Is Torture Ever Ok?

Everyone has been talking about it. The Obama administration published the debated torture methods authorized during the Bush Administration. Waterboarding, Stress positions and Confinement are the main categories and were supposedly not designed to inflict severe bodily injury. If you look at the pictures and analyze the methods from a third-party point of view, then it would seem like these methods are pretty safe. I wonder if you were being put in these positions if you would feel the same. What if you have arthritis? What if you had sores and cuts? How do you decide which method to use on each prisoner - or do you use them all?

The Obama administration has stated that the U.S. does not torture. Period. But he has been rubbing conservative Christians in the U.S. the wrong way. They have vehemently protested his policies on abortion and stem cell research (which can only lead you to believe they preferred the Bush Administration which would in turn, lead many to question their credibility) and could it be that they are also finding fault in his torture policies because they simply are unhappy with his other policies? I would have thought that conservative Christians would believe in humane treatment for all of God's creations, and yet they are happy to have bodily pain inflicted on anyone who the government feels may have information - in an era when the government created new laws that take away civil liberties and allow anyone to be detained without cause.

CNN published a story about Ken Cordier, a devout Christian who was a Vietnam POW, tortured for 6 years. He believes that torture is wrong in all circumstances. I guess when you are on the outside, looking in, torture seems like a good idea to "protect" our country, but when you have lived it then your view might be slightly different. It is interesting, though, that Cordier did not consider the "enhanced interrogation" techniques introduced by the Bush Administration to be torture.

The story also mentions Rev. Ronald Kuykendall, an evangelical pastor in Gainesville, Florida. Kuykendall is all for torture, citing the New Testament (Romans 13:1-7) "everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established." Oh. Well doesn't that apply to Muslim countries too then?

It is a complicated issue, but I know one thing for sure, we agreed to follow the Geneva Convention, which says no country can torture prisoners of war, whether that be physical or mental torture. We throw a fit when other countries don't follow the rules, but we seem to hold ourselves to a different standard.