Blog | Myrtle Beach: What does Christianity have to say about the U.S. and torture? Would Jesus approve?

On almost every subject, I receive email and voice mail messages from people declaring that they are Christian and are guided by the principles of one of the world’s great religions.

So far, I have not heard from many Christians, in the Myrtle Beach area or elsewhere, talking about the recently-released U.S. Senate report on torture through that lens.

I’m hoping to hear from some today.

If you are a Christian and guided by that great faith, how do you view the issue of torture? To make it less political, forget about the conclusions of the report that discuss whether or not a tip did or didn’t help us locate Osama bin Laden. I’m more interested in the moral view, not a politically-tortured one.

Either torture is OK all the time, sometimes or never. What does Christianity, in your opinion, have to say about that?

Some of the torture we inflicted on people included waterboarding, freezing a man to death, having men stand on broken legs for hours on end, “rectal feedings,” among other things. Some of them were mistakenly held in detention and were later discovered to have been innocent.

As a Christ follower, would Jesus say thumbs up or thumbs down to such acts, even committed against people knowingly trying to kill Americans?

Christianity is supposed to help guide us through the toughest moments. If so, does it have anything significant to add to this discussion?

Sen. John McCain, whether coming from a faith perspective or one as a man who was tortured during war, has been cleared about his view. What’s yours?

This story was originally published December 11, 2014 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Blog | Myrtle Beach: What does Christianity have to say about the U.S. and torture? Would Jesus approve? ."