WASHINGTON (ABP) — More than 40 religious officials signed a letter Nov. 12 to congressional leaders — and copied to all members of Congress — urging immediate action to close the United States' military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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"Guantanamo is the symbol of our country's violation of our deepest values," said the letter, drafted by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. "Regardless of how it is operated now compared to how it was operated in earlier years, it stands, in the minds of hundreds of millions of people in our nation and around the globe, as a place where America broke faith with itself and used torture as an interrogation technique."
One of President Obama's first policy decisions in office was to set a timeline for closing the controversial camp designed to detain terrorist suspects outside the reach of U.S. law. Faced with missteps and setbacks by Congress, however, it is unlikely the administration will meet its original deadline of Jan. 22, 2010.
"We in the religious community believe that closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay is a necessary step in the campaign to end U.S.-sponsored torture forever," Richard Killmer, executive director of NRCAT, a membership organization representing more than 260 religious groups, said in a press release. "Closing the detention center quickly can help restore the U.S. as a respected member of the global community."
The letter from religious leaders said symbols are important in the spiritual life of both individuals and a country.
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"Our government must close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay now to help us heal spiritually and to put an end to this dark and errant chapter in our history," they said. "For those detainees that must continue to be incarcerated, we believe that appropriate alternative sites can be identified."
The religious leaders contended that "torture is immoral, illegal, and never justifiable — without exception."
Signers of the letter include David Gushee, president of Evangelicals for Human Rights and a professor of Christian ethics at Baptist-affiliated Mercer University in Atlanta. He writes a regular column for Associated Baptist Press.
"Closing Guantanamo's detention center is a major piece of unfinished business for the Obama administration," Gushee said. "It is a toxic symbol. Various pressures threaten to prevent President Obama's shutdown of this site in the one-year time frame the president initially promised. It seems timely to me to encourage the president to keep that promise."
Another Mercer faculty member, Timothy Floyd, also added his signature. He is director of the school's law-and-public-service program and a professor in Mercer's School of Law on its main campus in Macon, Ga.
Another signer, Glen Stassen, a professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, formerly taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.