Series: Government Torture

I’d like to share the following email that was sent to each member of Council of Bishop’s of the United Methodist Church. The Council met last week, and passed a number of resolutions, but seemed to ignore anything of an consequence to our world today. If you know me, you know I’m not too intimidated to take them to task.

I believe we as a nation are acting egregiously in this “War On Terror,” and I believe that good people in this country are standing by and letting it happen. It has happened previously in the history of the world, and the consequences have been dire. So, I will make a deal with you. I will stop pestering you about the issue of U.S. Government Sponsored torture, if you will write a letter to the President, and ask that the U.S. cease torturing captured prisoners, charge or release detainees (especially women and children), and observe all tenants of the Geneva Conventions regardless of the ?status? he elects to assign these people. I do not believe that is asking too much.

I’ve sent a series of letters to U.S. Methodist Bishops trying to get them to pay attention to U.S. Government sponsored torture. I finally convinced two out of fifty to do something.

This email arrived a few minutes ago from the Bishop of Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. The VA Conference Bishop has also written George.

I have, several times in the past, called on the U.S. Bishops of the United Methodist Church, to write George Bush and denounce the practice of government sponsored torture. To the best of my knowledge, only five have done so. In light of the recent revelations, I am, again, calling on these Christian leaders to denounce toture. I will be much aggressive this time in that I plan to make a phone call to each.