Welcome to the Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Have you ever met someone, or read something that challenged you to take action so effectively you could not refuse? It happened to me--twice.

The first was over 15 years ago, when I was a relatively new Unitarian Univer-salist living in Jackson, Mississippi. Our church sponsored a talk by Father Roy Bourgeois, a Jesuit who was active in the base communities in Central America. This was my first exposure to the realities of the politics of what we condescend-ingly called "The Banana Republics." I was horrified and outraged at what I learned. I could not just shrug my shoulders, write a token check and go home.

Instead I helped organize a chapter of Witness for Peace, hosted meetings and helped organize demonstrations. From that time on, the front lawn of my home in Jackson had a small white cross with Maria's name on it--one of the disap-peared of the struggle for autonomy in El Salvador. I was one of the "Jackson Six" who was arrested, tried, and found guilty of sitting in Representative Wayne Clark's office and refusing to leave until he consented to talk with us. Thus, it was Father Bourgeois who inspired me to become a criminal for justice.

Well, it has happened again. This time it was Molly Ivins. Over a month ago she wrote a column about torture. Actually she wrote a column about Americans torturing detainees at our prison at Guantanamo. Note that "our". We American citizens are allowing, even encouraging our American soldiers to torture human beings. Molly's closing paragraph asked, "What are you going to do about this?"

When I read it I sighed, remembered Roy Bourgeois and the Central American struggle, picked up my scissors and cut out the article. Then I came to church, pulled up the Worship calendar on my computer and changed the title of today's sermon. In Our Name… people are being tortured in my name and your name. I must speak out, and I hope to persuade you to do so also.

I must begin with a caveat: I did not know the presentation of this sermon would coincide with Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearings. Although I have many reservations about his qualifications to be our Attorney General, the use of tor-ture as a weapon in our foreign policy precedes this administration. Torture is torture is torture: it is unacceptable no matter who does it or affirms its use. And it is unacceptable because it violates our faith's deepest values and belief.

We stand for the supreme worth of each human life. From the birth of our liberal religion we have affirmed that each person is valuable and must be treated with dignity.

We come from that left wing of Christianity that embraced the humanism of the Enlightenment--that claimed each person was a child of God, that the Golden Rule was indeed Golden, and that we were charged with obeying it. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," as the St. James version of Luke 6 says.

In the United States, the Rev. William Ellery Channing called upon us to strive for self-perfection, and to recognize that every person was capable of developing and growing and becoming more like that great human prophet, Jesus. The inimitable Rev. Theodore Parker cast his great talents and energy into the move-ment to free the slaves; because each and every person had value as a spiritual being far beyond his or her ability to labor in the fields or factories of 19th Century America. Ralph Waldo Emerson taught us all that we could relate directly to the Divine, for we were, indeed, all a part of that Divinity. The central tenet of Univer-salism was that all shall be saved--that all humans, the created of God, would eventually rejoin their Creator, following their life here on earth.

Our theology has grown, diversified, and changed in many ways. We see the Divine in differing ways in this faith. In this room are widely varying views about just what or who might be called Divine. However, if there is one tenet that unites us, it must be this--each person is important and of infinite value.

Today we give voice to this belief in our First Principle: We affirm and promote the worth and dignity of every person. The children's version of this is "Each person is important", demonstrated in the story of the snowflakes--each different, each lovely, and added together, enough to change the winter world of the chick-adee and cardinal.

I believe that the First Principle is inextricably entwined with the Second, justice, equity and compassion in human relations. I believe that the Second Principle is how we live out the affirmation of the First, the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Thus our faith, grounded in the Judeo-Christian teachings from which we descended, calls upon us to practice justice, live equitably and exhibit com-passion to all human beings, because they are of infinite value.

How then, can we remain silent when the policy of this nation, for several ad-ministrations, is to not only practice torture, but to teach the soldiers of other nations our methods? (School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga.) How can we remain silent when this administration moves to enshrine this practice even more widely, and seeks legal advice on how to do it without being tried for war crimes?

