No one should be tortured. Surely here is one moral issue that no rationalization can obscure. Surely this is clear: Torture should be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Yet this horrendous addiction, once abolished in most parts of the world, has returned in full force. In dozens of countries, East and West, those who dare to speak out for their religious faith or political beliefs lose their freedom and are tortured. Sometimes they die; nearly always they are damaged in body and soul.
• In El Salvador, death squads hack off people's limbs, murder them, and throw their mutilated bodies on public streets.
• In Uruguay, political dissidents are shackled in a barbecue pit and slowly roasted.
• In the Soviet Union, a dissident writer is shut up in a mental hospital, then injected with drugs that drive him into extreme anxiety.
• In Equatorial Guinea, prisoners are confined in cells too small to either stand up or sit down.
Why is there not an ongoing worldwide cry of protest on behalf of the tortured? How can people remain indifferent to this atrocious assault on human dignity? Why is there not some great, concerted refusal to condone, assist, or endorse these crimes?
A group of Christians in France asked themselves these questions at a meeting in 1974. Out of the gathering grew a large ecumenical movement, "Action des Chretiens pour l'Abolition de la Torture"--Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture--with 12,000 members, chapters in many parts of France, and an annual budget of $300,000.
The French Protestants and Catholics who formed "l'ACAT," as it is called, felt especially challenged because of their Christian faith. They recalled that they worship a Lord whose voice was silenced by torture and execution, a Lord who taught that each person is a subject of infinite worth who is to reverence the dignity of all others. Torture, they reasoned, is a denial of everything for which Christ lived and died. It dishonors God, violates human worth, and degrades both victim and torturer. It is a contradiction of that love for neighbor to which every Christian is called.
At first they were a tiny group--just four women with a burning concern. But slowly they reached out to other Christians, always emphasizing their Christian motivation. Slowly others joined them. They received a big boost when joined by Pierre Toulat, director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, who invited Catholic bishops to give support. More Protestants joined when Madeleine Barot, one of the first women on the executive staff of the World Council of Churches, lent her active support. A flood of memberships arrived after a well-known writer published an article on l'ACAT in Le Monde. Members of the Orthodox Church were also drawn in, giving l'ACAT a truly ecumenical character.
Another factor that attracted new members was l'ACAT's success in actually freeing people from torture. From its earliest days, the group set up close collaboration with Amnesty International, which sends l'ACAT regular reports on religious and political prisoners in countries around the world who are in danger of being tortured. L'ACAT volunteers and staff send the information in turn out to its members, each of whom has made a commitment to pray for the prisoners and to write letters to government officials seeking their release.
In one dramatic case, l'ACAT learned of a Chilean who was being held in a basement dungeon and tortured. Through their letters to the Chilean government, they were able to get him moved to an upstairs cell where torture wasn't practiced. He then got word out about a friend who was suffering in the dungeon. More letters resulted in the friend's movement upstairs, and, eventually, to the release of both men. Fortunately, both were able to come to Paris, accompanied by their mothers, to celebrate their freedom with the l'ACAT people who had worked so hard on their behalf.
Membership grew with each annual meeting, so that now thousands of l'ACAT members are spread throughout France. When my wife, Phyllis, and I visited l'ACAT's simple Paris office in June, 1981, they were adding a fifth staff person and expanding into new rooms. We joined them in leafletting for human rights at the entrance of Notre Dame Cathedral. They had gotten permission to leaflet and set up a l'ACAT literature table, an indication of the strong support they are receiving from the church.
Day in and day out, the most basic work of l'ACAT members is to send floods of letters and telegrams to repressive governments, challenging them to release people who are unjustly imprisoned and tortured. Members also take their message into churches, schools, and professional groups through exhibitions, speeches, and audio-visual shows. Always their goal is to make all Christians profoundly aware of torture and of the obligation to struggle against it. As they say again and again, "We want to make the voice of the church heard!"
Much action focuses on specific countries. In Paris, for example, members demonstrate weekly in front of the Argentine Embassy with wives of "disappeared" Argentines: those whom the government or death squads have simply kidnapped, never to be heard from again. A special exhibit, "Christians in the USSR," circulates throughout France, expressing l'ACAT solidarity with persecuted Soviet Christians. Members have sent many appeals and telegrams regarding human rights violations in El Salvador.
One of the most interesting aspects of l'ACAT is the involvement of 50 French monasteries in its work. Monks pray for the tortured; monasteries are made available to l'ACAT members for prayer, retreats, and ecumenical meetings. Prayer for the abolition of torture is fundamental to l'ACAT's work.
When Phyllis and I journeyed south to Switzerland, we found an active l'ACAT movement developing there, led by Swiss Protestants and Catholics. A Swiss priest, who often speaks to church groups about l'ACAT, is sometimes challenged by his audiences: "Why do you insist on talking about something so disgusting as torture?" He always replies: "Talking about torture isn't disgusting. It's torture that's disgusting. I won't stop talking about it until it's gone."
A national l'ACAT movement is developing in Belgium. People are starting to get involved in countries as diverse as Spain, Greece, Italy, India, Algeria, Morocco, and Japan. It looks as though l'ACAT may be developing into a worldwide Christian movement to abolish torture and to support basic human rights.
Here in the United States there has been no national ecumenical group seeking to arouse Christians "to make the voice of the church heard" in the struggle against torture. Some of us in Philadelphia had worked for years through the relatively small Christian human rights group, "Liberty to the Captives." Learning of l'ACAT in France, we contacted them and became a "cooperating organization." We were so impressed with the work of l'ACAT and with the potential of a worldwide Christian anti-torture group that we changed our name to give us the same initials as l'ACAT. We're now called "American Christians for the Abolition of Torture."
More important than our name change was our definition of a new set of goals, based on l'ACAT's purposes:
• To make Christians and churches profoundly aware of the scandal of torture, a social cancer practiced in more than 60 countries worldwide.
• To urge Christians to participate in the struggle against torture and assaults on human dignity; to urge them to do this without regard for country, government, or political ideology, and no matter who the victims are--to make the voice of the church heard.
• To cry out to God on behalf of the tortured and the torturer; to urge Christians to use spiritual means, especially prayer, to work for the abolition of torture.
• To stimulate people to a variety of actions to end torture and halt other attacks on human rights.
• To express solidarity and support for Christians--Christian communities, priests, pastors, and laity--who labor for more justice in their countries.
• To work with all people of good will, pacifist and non-pacifist, pledging ourselves to nonviolent discipline in whatever actions we take.
Our board of directors now represents a broad cross section of Protestants and Catholics working for peace and justice, including the coordinator of Maryknoll's justice and peace office, a pastor of Christ's Community in Grand Rapids, two members of Sojourners Fellowship, the director of the National Council of Churches' human rights office, and John Perkins of the Voice of Calvary.
We ask each member of ACAT to make the following basic commitments: 1) to pray regularly for the tortured and their torturers, 2) to become informed about torture and human rights and to share with others, and 3) to write monthly letters to help free people who are unjustly imprisoned and subjected to torture.
Can the world's indifference to torture be overcome? Can the church be a vehicle for raising a great, concerted, worldwide cry against torture and on behalf of basic human dignity? Those who are joining ACAT would like to try.
Richard Taylor was a Sojourners contributing editor and a longtime human rights activist in Philadelphia when this article appeared.
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