Turns Out, Jesus Likes Torture After All
Mark Tooley: Nutjob of the Month
Despite a recent outcry against torture by evangelical leaders such as Jim Wallis, Mark Tooley of the influential Institute on Religion and Democracy says evangelicals are wrong to endorse a recent anti-torture statement. From Agape Press:
A conservative Christian leader says the organization known as the National Religious Campaign Against Torture isn't saying anything about torture in places like North Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia -- but instead is focusing its ire upon the U.S. and the Bush administration.... Tooley says he has reviewed the declaration issued by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and has noted the document does not say anything about torture in places where it really occurs. That causes him to question the group's motive.
"If this group were genuinely interested in torture, of course they would be addressing those regimes that actively and deliberately do practice torture rather than focusing exclusively on the United States," he comments. He says he detects a "double standard" in the campaign against torture. "[It] is primarily a creation of the religious left and whose interest is not so much in torture, per se, but about opposing U.S. foreign policy."
Aren't Christians supposed to set a good moral example for everybody else? And furthermore, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture was signed by dozens of card-carrying right-wingers, such as Rick Warren and Ted Haggard. Tool-y makes it sound like the document was drafted by Ted Kennedy and Al Gore in a pot haze after attending a James Taylor concert. Mark Tooley, you win our nutjob of the month award.
Bill McCartney
