, until the Gonzales nomination comes to a vote. PLEASE BE SURE TO SEE OUR ACTION CLICK AT THE END OF THIS SECTION. We now know that the International Red Cross told the Bush Administration that torture was being used by the US military on prisoners at Guantanamo, and that the US government knew this when it tried to pooh-pooh the Abu Ghraib revelations as the result of a few bad apples. The use of torture was systemic, not merely accidental. It continues at various secret sites where the US has sent prisoners to be tortured by other governments - probably Jordan, Egypt, and others - that have even fewer constraints than the Bush Administration. Among the links in the "chain of command" that OK'd the use of torture was a crucial legal memo from White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to the President, telling him he had the authority to annul the Geneva Conventions (treaties that are the law of the land), to ignore domestic law against torture, and to OK its use. Mr. Bush has now rewarded Mr. Gonzales by naming him to become Attorney General, where he will represent the Department of Justice in measuring what "justice" is and what the President can legally do, and where he will command the behavior of thousands of Federal law-enforcement agents. His appointment can be rejected by the Senate. In fact, that power was assigned by the Constitution to the Senate precisely to check and balance the tendency of Presidents to puff up their own power by appointing officials who might then assist the President to break the law Our Founders knew perfectly well of British kings who had used torture. They intended to make that impossible. That's the story from the standpoint of law and the Constitution. From the standpoint of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all human beings are created in the Image of God. Torture shatters and defiles that Image. In every shriek of those in unbearable pain, in every crazed nightmare of those who are denied sleep for days and weeks at a time, in every muffled moan of those plunged under water for minutes at a time, trying not to breathe lest they drown, in every rape, in every emptying of bowels in pain and fear, God is broken. God is defiled. God is raped. The death penalty returns the soul to eternity or to oblivion, depending on one's thoughts about the meaning of death and life. God's Image finds rest, calm, peace. But torture keeps the soul deliberately in torment. Keeps God in torment.
We urge you to call or write the two most senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee - Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. That committee will make the first decision about whether to confirm this Gonzales nomination. You can call them at: Sen. Specter, 215/ 597-7200 or 202/224-4254; Sen. Leahy, 202/224-4242 or 802/229-0569. You can write them by clicking here. For background information on the torture issue, see our Website at - www.shalomctr.org/index.cfm/action/contents/section/torture.html PLEASE FORWARD AT LEAST THIS SECTION OF The Shalom Report TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CONGREGANTS, and share this with them at religious services this weekend and next, and on into January, until the nomination comes to a vote. Please note - religious congregations and other tax-exempt organizations ARE legally permitted to raise these questions with Members of Congress. | |
Words of Torah - Joseph in the Dark | |
| This week, the traditional pattern for reading the Torah goes deeper into the Joseph story. On our Website at www.shalomctr.org/index.cfm/action/contents/section/miketz.html is an essay reinterpreting that story. I originally wrote it for the book GODWRESTLING, published in 1978, and then incorporated it in the expanded and transformed GODWRESTLING -- ROUND 2. It is rooted in the discussions of the Joseph story in a Washington havurah, Fabrangen, in 1972. The Joseph story is always read in the Torah during the dark time of the year. The Fabrangen's encounter reported here happened during the dark days of the Vietnam War. The ideas that emerged then about the story remain relevant and powerful in examining a series of issues today - the role of an "equal" in family or in society who becomes a superior; the rhythm of darkness and new light in our own lives; the rhythms of the earth and the choice of either dancing with those rhythms or being hurt by them; the benefits and dangers of centralized power; the problems of trying to walk a holy path when we feel no "light," no guidance from God, and so must walk in the dark; the attractions and dangers of feeling our lives already determined by fate, so that we have no free will and can only walk our life-path stumbling, with no light to guide us. Reread this way, the story raises questions that go far beyond the Jewish community. If you have too little time to absorb the essay today, keep in mind that the Joseph story continues in the Torah-reading cycle for the next few weeks. | |
Celebrating Hanukkah THIS Sunday | |
| Shining Bright Light in Dark Times  The Menorah Awards In New York City on 12/12, the Sunday of Hanukkah, The Shalom Center will be honoring Seymour Hersh -- one of the great investigative reporters of our time, who shone light on how the chain of command was behind torture at Abu Ghraib - - and Ruth Messinger - one of our finest public servants. They will speak their wisdom about how we can renew light in this dark time. And we will also use this evening to challenge the appointment of the new Attorney General, who told the President he could annul the Geneva Conventions and OK the use of torture.
Seymour Hersh
In their lives we learn again the prophetic portion for this festival (from Zechariah): "Not by might and not by power, but by My spirit, says YHWH Tz'va'ot - the Infinite Breath of Life." | |
Toward a New Prophetic Agenda | |
| Prophetic Agenda Beyond This Election: Meeting with Joe Trippi, Nancy Pelosi, Jim Wallis, David Saperstein, Bob Edgar,& 40 others in Washington How We Met with Nancy Pelosi (minority leader of the House of Representatives), Joe Trippi (key inventer of Internet organizing for the Howard Dean campaign), and such religious leaders as Bob Edgar (NCC), Jim Wallis (Sojourners), and David Saperstein (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The meeting was extraordinary. I will be able to share what happened when I have time next week to sit down and write at length about it. But I do not want to delay sending this issue of The Shalom Report any longer. Warm regards and a peaceful, restorative Shabbat/ Sabbath, filled with joy at the beauty of creation and the resilience, the compassion, and the imaginative boldness of human beings. -- Arthur | |
Ruth Messinger
Peter Yarrow - Emcee and Singer
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