Sunday Sermon on Wednesday

posted by The Vidiot @ 12:41 AM Permalink

I don't understand the 'debate' on torture. I don't understand why there is a debate. I just can't see it. It's wrong, it's immoral and it doesn't work. You can make anyone say anything you want if you torture them long enough. That's not proof, it's just desperation ... on both sides.

So here is my humble offering. I was reminded of it while surfing thru blogtopia (y, wksctp!) and came across a post at Sisyphus Shrugged that I think sums up my feelings about the so-called christians that voted for, support and signed legislation that condones secret prisons, torture and sham trials where the accused can't confront their accuser, can't see the evidence against them and 'evidence' that was obtained thru torture is allowed.

I didn't have a religious upbringing. We were taught to do the right thing no matter the personal cost, but that had nothing to do with any particular belief system.

But tell me you can't read the following passage from Corinthians and not wonder where the hell we went wrong:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

These aren't just words, any more than our Constitution is just words, or our Declaration of Independence was hyperbole, or the Geneva Conventions are 'quaint.'

They all speak to a basic humanity that we all share and we all need to keep first in our thoughts and deep in our hearts.

It is time to put away childish things. 'Axis of evil', 'dead or alive', 'they hate our freedoms' are all things from the playground, slogans designed to inflame the ignorant and sway the weak.

America has always been an ideal. An imperfect, flawed ideal, but one that Americans have cherished and people throughout the world have strived to reach. Our 'shining example' may have always been tarnished gilt, but the guilt that corrodes us now, from our acceptance and legislation of torture, will be our legacy to the world and our children.


BTW, if the above isn't maudlin enough for you, think of the children!