Let me review how we got to this painful point in our history as a nation. Although our nation has always legally eschewed the use of torture, it has gradually crept into the fabric of our foreign policy. Many people are worried that it is in the process of seeping into our domestic policies. As I told you, I was interested in and involved in attempting to influence our policies in Central America in the past. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee just formed a Stop Torture Permanently (STOP) campaign. They appointed Jennifer Harbury as the head of this effort.

Ms. Harbury is uniquely qualified to lead such an effort. Her "own husband, Everardo, a Mayan resistance leader, was secretly held by the Guatemalan military, tortured for two years, (beginning in 1992) kept in a full-body cast to prevent escape, then executed without trial." (UUSC News, Fall, 2004, p. 1.) Ms. Harbury tried in vain to secure his release. She used every means at her dis-posal to learn the facts of his death. Finally the U.S. Government disclosed that he had been "killed by Guatemalan intelligence officers, several of whom were paid CIA informants. Moreover, the CIA was aware of his situation from the first week of his capture, but never informed (her) or officials trying to save him." (ibid, p. 4) (Date in italics added)

In an ad that appeared in the New York Times on June 25, 2004 announcing STOP, Ms. Harbury says: "Sadly, my husband's case was far from unique. I've investigated many similar cases. Again and again, I have heard from Central Americans who suffered severe torture at the hands of the local military. They confirm the presence of shadowy North Americans in their torture chambers, men with heavy U.S. accents, asking questions, speaking with clear authority, and at times even giving orders."

In the late 1980's and early 1990's when I was working with Witness for Peace I had more information about the CIA and their involvement with Central and South American military dictatorships. I have since moved several times and cleaned out what I thought were irrelevant files, so I no longer have that informa-tion in my possession. However, Ms. Harbury's experience rings true to me, un-fortunately as an example of widespread practice, rather than an isolated occur-rence. Such information is the reason I have a great antipathy to the CIA and their methods for extracting information.

Why did successive administrations in this democracy endorse these policies? The idea that a group of Mayans would invade, or seriously threaten, the United States is patently absurd. What threat to our safety was so extreme that it re-quired two years of torture of Everado Harbury? Why did the United States be-tray its democratic principles to endorse and support such practices? Why did the citizens of this democracy allow it to happen? We are not the only faith whose beliefs belie torture. It is from Christianity that we get the Golden Rule, and Judaism had an earlier version of the same sentiment. Why didn't the pulpits of this country resound with anger and scorn and repudiation of these policies?

And why have we kept silent as this administration expands and attempts to legitimize the structures of torture?

In an editorial on December 23, the Washington Post said:

Thanks to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of foreign detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA - truths the Bush administration implacably has refused to acknowledge. …

Though they represent only part of the record that lies in government files, the documents show that the abuse of prisoners was already occurring at Guantanamo in 2002 and continued in Iraq even after the outcry over the Abu Ghraib photographs…. Two defense intelligence officials reported see-ing prisoners severely beaten in Baghdad by members of a special opera-tions unit, Task Force 6I-26, in June. When they protested they were threatened and pictures they took were confiscated.

The editorial continues, giving examples of abuse and torture, examples of the Bush administration's stonewalling on attempts to obtain information, and laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of Secretary Rumsfeld, based on F.B.I. memos found in the pages of information.

These activities are taking place in our name. The justification is that they are necessary to keep us safe and secure. If we accept and believe that, you and I need do nothing. If we do not, I believe we must rouse ourselves from our holi-day stupor and again engage with the world.

Lest you think that these horrendous practices are taking place only in Guantana-mo or Abu Ghraib, please consider this: there was one small island in the Indian Ocean that received sufficient warning of the coming tsunami to take preventive action. It is Diego Garcia, and it is nominally owned by our ally, Great Britain. Tony Blair's government deported all its occupants to Mauritania, and it is now a military base used as a staging ground for the war in Iraq.

