If Jesus is God, Then Torture is Wrong

Torture is one of those insidious sins that shatters the tortured person right down to the core of their personality and at the same time also destroys the torturer. It is a simple fact that torture can make any of us do or say anything, that it breaks people so thoroughly that they cannot be put back together in their previous psychological form. 

A nation that has a policy of doing this to other people is morally bankrupt. Christian religious leaders and their followers who support torture are as morally bankrupt as the policy itself. Their flaccid claim to faith is bogus. And their “witness” for Christ is a repudiation of Him. 

Never forget that fallen religious leaders, in league with a cowardly politician and a go-along crowd, were the ones who tortured and murdered Our Lord. The history of fallen religious leaders who support torture goes back a long way, and it is always associated with those religious leaders who mis-use their prophetic and moral voice as a way to personal political power. 

The Catholic Church,which teaches that torture is an intrinsic evil, has its own dark history in this regard. This history, which is 500 years in the past, is a cautionary tale of what happens when ambitious religious leaders try to combine their awesome power to speak moral truth with the sledge-hammer force of government.

Religious leaders and political leaders who try to mix their vocations end up falling into the temptation of taking a kind of faux godhead onto themselves. They become truly horrible.

There are few things more truly horrible than torture. It is impossible for someone who hasn’t been there to know what it is like to be utterly helpless in the hands of satan when he stands on two legs and looks at you through human eyes. There is no alone like the Alone of the torture victim. 

Torture shatters people to their core. It destroys their own understanding of themselves as fully human. No one who is tortured will ever be the same again. 

The interesting thing is that it does the same to the torturer. Torture is a shade of murder. In fact, murder and torture are often part of one act. If we allow a national policy of torture, the move to a national policy allowing summary executions and police torture of American citizens is a small step away. 

Nothing stands between us and the pit except the value individual human beings hold before God in Christ. Once we deny that — and accepting torture absolutely denies it — anything is possible.   

The torturer reduces another person to less than human, and by doing that, becomes less than human themselves. They, just like their victim, are trapped in the torture forever. 

Christians cannot condone torture and follow Christ at the same time. Torture, like abortion on demand, is a direct and absolute denial of the intrinsic value of human beings, because they are human beings. It is an attack on the Image and Likeness of God which resides in each one of us. 

You cannot do that to other people without also doing it to yourself. If human beings mean nothing, then you mean nothing. If any human being is not made in the Image and Likeness of God, then you are not, either. 

Torture, like deliberate murder, directly denies the sovereignty of God. It is a sin against all that is human. It destroys the torturer on a profound, moral and spiritual level. 

This circle of destruction is wide. It encompasses those who support torture, as well as those who do it. If we support torture, we become part of the tribe of torturers. We also become a link in the chain of ungodliness that is destroying the American psyche. 

It is, really, quite simple. 

The Ten Commandments are not something just to put on a plaque and then ignore. They are meant to be obeyed. 

The Beatitudes are not just an ancient stand-up comedy routine by a first century entertainer. They are the words of God, speaking directly to us. The Beatitudes fulfill and complete the Ten Commandments. They, too, are meant to be obeyed. 

Read the Gospels. If Jesus is God, and He meant the things He said, then torture is wrong. 

If every human being is made in the Image and Likeness of God, then torture is wrong. 

If we want to go to heaven, then we must follow Christ. 

If religious leaders ignore the Gospels to teach political pragmatism as morality, then they are false leaders who teach lies. 

For a run-down on the opposition to torture in Catholic teaching, go to the USCCB web site. Among other things, Catholic teaching calls torture an “intrinsic evil.”

For more about this issue, check out The Return of Torture by Mark Shea, who came out against torture early on and has never wavered from this position.