Monday, May 4, 2009
In the News Again
Posted by
Karen
at
10:02 AM
For those of you who read the articles from my previous post, especially the Pew Research survey on torture, here is a followup analysis: by Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary. I admit, the Pew Research results have been bothering me for days, and I couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation for the results. How can we simultaneously worship the most famous victim of government-sponsored torture, and yet wish it to be performed on others? But I think Ms. Thistlewaite has it pegged. What do you think?
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I think she makes an interesting point, but I would go further than she does. I think the atoning Jesus model would not, in itself, lead to an approval of torture.
I think you have to add a few more contemporary cultural ingredients to make this particular soup of bitter irony.
You need 1) a group of people who feel put upon, 2) an adversarial and misinformed view of our current conflict as a war between two religions, and 3) a desire for REVENGE.
Its all ugly, and none of it is Christ-like.
But to suggest that waterboarding a terrorist is unchristian immediately leads to accusations of unamericanism. We conflate christianity for americanism so easily.
And folks wonder why we don't want the American flag in the sanctuary.
Yeah, I went there.
...please where can I buy a unicorn?
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