I actively avoid
headlines regarding the half-term Governor Sarah Palin, but this most recent
grab at attention drew me in.
In a speech given to
the NRA (National Rifle Association) over the weekend, Former Gov. Palin
explained how she would handle national security threats:
“Well, if I were in charge …. They would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”I probably shouldn't have been, but I was shocked. And what is even more shocking and what drove me to write is the reaction from the crowd. I hope it was mostly a force of personality they responded to and that if pressed, they would admit that her statement was reprehensible. But I am not sure my hope (or naivety) reaches that far at the moment which makes me feel the need to iterate why exactly her statements require outright condemnation from all fronts.
1. Baptism is an act of
grace and a holy sacrament. It symbolizes the rebirth of the person into a new
life, one characterized by a commitment to following the example of love and
mercy shown by Jesus’ life and ministry as he proclaimed the Kingdom of God. I
am not overly pious, especially in protecting symbols, but her use of it here
is the heart of the problem with institutional religion. She used the symbol as
a way of inciting identity-based malice towards those different than us. What
does that mean, exactly?
She is not using the
symbol or act of baptism as a way of communicating the comprehensive, willful
altering of one’s life to trust God. She is, instead, using it as a type of
Shibboleth.
Christians undergo baptism, not the terrorist (of course the assumption is a
non-Christian terrorist – most likely Muslim). How do we defeat the Other,
especially those seen as enemies of our culture? We impose our cultural
identity on them. And what’s better, we do it in a way that is violent and
inflicts suffering and communicates that we still hold them in utter disdain.
Baptism then becomes just one more way of identifying “us” vs. “them.” And even
more, it becomes a weapon on that front. It loses its religious significance.
It loses its meaning as a symbol of life and rebirth.
I cannot hammer this point home enough: This is everything that is
wrong with organized religion and makes me question the virtue of Christianity
as a whole.
Christianity brought us
the Crusades and the Inquisition and failed to prevent the Holocaust and
American chattel slavery. How? Exactly like this. It was used as a marker of
cultural and national identity instead of a teaching of love, mercy, and peace - ideas that transcend identity.
I am not saying we, as Christians, should be apolitical (I believe the
opposite). What I am saying is that we shouldn't allow people, especially those
who claim to be one of us, to co-opt our teaching, symbols, and identity for
purposes wholly irrelevant to our affirmation of the Kingdom of God –
ESPECIALLY PURPOSES ANATHEMA TO ITS REASON FOR EXISTENCE!
2. Which brings me to
my second point: Waterboarding is torture.
At the very least, it
isn't loving our enemies or turning the other cheek.
It isn't how we would like ourselves or our children treated.
It doesn't reflect the kind of mercy we feel flows from the heart of God.
We can (and should!)
have rousing debates on the realism of this kind of an ethic in a modern world
with religious zealots capable of inflicting massive human suffering and destruction.
But we should all agree that WE CAN'T BECOME THOSE ZEALOTS.
I am not suggesting we
hug potential terrorists, smile, and let them go with forgiveness and our
blessing. But we should at least follow the law.
3. And so my last point,
it’s a war crime to torture a prisoner.
She is not only re-appropriating
Christian symbols to torture another human being, but she is appropriating that
Christian identity as one that subverts and undermines the law, both
international and domestic.
And that crowd
applauded it, a crowd who ostensibly gathered to celebrate the U.S. Constitution.
As Christians, as
Americans, or even generally as humans who believe in freedom and the rule of
law, her statements should be condemned and she should be denied further
platforms to spew insidious and destructive speech meant to incite further hate
and violence against others, even if those others might hate us. She is
celebrating a platform that doesn’t first hold the freedom of man and the rule
of law as inviolable, but a program that envisions certain visions of justice
as paramount no matter the costs.
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As I have written , Christianity should be on the fore-front of affirming human dignity. Waterboarding,
and torture in general, is an affront to that dignity and therefore to the very
image of God imbued in us at the Creation. Our identity, whether cultural or
religious, is not a weapon to be used against suspected enemies. And the rule
of law is sacrosanct, something hopefully we would all agree is at the heart of
the United States Constitution and the democratic process.
Gov. Palin spoke a
grave insult to all of these things this weekend.
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