Presbyterians Stand Against Torture
Presbyterians from around the nation will convene in Chicago next week to speak out against torture and demand better treatment for prisoners under U.S. custody.
Presbyterians from around the nation will convene in Chicago next week to speak out against torture and demand better treatment for prisoners under U.S. custody.
The meeting by the PC(USA)-affiliated No2Torture group is part of a month-long movement against torture that will be observed by a number of human rights, civil liberties and religious organizations in June.
“The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program encourages Presbyterians to identify appropriate ways to participate in Torture Awareness Month,” said the Rev. Mark Koenig, the peacemaking program’s associate for resources and publications, according to the Presbyterian News Service. “Our confessions affirm that human beings are created in God’s image. Rooted in that affirmation, Presbyterian General Assemblies have consistently spoken against the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”
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At the upcoming meeting, organizers will go further by calling torture a “crime against humanity” that cannot be justified, even in the name of fighting terrorism.
“Torture is just an absolute violation of God’s creation of human beings in God’s image,” said the Rev. Kirsten Klepfer, a Presbyterian pastor in Iowa who is helping organize the gathering.
“Torture, both for the person being tortured and for the person torturing, is a violation of who we’re created to be.”
The two-day event will kick off June 2 at First Presbyterian Church in LaGrange, Ill., and will feature speakers, worship, and the stories of torture victims.
Keynote speakers at the event include Luis R. Rivera, an associate professor of theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago; John D. Hutson, the former chief Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy; and the Rev. Marie Peacock, vice moderator of the PC(USA)’s General Assembly and associate pastor of Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans.
