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Where should we draw the line between good and evil? Between legal and illegal? These are difficult questions which occupy every society and no final answers are ever really developed. Nevertheless, the nature of the debate and the means by which different lines are drawn can be as informative about the morals of a society as the answers themselves. In America today there is an intense debate over where to draw the lines around torture: is it moral or immoral to torture and abuse detainees in order to obtain information about possible terrorist plans?
Read Article: Exchanging Chains for Liberty: We Must Abandon the Old Standards and Create New Lines Between Good and Evil
Leaders of the Christian Right act like they and their subcontractors in the Republican Party are the only line of defense between decent, God-fearing parents and the moral destruction of America’s youth. Every other week another self-proclaimed guardian of morality or childhood offers up a new infringement on civil rights with the excuse that it’s necessary to protect us, and especially our children, from homosexuality, pornography, sex, contraceptives, abortion, drugs, alcohol, internet predators, teen pregnancy, developing hairy palms, paper cuts, and so forth.
Read Article: Faith-Based Protection from Sexual Predators: Can You Trust Your Children with Republicans?
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The right of habeas corpus is one of the oldest and most basic rights in the West. Habeas corpus is a Latin phrase meaning roughly “you must have the body” and means that those who have power over the physical persons of prisoners are required to bring them before an independent judge for the purpose of evaluating whether their detention is just. To put it simply, the right of habeas corpus is the right of each person to not be subject to arbitrary, unreviewable arrest, detention, or imprisonment. It is the right of each person to have an independent, impartial judge examine their case and determine whether the law allows for their continued detention or if the law requires that their freedom be restored to them.
Read Article: Could You Become an Unlawful Enemy Combatant? You Have Rights at the Whim of President Bush
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Christians commonly represent their religion as being one of peace, love, and kindness. At the same time, Christians don’t appear to be any less likely to engage in cruelty, brutality, or evil than anyone else. What gives? How can both of these be true? The answer lies in the fact that as a belief system, Christianity isn’t solely defined by the highest ideals which it might express. Christianity is also defined by the actions and attitudes, however low, of actual Christians. In effect, Christianity is what Christians do — for better and for worse.
Read Article: Where in the World is Jesus Christ? Finding Jesus in a Christian Nation’s Acts of Brutality & Torture
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It’s disturbing enough to ponder the extent to which the American government has authorized and defended certain practices, such as torture and secret prisons, which are characteristic of fascist, authoritarian, and totalitarian political systems. Even worse, though, is the extent to which self-proclaimed defenders of traditional Christian morality have been willing to either openly support or at least turn a blind eye to these practices. People who spend a lot of time crying out that America is a Christian Nation are spending little if any time proclaiming that torture and secret prisons are incompatible with Christian morality.
Read Article: Modern Crucifixion: American Empire and the War on Terror
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