Who we aspire to be

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

 

            They beheaded him. It made “Breaking News” like all the others before him. Was he a journalist, an aid worker, or just a guy who saw abject suffering and it gnawed at him until he decided to do something, to witness what horrors man continues to inflict on his fellow man and to say, “At least with me, no more.” They cut his head off all the while filming the entire brutal, ugly incident. They filmed and they scoffed.

            And we react with revulsion at the barbarism and inhumanity, at the lack of moral clarity in the act and the words. We cry out for “justice,” yet it isn’t justice we seek, its vengeance. We demand retribution all the while ignoring the blood that is on our own hands.

            The issue, we are told this week, is whether “enhanced interrogation techniques are effective in stopping terrorism.” The issue, we are told, is given the nature of our enemy, what is acceptable in a “war unique in the annals of history.” I respectfully disagree. The real question is: does our conduct in war – and peace – keep with the ideals of this country? Or, as Senator John McCain so eloquently put it, “Does this represent who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be?”

            I speak of the recently released report on CIA activities during the days following 9/11. In truth, I speak beyond that to the foundational notion that exceptional nations act exceptionally. Americans understand in their gut that the reason government must always vest “in the people” is because governments – like all human – failed creatures that we are – institutions are capable of evil. As a believer in the redemptive power of God’s grace. I understand all too well that we are all fallen, we are all sinful, we are all capable of doing the “wrong” thing at any given time. But, we are called to see, as President Lincoln, described it, “the better angels” in ourselves. When we justify the use of torture in the name of a “war” against anyone, we are no more moral, no less evil, than those who attack us.

            Fear causes us to do extraordinary things. I remember those first weeks after 9/11 when we weren’t sure if more attacks were coming, when we weren’t sure even how many were dead. There were rumors attacks; anthrax scares. And my immediate reaction was one of bloodlust. “Kill them all,” I thought. That was hardly a unique perspective.

            It has been that way throughout our collective history. In the Civil War we held soldiers in horrendous prison camps. Sherman burned a path through Georgia and the Carolinas; Lincoln usurped the Constitution and set aside habeas corpus relief. In World War I, German-Americans were rounded up; Congress passed numerous laws which denied basic First Amendment rights of dissent and speech. World War II and we rounded up American citizens of Japanese descent. We put them in “internment camps” and took their property.  In the name of victory we bombed cities in Germany: Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, killing tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children, noncombatants. Against Japan we vaporized two whole cities.

            During Korea we allowed Senator McCarthy and his band of red-baiters to destroy fellow citizen’s lives by declaring them “communists.” Vietnam and we watched our air force drop napalm on villages, Agent Orange defoliage on our own troops; we had My Lai and other atrocities. No, our history is replete with our own acts of barbarism.

            Men have been held at Guantanamo Bay for over thirteen years without charge. Our government tortured men: waterboarding, “rectal” feeding, threats with sexual attack, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, cold and chained to a wall; in the name of saving our country. But what is worth saving if we commit to that type of behavior?

            “Who we aspire to be.” I have the utmost respect for Senator McCain. He knows full well the pain and anguish of torture. In the hands of our Vietnamese enemy, McCain was repeatedly beaten. He was hung by his arms until his shoulders came out of socket. He was kept in solitary confinement, deprived of food and medical care. Senator McCain says he would have done anything, said anything, to stop the torture. Torture is just that – torture. I read in Louie Zamperini’s amazing biography, “Unbroken,” of the horrendous treatment he withstood at the hands of sadistic guards. Is that who we aspire to be?

            British philosopher Edmund Burke said “the only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing.” Evil is never overcome by evil. You overcome evil by good. An editorial cartoon published on the day the CIA report was released shows a grinning OBL in hell holding up a sign that says, “We win.” “Who we aspire to be.”

            For the last six and a half years I have seen some of the worst in men … and some of the best. I have had to rethink every preconceived notion I held about justice, law, and my obligations as a Christian, a citizen, a human being. I know that evil will never be overcome by evil. We must aspire to be like the Good Samaritan, to show mercy to those in need and forgiveness to those who cause us harm.

            As the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was led to the gallows, the SS doctor observing his execution noted he had never seen a man so at peace as he faced his death. “They may kill your body, but they can’t kill your soul.” Those words are in the Gospel of Luke. They killed Bonhoeffer on a spring day in 1945 but his memory, his writings, his faith lives on. And his executioners? Long forgotten. Who do we aspire to be?