TEARS Anti-Torture Ministry Team
News from TEARS, an FCCB Ministry Team that opposes the use of torture by the US government anywhere in the world.
Church Council Endorses Call for Commission of Inquiry into Use of Torture
March 24, 2009
At its meeting on March 24, the Church Council endorsed a call for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the cause, nature and support of the practice of torture by the United States government. Now that torture has been outlawed by Executive Order, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is gathering endorsements to a statement in support of Rep. Conyers’ bill (HR 104) calling for a comprehensive investigation. When it is known how it happened, safeguards can be put in place to prevent its recurrence.
The TEARS Anti-Torture Ministry Team and the Ministry of Outreach, Missions and Service brought the request to Council which has taken previous actions to endorse anti-torture initiatives. The vote was unanimous. First Congregational Church of Berkeley is a member of NRCAT. The call for the Commission of Inquiry has been endorsed by over 25 leaders of major faith groups including John Thomas, the President and General Minister of the United Church of Christ.
Read the call for the Commission of Inquiry and sign the petition.
A Faith-Based Perspective on Accountability for Torture
March 22, 2009
Carol Wickersham, a Presbyterian clergyperson from Wisconsin and member of the board of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture has written and article, “One Nation Under Law and Under God:
A Faith-Based Perspective on Accountability for Torture&rquo;. She says, “Through our legislative and legal systems we must unambiguously reinforce the limits on executive power. Our Constitution and laws already spell out these limits, but the law cannot come into play without a reliable record of what has happened. As a people, we are entitled to know the facts relating to the torture allegations, and to make it clear through the enforcment of our laws, how far the Executive can go in ordering, or permitting, brutal practices by the custodians of government-held prisoners. This is a conservative agenda. It advocates only that the facts be found and that the law take its course.”
Countdown to End Torture
January 1, 2009
Starting January 11th, the seventh anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo, FCCB will participate with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture in the “Countdown Against Torture.” A “Countdown Clock” on the NRCAT website will count down the hours until President Obama’s first workday in office, when we hope and expect he will sign an executive order ending torture. If President Obama does not issue an executive order by 9:00 am EST on January 21, the clock will begin “counting up,” marking the hours that have passed without an executive order ending torture.
While the clock is counting down, FCCB will join hundreds of congregations across the US in a multifaith prayer to end U.S.-sponsored torture. The TEARS Ministry Team will begin our Countdown at 9:30 am on January 11. We will gather in the cloister for a ceremonial re-hanging of the FCCB banner proclaiming, “Torture is a Moral Issue.” FCCB will include the multi-faith prayer in our January 11 service commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s commitment to justice and human rights. Come a little early to church and be part of the Countdown!
Help Obama End Torture
December 19, 2008
Sign the Declaration today to help President-Elect Obama end torture
“Day of Witness” Against Torture
November 12, 2008
On November 12, Senior Minister Pat de Jong, along with FCCB members Chris Brown, Freddie Bungie, Robert Bradley, Joanne Lagerstrom, Louise Specht and Randy Summers joined 12 other clergy and 30 laity members on a visit to the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The purpose was to ask them to end the post-9/11 U.S. torture program. Organized by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the delegation asked our members of Congress to endorse the Declaration to Ban Torture and urge President-elect Obama to issue an Executive Order upon taking office, form a Congressional Select Committee to investigate the torture program, and grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all US detainees everywhere in the world.
The delegation was too large for all be admitted, so Pat and Louise joined the clergy members in a meeting while the laity sang, prayed, and gathered endorsements to the Declaration on the street. Inside, representatives of Senator Feinstein and Speaker Pelosi listened to clergy statements, and promised to relay the messages. The group was given a statement by Speaker Pelosi in support of its goals.
Rev. Patricia de Jong and TEARS Join National Day of Witness
October 25, 2008
On November 12, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (FCCB is a member) is organizing a National Day of Witness for a Presidential Executive Order to Ban Torture. All across America, delegations of religious people are coming together to visit their members of Congress, seeking their support for urging the President-elect to issue an Executive Order to ban torture.
Here in the Bay Area, several FCCB members will go with our Senior Minister, Patricia de Jong to visit Senator Dianne Feinstein and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on the morning of November 12. They will be joined by clergy and laity from many Bay Area congregations. We will present them with a copy of the Declarations in Support of a Presidential Order Banning Torture and ask for their endorsement and to urge the President-elect to sign the Executive Order as soon as he takes office. We will also ask them to form a Congressional Select Committee to investigate the US torture program and to guarantee ICRC access to all US detainees, wherever in the world they are being held.
