February 25, 2020
Dr. James Mitchell was a contract psychologist for the C.I.A. who developed torture techniques to be implemented at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility following 9/11/2001. He recently claimed it was his moral and patriot duty. This struck me as eerily similar to the echoes of testimonies from the Nuremburg trials following World War 2.
Many of us thought that we discredited the belief that torture produce truth. Or that torture itself has any redeeming value. Sadly, in military-prison-industrial complex America, we still have much moral work to do.
In our reading of gospel writings, it is clear that Jesus, whom Christians derive lineage, was tortured. Many American patriot Christians support institutions of torture like the military and prison. Many of these people are well educated; “for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (1 Corinthians 3:19)
Prison Theology 