3 Jun
2009

Posted in: Torture
By Eddie    5 Comments

A Simple Word on Torture

On 10 May, Tim Vivian, a former professor of mine (Christian Mysticism), a man who also tutored me in Greek for a stint (short but insanely effective), an Episcopal priest, and author/editor of a good number of books on early Christian monastics, wrote an opinion piece for our local paper entitled “Should a ‘Christian nation’ renounce torture? Of course.” I have not been able to find the transcript of that yet. However, he recently wrote a quick word about it that I found impressive:

My opinion piece in The Californian (“Should a ‘Christian nation’ renounce torture? Of course,” May 10) has generated much discussion. That’s good.

I confess now that I could have written the piece with one sentence: What would Jesus do?

Christians who support war, the death penalty and torture do so without Jesus. Christians without Christ. They wrest out-of-context passages from the Old Testament and distort passages from the New Testament, as Donald Rumsfeld did (e.g., Ephesians 6:11).

What would Jesus do? Who would Jesus torture?

Amen, brother Vivian. Christians in support of war, death penalty and torture are “Christians without Christ.” Exactly. Precisely the problem.

Tim Vivian is an amazing man, and I am privelaged to have met and worked under his tutelage. His wife, a leading professor at the local Cal State University, is a top notch educator in ancient Mediterranean history as well. I still have the texts from her early Christian history course. Good stuff indeed.

**Update: I was able to find the original posting by Tim Vivian and wrote about it here.

Share/Save