While torture is already recognized as both immoral and illegal under existing laws and treaties, NRCAT is working in partnership with Evangelicals for Human Rights and The Center for Victims of Torture on this project because urgent action is needed to reverse policies and procedures established by the Bush Administration and to begin to rebuild our nation?fs moral leadership in the area of human rights.
Over 100 FCCB members have endorsed the Declarations, which have also been endorsed by hundreds of prominent Americans, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and George Schultz, and UCC President John Thomas.
All FCCB members are welcome to join us on November 12. Please contact Louise Specht if you want to come. You can endorse the Declarations.
TEARS Endorses Declaration of Principles on Torture
October 1, 2008
In cooperation with NRCAT The National Religious Coalition Against Torture, TEARS asks members of the FCCB community to endorse the Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order on Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty. By our endorsement of the Declaration of Principles, we are asking that an executive order be issued banning torture by all US personnel.
A coalition of religious leaders of many faiths, former military commanders and foreign and security policy experts have launched the nationwide Campaign to Ban Torture. To ensure that America will not engage in torture and cruelty, this diverse group of nationally respected leaders is urging that the president-elect issue an executive order that prohibits torture by embracing six principles of humane treatment that reflect deeply cherished American values. Current plans call for presenting the endorsements to the president-elect on November 12. Nationwide gatherings will be held at legislator’s offices that same day.
Copies of the Declaration of Principles based on traditional American values will be available at the TEARS table at coffee hour. You are invited to add your signature.
Endorse the Declaration of Principles online.
Read an Op-Ed piece by Louise Specht describing why it is important to continue to take action to stop the use of torture even as we wait to see how the national political situation will unfold.
Louise Specht Reports from the Atlanta NRCAT Conference
September 11, 2008
Louise Specht, who organizes the TEARS Ministry Team was in Atlanta to attend a conference sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture which is entitled “A National Summer on Torture: Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul.” Her participation there is funded in part by the Ministry of Outreach, Mission and Service.
Below you can read an email she sent back from early in the week. Also you can read Louise’s final report from the conference.
I gave up trying to sleep at 2:45 this morning. Tim got me to the BART station as the train was pulling in, and I just made it. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful—I had a pleasant seatmate, he noticed I was reading The Dark Side, Jane Mayer’s excellent history of the US torture program. I guess my occasional grunts and gasps got his attention. We talked about what the practice of torture is doing to this government and the country, he was well informed and appalled.
Meeting a cheerful Evangelicals for Human Rights intern at the Atlanta airport, I found my way to the MARTA, Atlanta’s version of BART, but quieter, and apparently one fare takes you anywhere (!). I met more cheerful interns at Lindburgh station, who brought me to the waiting van where I met my first NRCAT phone buddy in the flesh—Jeanne, one of the original organizers of NRCAT. It’s funny how people don’t look like you imagine them. I have been doing conference calls with all these folks for 2-1/2 years and the biggest surprise was Rich, who isn’t bearded and professorial as I imagined him, but tall with wild eyebrows!
Best of all was meeting Bonnie, originator of the Banners Across America project, a genuine original, a beautiful woman with a clear moral fire in the gut.
We had a great dinner at Mercer College. The President spoke of the difficulty of presenting the torture issue in the Atlanta area. He read a few of the unfavorable comments he received from alumni, and spoke of how the US torture program is viewed: “They attacked us, we have the right to protect ourselves, and if a few people get tortured and a lot of American lives are saved, I’m all for it.” Our job is to find ways to reveal the truth of the torture program: Torture does not provide information. It is used to terrorize populations. It creates deep anger against the US, which makes us less safe, not more.
Dave Gushee of Evangelicals for Human Rights spoke of the need for the moral clarity to recognize the damage torture is doing to us. We are meeting to understand what is happening, and figure out where to go from here. This is going to be a great conference!
Bonnie and Keren (NRCAT’s wonderful office-everything and friend) and I had a long “party” in Bonnie's room afterwards. We talked of many things, always coming back to the question of torture. We talked about the “frozen scandal”—that terrible things are revealed and nothing is done, and no one seems to care; that we are selling our priceless heritage as a champion of human rights for dross—“selling gold for dross” is how Bonnie phrased it. We talked about metaphors and analogies, exploring ways to reveal the truth. We talked about the failure of the broadcast media, in particular, to report anything substantive about what is happening.
