American churches have failed the United States by not speaking out more strongly against torture. While over 10,000 Americans have signed an anti-torture statement, that is only a small fraction of the estimated 132 million Americans who attend religious services weekly. Torture is a form of violence that goes against principles of most major religions. It is also practically useless for eliciting useful information and damages America's reputation internationally when images emerge of American's torturing prisoners. A ban on torture is needed to protect both detainees' human rights and the moral authority and "soul of the nation."

1. TORTURE BAN VITAL FOR NATION'S SOUL
Cincinnati Post, The (OH) - December 7, 2006
Author: Kevin Eigelbach
Readability: 9-12 grade level (Lexile: 1140)
Every once in a while, I come across further evidence of how thoroughly Christian churches have failed the United States.
I found the latest example on the Web site of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, www.nrcat.org.
More than 10,000 Americans have endorsed the Campaign's statement against torture. The site shows that American churches have
failed because 132 million Americans haven't signed on.
That's how many say they attend religious services at least once a week.
Why would a religious person favor torture? Fort Thomas resident Trasy Durso can't imagine.
"I don't believe in violence, torture is violence. It's pretty simple to me," she said. "Nobody wants to be tortured or violated physically."
Durso is one of at least 12 Northern Kentuckians who have electronically signed the anti-torture statement.
Another is Northern Kentucky University professor emeritus Jerry Richards, who said torture violates a key tenet of most religions -- do
unto others as you would have them do unto you.
And if we do it to others, others will do it unto us -- when they capture U.S. soldiers.
"We can't expect to engage in that behavior and have other nations respect our concern that it not happen to our own people," he said.
From a practical standpoint, torture doesn't elicit useful information anyway, he said. The victims simply say whatever they think their
tormentors want to hear, so that they will stop torturing them.
Images of Americans torturing prisoners, such as those seen at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, hurt our standing internationally, said
signer Adalberto Pinelo, a political science professor at NKU.
We should unequivocally renounce torture, he said, but go further and ensure that our allies don't do it either.
"The idea that we capture people and ship them to countries where they can be tortured, I find that amazing and discouraging," he said.
The religious community hasn't spoken out about torture for several reasons, Richards said, including disbelief that Americans are doing it.
It has also failed to consider the long-term consequences of accepting torture -- what it does to the soul of America.
It reminds Richards of a quote from Gandhi about our atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
Gandhi said we know what the bombing did to the conquered nation, but not what it would do to the soul of the conquerors
In October, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Dressed up as a ban on torture, it actually weakens safeguards against it. For example, U.S. law originally defined a war crime as a
violation of common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
But the Act says only "grave" violations of Article 3 are war crimes, and gives the president the authority to decide what those are.
I like Article 3. It says you can't coerce prisoners to get information from them. If they refuse to answer questions, you can't do nasty
things to them. Plain and simple.
You god-fearing Christians might trust President Bush to interpret Article 3 correctly. But what about President Hillary?
The Campaign staff is hopeful that the new Congress will ban torture and poor treatment of detainees, said staff member the Rev.
Richard Killmer.
I hope so, too. OK, I'll say it: The soul of our nation is at stake.

2. Staff reporter Kevin Eigelbach writes on religion for The Post. Reach him at keigelbach@cincypost.com.
Edition: Cincinnati Section: Living Page number: D5 Record: 0612080202 Copyright: Copyright (c) 2006 The Cincinnati Post