5 questions with William Cavanaugh on torture
2008 July 15
Most of my readers are probably familiar with University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) professor of theology William Cavanaugh. Check out a short interview with him on torture from U.S. Catholic magazine. Cavanaugh is author of Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics and the Body of Christ, Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism, and the recently published Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire.
The full text of the interview is here.
H/T to David.
These insights of William Cavanaugh, and the related links on your entry here, plus the recent item on the theological works of James Cone have been brilliant and spiritually uplifting for me. Your work at Catholic Anarchy is reaching many weary and searching souls in our world.
As a Canadian, and a member of Catholics for Peace – Toronto, I am shocked and profoundly distressed to learn recently about the sordid details of the systemic torture of our young Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr in the infamous prison of Guantanamo Bay, at the hands of the American military establishment, with the explicit and implicit permission and cooperation of the Canadian military as well as the ruling government of Stephen Harper and his Conservative party. Shame on all of us as North American neighbours within the human family!
Our Canadian and American hands are essentially linked in this travesty of injustice and violation of human rights and human dignity. Our hands are manifestly drenched with the blood of the victims of state violence and state terrorism which now rules the earth in the latest twenty- first century version of imperial conquest and the tragically recurring but ancient primordial rite of brutal hatred for our brother and sister. When, oh when will we ever learn? Will we ever stop this endless and vicious cycle of violence against one another? Let us take action now to stop this.
It confirms our Catholic belief that the crucified God continues to suffer relentlessly in our world which we believe has been redeemed. For me, Christ is there suffering in Omar, just as he was the hidden God revealed in the holocaust account of Elie Wiesel who witnessed the young boy hung on a gibbet in Nazi Germany – a sacrificial victim of human violence and inhumanity.
But this endless cycle of violence must stop! By our silence and neglect, we are guilty of participating in sinful and shameful atrocities. We are not innocent bystanders any longer.
There is no way to justify this despicable behaviour. And yet our “Christian” and God fearing nations (sic), also known as: ‘the coalition of the willing’— carry on the ancient and even Constantinian tradition of consummate deceit and the astounding victory of ideology over Gospel truth which is emblazoned across the wall of our cathedral here in Toronto, above the high altar and surrounding the stained glass window depicting the first century Roman torture and crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves: “In hoc signo vinces” – [How we have twisted this notion: IN THIS SIGN YOU WILL CONQUER].
Yes indeed, my friends, in this evil and twisted horror known as torture and the absolute betrayal of our common shared humanity, it appears that we have conquered once again the Word of God, the Living and breathing incarnate gift of sublime truth, the original blessing of all creation.
Mea culpa! Mea culpa! Mea maxima culpa!
May God grant us repentance, and lead us to specific and concrete personal and public acts of redemptive compassion and active nonviolence. Let us move from words to action on behalf of justice and peace.
Thanks for those reflections, Larry, and I’m glad you liked the recent posts. I appreciate the email updates for Catholics for Peace and I’m still hoping to get down for a meeting, hopefully in the fall.
Thank you for this. Sadly, torture (and most human rights issues) seems only to be the elephant in the room in this election.