National Religious Campaign Against Torture Speaks Out About President Bush's Failure to Adress Torture in State of the Union

"The soul of our nation is at stake. "

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

In reaction to President Bush’s failure to mention the controversy surrounding the treatment of military detainees in last night’s State of the Union speech, Dr. George Hunsinger, founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary said, “How can the president dare to address the state of the union while saying absolutely nothing about U.S.-sponsored torture, abuse, indefinite detention, and secret prisons? The soul of our nation is at stake. The time has come for all religious people and all people of conscience to stand up and say, ‘Enough!’ Let us renew our efforts to reverse the shame, and restore a measure of dignity to an America we can again believe in.”

With more than 90 religious member organizations, NRCAT’s “Torture Is a Moral Issue” statement has been endorsed by leaders and groups as Rick Warren, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Jimmy Carter and Eli Weisel.

Jeanne E. Herrick Stare, the chair of the Coordinating Committee of NRCAT and a member of the staff of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, explained the controversy surrounding military regulations governing the treatment of detainees: “Despite requests from congressional leaders, human rights advocates, and military and civilian defense attorneys, the Pentagon refused to allow any public comment on the military regulations drawn up to govern the military commissions anticipated by the Military Commissions Act. They were adopted this week after having been analyzed only by Alberto Gonzales' Department of Justice."

Herrick-Stare went on to note the danger of the existing regulations, saying, "The resulting regulations include dramatic procedural flaws that no civilized nation in the world would consider sound if applied to its own citizens – including admission of evidence that could have been compelled through coercion or torture."

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) empowers members of America’s faith community to join one another in religious witness to ensure torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment never play a role in U.S. policy. Full membership and more information about NRCAT is available on the NRCAT website at www.nrcat.org.

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Faith in Public Life is a communications and organizing resource center for faith leaders and groups sharing a call to pursue justice and the common good.

CONTACT: Jeanne Herrick-Stare at (202) 547-6000 x 2513, jeanne@fcnl.org or Katie Barge at 202-481-8147, kbarge@faithinpubliclife.org