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{"id":52650,"date":"2014-05-22T00:38:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T07:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=52650"},"modified":"2014-12-29T00:18:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T07:18:21","slug":"kevin-obrien-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/05\/kevin-obrien-14.html","title":{"rendered":"Kevin O’Brien…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s astonishing to hear \u201cprolife\u201d Christians, who worship a torture victim, still straining credulity to come up with rationalizations for tiptoeing as close as possible to committing sins worthy of the everlasting fires of hell. It comes back, once again, to the divide in moral theology between those whose underlying question is \u201cHow can we do what is right with as little violence as possible?\u201d and those who ask (whether they realize it or not) \u201cWhen do we *get* to inflict violence?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the marks of deep corruption in the discussion, as Kevin notes, is the perpetual insistence on seeking a \u201cdefinition\u201d of torture while simultaneously insisting that no definition can ever be found or ever be adequate, leaving the Pusher for Mortal Sin free to test the boundaries and see how far we can go in the infliction of suffering. Such Definition Games <\/a>were a staple of the torture arguments over the past decade and were aptly summed up by Tom Kreitzberg as \u201c making the case for fog<\/a>\u201c. Indeed, the persistent advocates for the use of torture sneeringly took the mantle Coalition for Fog <\/a>to themselves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really super-complicated: Don\u2019t ask \u201cHow close can I get to mortal sin?\u201d Ask \u201cHow do I obey Jesus and act like a saint?\u201d Easy to understand. Hard to do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"