By Bob Allen
The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina joined other faith leaders in a letter from the North Carolina Council of Churches seeking the public release of a 6,000-page Senate intelligence report on U.S. torture of terrorism detainees after 9/11.
The letter, dated Aug. 27 but released to the media in recent days, tells Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, that from a Christian perspective the use of torture is always wrong.
“The U.S. does not condone torture, but torture has been done by our citizens and in our country’s name,” the letter stated. “Our national security would be improved by restoring the world’s respect for U.S. integrity on human rights and adherence to the rule of law.”
Signers included Larry Hovis, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. Others included Brooks Wicker of Raleigh, N.C., who signed on behalf of the Alliance of Baptists, and Haywood Gray, executive secretary‐treasurer of General Baptist State Convention of NC, Inc. The Alliance and General Baptist State Convention are both members of the ecumenical group representing 18 denominations and 6,200 churches.
The letter cited a report made public April 16 by the Constitution Project’s bipartisan Task Force on Detainee Treatment declaring it is “indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and “the nation’s highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of torture.”
“As important as that report is, though, it cannot replace the U.S. government’s obligation to be transparent about its past,” the religious leaders urged. “Our nation needs to learn from the 6,000‐page SSCI report. Understanding our past will help us recommit ourselves to respecting human life in the future.”
In all, nearly 200 clergy and religious leaders from North Carolina added their names to the appeal. Names include Peter Carman, pastor of Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill; Christopher Harbin, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntersville; Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh; and Guy Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville.
Signers also included several faculty members at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, including Dean Gail O’Day, ABPnews columnist Bill Leonard and Resident Professor James Dunn, former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.