A "Christian" government's "severe interrogation"

If it is true, as a pandering John McCain asserted recently, that this is a “Christian nation” that is best governed by a Christian, then America is giving Christianity a bad name.

The besmirching has been going on quite a while. Think of “Christian” America’s record regarding native peoples, African slaves, African-Americans, Chinese workers, the internment of Japanese-Americans, the dropping of atom bombs on civilian populations, capital punishment, My Lai, Abu Ghraib, the environmental destruction of the planet ….

The list goes on and on and on.

Our virtuous “Christian” governance, if that is what it is, is as current as today’s headline.

The so-called Christian government of this so-called Christian nation, which is led by a so-called Christian president, is treating its enemies, to say nothing of innocent civilians, in a most un-Christ-like way.

Memo

To: George W. Bush
From: Jesus Christ

LOVE YOUR ENEMY

When is the last time you, regardless of your faith, showed your love for fellow human beings by slapping them in the head, holding them naked for hours in a frigid cell, denying them sleep for days and nights by battering them with thundering rock music, by manacling them in stress positions, or by waterboarding them? The latter creates the sensation of being drowned.

Christian nation? Christian government? Christian president?

Get real.

Let’s just forget the sanctimonious religious invocations and, to the best of our ability, do what is right and just and, yes, even compassionate. If we do that, we have the right to expect and, if need be, invite and even demand the same of our "enemies."

Media observation: The headline on the front page of today’s Oregonian reads, “U.S. secretly OK’d severe interrogations.”

“Severe interrogations”?

The lead to the story clearly refers to “torture” and brutality — a long way from “severe interrogations.”

On rare occasions under deadline stress, my interviews with reluctant sources (often paid PR “spokespersons”) could be described as “severe interrogations.”

No, save "severe" for the weather forecast. Severe storms, severe rains, severe winds.

Today’s headline reminds me of when the Oregonian uncritically passed on Neil Goldschmidt’s characterization of his relationship with a 14-year-old as fact in the following headline: GOLDSCHMIDT CONFESSES '70s AFFAIR WITH GIRL, 14.

I suppose readers should expect a front page that describes statutory rape as an “affair” to transform torture into “severe interrogation.”

The news is so much nicer that way — in this “Christian nation.”