Faithful Democrats
The Crucifixion is not a model for justice.
The evolution of Western values is slow and wobbly, gaining in one century and lagging in another. Among the roots taken by settlers from one continent to another was the notion of parliaments to govern and protect citizens from assaults by other countries and arrogance by their own.
A nation that poured out blood and treasure to end human slavery, which for thousands of years had been observed on every continent and in virtually every tribe, spoke in the language of freedom. This it did in its Declaration of Independence, then in its Constitution.
The course of liberty has never been straight. Fear and the exploitation of fear stirred lynchings, deadly riots, hasty arrests and suppression of dissent, adding always to the urgency of freedom.
The American government today looks not to the Bill of Rights, but to the Spanish Inquisition for its brand of justice.
Before Guantanamo and the Spanish Inquisition, the most infamous portrait of torture was painted at the crucifixion. Neither the Romans nor the Spaniards had recourse to electricity, pharmaceuticals and psychological skills available to today’s advocates of unbearable pain. Advocates and practitioners share the guilt, and the nation shares the shame.
More commentary at www.aepwall.com
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In