And now it’s the middle of the night here, and we have a long day tomorrow!
TEARS and FCCB Participate in Anti-Torture Month
June 1, 2008
Read an Op-Ed piece by Louise Specht describing why it is important to continue to take action to stop the use of torture even as we wait to see how the national political situation will unfold.
A bold new banner outside the church will proclaim “First Congregational Church of Berkeley Says Torture is a Moral Issue” during the month of June. We are marking Anti-Torture Month by participating in the NRCAT (National Religious Campaign Against Torture} Banners Across America project. Congregations in Berkeley and all over the US are flying these banners this June, a powerful nationwide witness against torture.
Take a look at other banners that have been put up across the country by various faith communities as part of NRCAT’s banner project.
Read and listen to an interview with The Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of NRCAT, by the Christian Science Monitor.
Read the text of Louise Specht’s “Moment for Mission” about Torture Awareness Month, which she shared in the June 8 worship service.
On Sunday, June 15, TEARS will hold a Second Hour on US-sponsored torture. It will be a “Do-Something Session.” We will watch a short video, talk about our questions, and then all will be asked to help compose letters speaking out against torture—to Congress, to the editors of local papers, whomever you choose. If you are able, we invite you to bring a laptop to church on June 15 so our letters will be “printer-ready” at the end of the Hour. If you can bring a portable printer and/or thumb drive, please let Louise Specht know. You can get her contact info from the church office by calling 510/848-3696.
Anti-Torture Ministry Team Decries TV Torture Portrayals
March 18, 2008
TEARS, the FCCB anti-torture Ministry Team, is working with Human Rights First, an international organization that promotes laws and policies that advance universal rights and freedoms to address the way that torture is portrayed on television, and also NRCAT, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Human Rights First has created a video called Primetime Torture. This 14-minute movie shows the difference between the way that interrogation is shown on TV and the way it ought to work in the field. The film weaves together clips from some of TV’s most popular shows with the comments of seasoned interrogators.
View Part Two.
You can also learn more about the portrayal of torture in primetime at www.primetimetorture.org.
“Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” Coming to FCCB
June 16, 2007
The TEARS Ministry Team is joining with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture to sponsor a screening of Rory Kennedy’s powerful HBO documentary, “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” at FCCB. The date will be Saturday, June 16, at 8:00 p.m., in the Large Assembly. TEARS is reaching out to other faith communities to join us for this showing. FCCB friends and members are encouraged to attend and to invite friends from other congregations.
This film is for mature audiences only. Please do not bring children or youth. The film makes extensive use of the photographs from Abu Ghraib. These images and some of the interviews are extremely intense. TEARS and NRCAT have undertaken the Spotlight on Torture project because we believe that ?gGhosts of Abu Ghraib?h will help people of faith deepen their understanding of the nature of US-sponsored torture and also strengthen their resolve to end it.
After the viewing, we will have the opportunity to talk about our thoughts and feelings and to consider what faith communities can do to stop US-sponsored torture. Coffee and cookies and fellowship will be provided as we consider this very serious issue.
French Anti-Torture Activist to Speak
April 21, 2007
Dr. Marc Zarrouati, Chairman of ACAT-France (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture) will be coming to give a talk at First Congregational Church of Berkeley on Saturday, April 21, at 1:00, in the Small Assembly, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley. Dr. Zarrouati will talk about how we can analyze torture from an anthropological and theological point of view to understand torture as a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon and take more effective action to prevent it.
“Torture is not merely an act of acute violence, it is a form of violence which consists in deliberately causing physical and psychological injury to human beings, in order to reduce them to what one wishes them to be. Blinded by a delusion of omnipotence, the torturer thus usurps the role of God...From a Christian viewpoint, this basic violation of human dignity may be seen as a desire to erase God's image in man and thereby to disfigure his soul. Is there any greater scandal than this?”
ACAT is an ecumenical organization which has branches in over 30 countries. Founded in 1974, its task is to denounce torture wherever it is used. Sponsored by the FCCB TEARS Ministry Team, this is a free event. Donations will be gratefully accepted. Parking in the lot behind the church is also free for this church event.
For more information contact Louise Specht (you can get her contact info from the church), or call the church office at 510-848-3696.
Read an interview with Dr. Zarrouati at Mercatornet.
Legislation Causes Concern for those Opposed to the Use of Torture
September 24, 2006
Read about this issue at the Friends Committee for National Legislation website and learn how you can best respond. This website also includes statements made by Colin Powell and a number of retired military officials stating their concerns about the legislation.
