No Atheists in a Foxhole, No Christians in a Torture Chamber
Some years ago I badly lost an online argument about theology based on my flat assertion that conventional wisdom was right about there being no atheists in a foxhole. The assumption behind my statement is that Christian theology and culture accepts and forgives soldiers for the sins they do in defense of their people. Christians have the cultural capacity to forgive those who trespass upon others within the boundaries of organized military endeavor. Arguably this dates to the adoption of Roman military theology into Christian ritual tradition, but a millennium of cultural integration of chivalry is probably a substantial part of the acceptance of soldiery by Christians. In this way we can still demand decency from our soldiers and mitigate the evil that is done in war.
In order for Christians to exonerate themselves for sending others to do evil to the enemy, it must be believed that the soldiers have belief. Sending others to fight without religious imprimatur is a morally vacuous act and causes Christians lingering harm. The history of the last fifty years makes much more sense in the context of a Christian nation on a slippery slope of expedient immorality, in danger of losing its soul. There is a price to pay for doing evil without absolution, and for withholding absolution from those who need it. There is an abhorrent societal cost for accepting atheists in foxholes. We are more willing to lose a war than to abide amoral troops.
Christian culture is at a loss for how to deal with the willful and deliberate infliction of harm on those without the capacity to directly retaliate. If the subject is not an immediate personal threat, there is no Christian capacity to forgive harming them. Much of the death penalty debate revolves around this point. Torture is beyond the capacity for Christians to accept, understand, or forgive. It just isn't in us, and we are unwilling to accept the expedience of torture to gain even crucial information. There is an abhorrent societal cost for accepting Christians in torture chambers. We are more willing to let our soldiers and citizens die than to abide these acts.
The President of the United States is a Christian. Soldiers and civilians are going to die because George W. Bush refuses to allow torture, even on those who have no rights in international or US law. The war, however, will be fought until it is won, because the overwhelming Christian majority can still believe there are not atheists in foxholes. I cannot justify the loss of life that failure to torture will cause, except that the loss of the war would certainly kill many times more. There is no optimal solution and this is an excruciatingly difficult decision. The political reality is that the United States is a Christian culture that cannot abide torture in support of a war, regardless of the cost. I honestly wish I could argue in favor of torture because I will certainly lose friends because of the lack. I simply believe that it is more important to win the greater war, and we cannot do that with torture as a weapon.
Hat Tip:
Norman Podhertz
Perspective on the Washington State Election Mess
A letter I sent to Rebecca Webb, News Anchor at KINK FM-102 in Portland. Rebecca is an old family friend I have the privilege to know. She is gracious and decent as well as being easy on the eyes and ears. I am wildly fortunate in my friends.
Rebecca,
This weblog
http://www.soundpolitics.com/ has the best analysis of the actual data of the Washington State Governor election fiasco. Regrettably for Washington voters, their analysis is noticeably more accurate than the election officials in King County. They are doing a lot of verification using database search skills and coming up with some very damning evidence of incompetence and voters practicing fraud. Here's a
quote: <>
Here's another fascinating discovery from the latest King County voter file.
[I now have four versions of the King County voter registration file, cut on June 1, Nov. 1, Dec. 29, 2004 and Jan. 7, 2005.]
There are 557 names in the Jan. 7 file for people who supposedly voted on Nov. 2, but who weren't listed in the Nov. 1 file. Only 94 of the 557 are in the Dec. 29 file. There are a number of pre-2004 registration dates among the 557, but many of these aren't in the June file. 280 of the 557 are shown to have registered on dates between Jun 7, 2004 and Oct. 2, 2004, yet did not appear in any of the earlier versions of the King County voter databases.
This is not just Republican operatives making things up...okay, maybe they are Republican operatives...but the stuff they are pulling out from under the logs is real and not very pretty in the light of day. I suppose the question here is how accountable do we want our elections officials to be? The only answer that can stand the test of time is that the integrity of the elections process is much more important than the result on any given election. If the election process is compromised in any one race, the democratic process of all contests is damaged.
Patrick S Lasswell
