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Prayer protects and preserves human rights
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
It’s well documented that information gained through torture techniques is unreliable. And yet torture continues to be practiced—with varying degrees of governmental sanction—in nations around the world.
After reading yet another report on this subject, I felt compelled to pray. I needed some spiritual light to lift my thoughts above revulsion and dismay to a solid conviction that God is able to reach all people in trouble, no matter where they are. And not just that, I needed the conviction that divine Truth is fully capable of turning people away from the error of believing that torture can have a useful purpose.
It was instructive to take look at the root of the word. Torture comes from the same root as tortus, a Latin word meaning “twist.” This conveyed the point that the practice of torture is based on a twisted view of reality. Its fraudulent and malicious basis is that there is advantage to be gained by harming people. It uses pain—or fear of pain—to manipulate people. What its practitioners may not realize is that getting people to do what you want them to do by using violence undermines our own moral strength. As usual in issues of moral corruption, the reality of God is overlooked or even dismissed.
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