People of faith with Council connections have spoken out strongly on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture, calling for transparency. In particular, two recent opinion pieces call on Senator Richard Burr, now chair of the committee, to lead in releasing the full report.
A guest column by NC Stop Torture Now’s Christina Cowger and Gary Gloster, the retired Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of NC, ran in the Winston-Salem Journal.
It read in part:
Only truth will allow us to stand tall and honestly proclaim our respect for human rights. Not secrecy, not partisan bickering or apology, and certainly not the descent into barbarity of the CIA’s torture program. Sen. Burr, please use your position as a United States senator and chair of the Intelligence Committee to help us stand tall as a strong people, not one that stoops to the level of those who threaten and try to terrorize us.
And the Religion News Service and Washington Post carried a commentary from Sandy Irving and Doug Long, both members of the Council’s Peace Committee. Among the points they made:
As people of faith, we call on Burr, himself the son of a Presbyterian minister and now a member of the United Methodist Church, to honor the golden rule common to all faiths: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” As people of faith, we beseech Burr to assert himself as a leader in moral guidance and action. As people of faith, we call upon Burr to reject torture, and not embrace it. As people of faith, we beg the forgiveness of those we have already violated.
We are grateful for these public statements and continue the Council’s call for the release of the full torture report.
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