Waterboarding 'unethical,' says So. Baptist leader
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 5/8/2009 4:30:00 AM
Dr. Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, says he believes the interrogation technique of waterboarding is torture because it inflicts personal physical harm and "contravenes an individual's personhood and their humanity."
In a statement, Land said waterboarding "violates everything we believe in as a country," arguing "There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level." Land explained his stance to OneNewsNow.
"I support capital punishment, but I don't think I should support capital punishment unless I am willing to personally give the lethal injection," Land says. "Well, the more I thought about and prayed about it, I couldn't waterboard somebody -- and if I couldn't waterboard them, then I don't have the right to ask others to do it or to condone their doing it."
In his written statement, Land states he sees no circumstance in which torture should be a permissible interrogation technique employed by American officials -- "even if the authorities believe a prisoner has information that might involve national security."
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Dr. Land says he did not endorse the 2007 Evangelical Declaration Against Torture because the statement did not define torture. The declaration was signed by the likes of former President Jimmy Carter, and well-known evangelical pastors Joel Hunter and Rick Warren.
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