It houses Camp Justice a secret prison for high value prisoners in the war on terror. It is only one of many the United States has or is building around the world. Within Guantanamo itself, there is a secret prison for such special prisoners, and in Afghanistan and Iraq there are several more prisons. If the U.S. wishes they can always do what is called an extraordinary rendition, that is, transport a recalcitrant prisoner to another country that does not even have a pretense of laws against torture, such countries as Egypt or Thailand. (Tom Englehardt; TomDispatch.com, January 5, 2005)

It is our tax money used to construct these prisons. It is our tax money used to fly the Gulfstream V turbojet to military bases around the world and unload pri-soners who are hooded and shackled. (Ibid.) In the name of American demo-cracy we are building a torture gulag around the world.

One of my personal heroes was and is Eleanor Roosevelt. In her book, The Moral Basis of Democracy, she writes, "The citizens of a democracy must model themselves on the best and most unselfish life we have known in history. They may not all believe in Christ's divinity, though many will; but His life is important simply because it becomes a shining beacon of what success means. If we once establish this human standard as a measure of success, the future of Democracy is secure." (quoted in Wise Women, Susan Cahill, p. W.W. Norton & Co., 1996, p. 173.)

"Treat others as you would like them to treat you." These are the words of Jesus that form the basis of Christian teachings, and evolved into our First and Second Principles. I fail to see them modeled by the leaders of our nation, nor by the fundamentalist religious leaders of the Radical Religious Right.

Rather I see our national leaders claiming In Our Name that it is necessary to use torture and abuse to protect our nation and American Democracy. In Our Name prisoners are beaten, degraded and sometimes, killed. If we do not wish our name to be used in this manner, we need to speak up.

I have decided I do not wish these things done in my name. So I have investi-gated what I might do about it. The great theologian, Paul Tillich, tells us that "This picture of sin is a picture full of ugliness, suffering and shame, and at the same time, drama and passion." "In each of us," he says, "decisions occur, in us and through us. This is our burden. This is our despair. This is our greatness." (Reading)

We have choices we can make. We need not be silent as evil deeds are done In Our Name. We can contribute money to organizations that fight torture, such as Amnesty International, led by the Rev. Dr. William Schulz, a former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association; or to the STOP campaign of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. We could contribute to the American Civil Liber-ties Union, which struggles for liberty in the U.S., or to other human rights organi-zations.

We can inform ourselves more completely. I have put together a file of the materials I used to research this sermon. It is placed in the Social Hall for your perusal. There are many other sources of information also available. I encourage you to educate yourself about this subject.

We can write letters. We can write to our Representatives in Congress and to our Senators. We can write to our local newspapers. We can write to the magazines to which we subscribe, making it clear that torture is against our beliefs and values.

We can speak up in meetings, in gatherings of friends and families. I know it may be difficult to speak up when you don't know how your words will be re-ceived. However, I encourage you to do so. To make it easier I asked Marv Johnson to make us some buttons. It reads Torture: Not In My Name. I intend to wear mine as much as possible. They are in a basket in the Social Hall if you wish to take one.

Humans are both the greatest and the most problematic of earth's creatures. We are given the difficult gift of choosing our actions. We can choose to engage in acts that cause pain and suffering. We can choose to ignore situations that might make us bestir ourselves from our comfortable homes and neighborhoods. Or we can choose to confront the powers of government and demand they cease acts of torture In Our Name. We can choose to join groups that protest such actions, or form one ourselves. We can choose to organize protests. We can choose to engage in politics in the hopes of influencing decisions.

If you, like me, refuse to allow the United States of America to torture in your name any longer, you have already made a decision. Now you can choose how to communicate that decision, how deeply you can engage in action, and how much you want to risk.

When I heard the words of Father Bourgeois and responded to them, I eventually found myself in the 6th Circuit court of our federal system. I was found guilty of trespassing. Those of us who participated in the demonstration knew we ran the risk of jail, even prison time. The jails of Jackson, Mississippi were notorious in the years following the Civil Rights Movement. Parchman Prison was even more so. We were lucky. Our sentence was a fine of $50.00 and three years pro-bation.

I do not know the risk of speaking out on torture. I do not know where this will lead me and anyone else who chooses to engage in this issue. I will wear my pin and talk with those who question me about it. I will contribute to STOP. I will write letters. I do not yet know what else to do. I only know that no longer will I allow torture to be done In My Name.

Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.