The National Religious Coalition Against Torture (which FCCB joined in April) has been closely monitoring the legislation that is being negotiated between the White House and Congress. This email was circulated through the NRCAT in response to the news about an agreement the White House had reached with key Senators: “As you’ve heard, there has been a agreement between Senators Warner/McCain/Graham and the White House on the Military Commission/Geneva Conventions legislation. The news is confusing as to whether or not this agreement addresses our concerns about torture. The answer is, it does not. Linda Gustitus, Rich Killmer and I (Jeanne E. Herrick-Stare, Senior Fellow for Civil Liberties and Human Rights, Friends Committee on National Legislation) drafted a short statement on behalf of NRCAT for the press, stating strongly that the compromise does not end the immoral policy of torture, and that as people of faith we do not support the terms of the agreement. Among other failings, the agreement does not clearly prohibit interrogation techniques that are cruel and inhumane; it allows the continued use of secret prisons; it exonerates the perpetrators of torture; and it retroactively eliminates habeas corpus for enemy combatants held in detention centers like Guantanamo, as well as stripping federal court review of any further detention suits.”
NRCAT Collects On-Line Signatures Opposing Torture
August 22, 2006
The National Religious Coalition Against Torture (which FCCB joined in April) is seeking on-line signatures for its “Torture Is A Moral Issue” statement. The NRCAT www.nrcat.org joins people of faith committed to ensuring that the United States does not engage in torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of anyone, without exceptions. NRCAT is a campaign of national, regional and local religious and secular organizations. They are national denominations and faith groups, local interfaith groups and congregations and more. You can endorse the statement at the website www.nrcat.org/statement.aspx The NRCAT was formed on January 15, 2006 in Princeton, New Jersey. On June 13, they ran a quarter-page ad on the New York Times’ editorial page, “Torture Is A Moral Issue” signed by notable religious figures including Jimmy Carter, Elie Weisel, Dr. Rick Warren, Rabbi David Sapperstein, Rev. Jim Wallis, Archbishop Demetrios and many others. A copy of the ad is posted on the Outreach bulletin board in the Large Assembly. They are currently engaged in a nationwide drive to gather endorsements from people of all faiths across the United States to demonstrate the breadth and depth of Americans’ opposition to torture by our government.
FCCB Members Ring Out Against Torture
June 25, 2006
On Sunday, June 25, members of the church gathered on the lawn outside to ring bells protesting the use of torture by the US government anywhere around the world. The group sang, prayed, and a large sign proclaimed “Torture is a Moral Issue”. During the service Senior Minister Patricia de Jong invited members who wanted to stand in solidarity with members of TEARS, FCCB’s anti-torture ministry team, to come up to sing the “Gloria”. So many wanted to join that she eventually asked them to stand and sing where they were.
A Good Friday Letter Sent to President Bush Protesting the Use of Torture
April 30, 2006
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (of which FCCB is a member) sponsored an ad that ran in the New York Times on 6/13. Many FCCB members endorsed the ad. Click here to see a copy of the ad which has been signed by leaders of many faiths and religious institutions, including notables Jimmy Carter and Elie Wiesel. You can also read an article in the Washington Post about this new initiative by religious leaders.
The TEARS ministry team, which advocates against the use of torture by any US agency, also gathering signatures for this open letter to President Bush. The letter was sent to Mr. Bush, and copies of the letter and signature pages were also sent to local papers in time to be published on Good Friday. The purpose of the letter was to explicitly link the torture of Jesus, and our Christian faith, to the torture of the detainees.
Here is the full text of the letter:
April 14, 2006
OPEN LETTER
President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20500
Dear President Bush:
On Good Friday, Christians everywhere remember the torture and killing of Jesus by the authorities. On this Good Friday 2006, Christians in the US struggle with the knowledge that our government tortures and kills people in its custody. We struggle with the knowledge that those most responsible for this abuse profess Christ, who taught us to treat others as we would be treated.
Our faith is based on the paradox of redemption: Although all of us are sinners, all of us are likewise beloved children of God. Forgiveness is given to those who repent. You have publicly professed your faith as a follower of Christ. Therefore, we call on you, President Bush, to renounce the evil of torture. Jesus said, “As you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me”. Take steps to protect detainees, seek out those responsible for their care and hold them accountable. Your failure to do so condones the torture.
Sincerely,
Louise Specht
Additional signatures attached