The Religious Right, Silence and Torture – Others are Noticing

I have made several posts on the silence of the religious right on the issue of torture. For the most part I thought I was alone in noting the hypocrisy of the most outspoken moralists in American society, the Religious Right and politically conservative evangelicals, remaining silent on what may turn out to be the pivotal moral issue of our time, torture of prisoners by the Bush Administration. Well, it seems I am not alone, Dwight Welch of the Religious Liberal Blog has also noted the irony. Further Welche’s blog cites a story in the January 6, 2005 Washington Times, yes the paper owned by the Reverend Moon and the arch conservative Unification Church – even THEY noticed! Here are some snipped from the Washington Times :

Focus on the Family, however, has largely refrained from criticizing Gonzales' nomination as attorney general, only issuing a statement saying its members expected Gonzales to fight in court to save the federal ban on "partial-birth" abortions and to aggressively prosecute obscenity cases.

Another conservative religious group, the Christian Coalition of America, earlier called on its "activists to contact their United States Senators to urge them to vote to confirm Judge Alberto Gonzales as the new Attorney General. Left-wing groups are already forming a coalition to defeat this highly-qualified man to be America's top law enforcement officer."

The article concludes:

Everyone, it seems, has taken a stand on the torture issue, except for conservative religious groups, who spoke out with such genuine concern when the issue was abortion.

Where is Focus on the Family? Where, for that matter, is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops? The conference condemned torture but has been silent on the Gonzales nomination and whether he should give a full accounting of what went on.

Again, the silence from that front has been deafening.