SMU, Torture and the Presidental Partisan Institut...

2008-05-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

SMU, Torture and the Presidental Partisan Institute
On April 11, President Bush confessed to the media that he has been deeply involved from the beginning in the details of the use of torture that he authorized. ABC News reported: “President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency.” According to White House sources, the discussions about torture techniques were so detailed that some of the “interrogation sessions were almost choreographed” (1-2).
A month earlier, on March 8, Bush vetoed legislation banning waterboarding and other methods of torture used by government employees. The legislation would have limited CIA agents to 19 less-aggressive tactics outlined in the U.S. Army field manual. The president stated that the government “needs to use tougher methods than the U.S. military to wrest information from terrorism suspects” (3). It has been highly documented that at least 19 prisoners have been tortured to death by the U.S. military (4).
Waterboarding has a long and sickening history. It was used as a means of torture and coerced baptism during the Protestant Reformation and Spanish Inquisition to convert Jews, Mennonites, witches, and other suspected heretics. It consists of immobilizing an individual on his or her back with the head inclined downward and pouring water over the face to force the inhalation of water into the lungs. As the victim gags and chokes, the terror of imminent death is pervasive.
Torture is not a Methodist value. In the supposedly “less enlightened” 18th century, John Wesley explicitly preached against the torture of prisoners of war:

War itself is justifiable only on principles of self-preservation: Therefore it gives us no right over prisoners, but to hinder their hurting us by confining them. Much less can it give a right to torture, or kill, or even to enslave an enemy when the war is over (5).

Bush, who claims to be a “proud Methodist,” shows no sign of contrition or regret or repentance for his unchristian behavior. To the contrary, he continues to try to justify himself and protect those in our government who have used and continue to use torture. Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany rightly called the cowardliness of Christians to not make evil-doers accountable for their wicked deeds “cheap grace.” Building a monument to Bush at SMU to “celebrate this great president, celebrate his accomplishments” (6) will seriously damage the good name of a fine university and the UMC.

(1) http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4635175&page=1

(2) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041908Y.shtml

(3) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030800304.html

(4) Oath Betrayed: Military Medicine and the War on Terror by Steven H. Miles

(5) http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/slavery

(6) Statement by Don Evans, the Chair and a chief fundraiser for the George W. Bush foundation on Feb. 22, 2008, New York Times

Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D., is a United Methodist minister and research psychologist living in New York City. He is a graduate of The Perkins School of Theology, SMU. He has co-authored 14 books including: Counseling Survivors of Traumatic Events (Abingdon, 2003) and Reflections on Grief and the Spiritual Journey (Abingdon, 2005).

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SMU, Torture and the Presidental Partisan Institut...