Mainline Church Leaders Demand Obama Investigate and Expose Alleged U.S. Torture
Rebekah Sharpe
June 15, 2009

Mainline church officials and other religious groups, including the Islamic Society of North America, convened a special press conference in Washington, DC, on June 11, 2009, to demand that the Obama Administration create a “Commission of Inquiry” to investigate accusations of torture by U.S. troops and intelligence officials who conducted the War on Terror following 9/11.

Endorsers of the protest included United Methodist bishops, the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, and evangelical anti-torture activist David Gushee. The religious officials assumed the worst allegations were true, as they alleged a “shameful history of torture” in the U.S. They did not define torture or attempt to distinguish between aggressive interrogation and torture, or explain how best to handle captive terrorists.

After the press conference, protesters joined the religious officials in front of the White House for a public demonstration against alleged U.S. torture and for the commission. The protest culminated when the White House reportedly welcomed a delegation of 33 church officials, including the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches, James Winkler of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, and Maureen Shea, the Director of Government Relations for the Episcopal Church, who met with “senior” White House officials about their demand.

The event was sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), which is partnering with secular organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Carter Center, and New York University School of Law to call for the investigation of the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies. Rev. Richard Kilmer, the Executive Director of NRCAT, said that while the “faith groups involved [in the campaign] are certainly broad-based… all agree that U.S.-sponsored torture needs to end now and forever.” He rejoiced that the then newly-inaugurated Pres. Obama signed an executive order on January 22, 2009 halting some aggressive interrogation techniques that NRCAT labels torture. But Kilmer lamented that Obama is “not supportive” of an investigatory commission because “he does not want to look in the past, he wants to look in the future.” “We too want to look to the future” said Kilmer, but added that that future must be one where torture “will never happen again.”

The Rev. Dr. John Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, said that that the alleged U.S. torture made “an idol of our national security” and that a commission of inquiry to expose those acts would restore “this country to be a sign not of sorrow, not of demonic idolatry, but a sign of hope.” He admitted, “I’m disappointed that thus far the President has [resisted] the call to create a Commission of Inquiry,” because such a commission “is necessary for the health and the healing of our nation’s very soul.” Thomas explained that, “In religious terms, sin must not just be ended, it must be confessed and acknowledged.”

While most speakers did not specify what torture they believed U.S. troops and intelligence officials had committed, some cited water boarding. The Rev. William Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, said that the conclusions of such an inquiry “will probably be upsetting,” and would contain “stories of violence, degradation, and pain,” but that the commission was still necessary. Religious people and leaders still have their work cut out for them, he asserted, because “public opinion is still deeply divided on the use of torture.” Religious leaders would be “witnessing as the American government has deprived people of the most basic human rights,” because, Sinkford said, “We cannot remain complicit in the perpetration of torture by perpetrating silence.”

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America, asserted, “After 9/11 the validation of torture [by the U.S.] that took place set the moral trajectory of humanity backward.” Worldwide, she said, “things got so much worse over the past years” as citizens of other countries experienced increased oppression, “and the justification was that this country [allowed] torture.” Mattson charged that by torturing, “we have lost not only our dignity, but faith… this is the ultimate in insecurity.” She contended that in calling for a commission of inquiry “This is all we are asking: how cans this happen? So that it will never happen again in our name.”

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon said that “mainline denominations have a deep identification with this country [and suffer] as our moral standing in the world diminishes.” He noted that “the NCC is also part of a global ecumenical movement” whose international ecumenical partners (such as those in South Africa) testify “that reconciliation comes only through honest, independent examination” of the past.

NRCAT’s letter to the President declares, “The reality is that our nation is now shackled to a shameful history of torture. As people of faith we know that only the truth can set us free.” “The truth,” according to the letter, will be best arrived at “by establishing an independent, non-partisan Commission of Inquiry. The transparency and openness of a Commission of Inquiry will help to hold us all accountable for the policies and acts of torture carried out in our name.” Signers include the Rev. David P. Gushee, President of Evangelicals for Human Rights, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ, the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and United Methodist Bishops Sally Dyck, Warner Brown, and Neil Irons.