Bad news for Jack Bauer
While Presbyterians and Episcopalians were debating gay clergy in mid-June, a diverse band of faith leaders rallied to decry torture -- and stir just a touch of controversy.
A group of 27 faith leaders paid for an advertisement in The New York Times June 13 titled "Torture is a Moral Issue," and asked the United States to ban torture and inhumane treatment of its prisoners. Faith leaders who signed the statement included the Rev. Rick Warren, founder of California's Saddleback Church and author of the popular book "The Purpose Driven Life;" Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, outgoing Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C.; and our own the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
It's rare you'll see folks like Haggard, also senior pastor for New Life Church, sign the same document approved by former President Jimmy Carter and Sayyid Syeed, the national director of the Islamic Society of North America. Haggard, after all, is often seen as a leading figure in conservative (and politically active) Christianity. And his support didn't go unnoticed by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, who believes accusations of U.S.-sanctioned torture are hogwash. He lambasted both Haggard and another signee, the Rev. Jim Wallis, on his program. It's another illustration that the evangelical world is more diverse than sometimes thought.
A group of 27 faith leaders paid for an advertisement in The New York Times June 13 titled "Torture is a Moral Issue," and asked the United States to ban torture and inhumane treatment of its prisoners. Faith leaders who signed the statement included the Rev. Rick Warren, founder of California's Saddleback Church and author of the popular book "The Purpose Driven Life;" Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, outgoing Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C.; and our own the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
It's rare you'll see folks like Haggard, also senior pastor for New Life Church, sign the same document approved by former President Jimmy Carter and Sayyid Syeed, the national director of the Islamic Society of North America. Haggard, after all, is often seen as a leading figure in conservative (and politically active) Christianity. And his support didn't go unnoticed by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, who believes accusations of U.S.-sanctioned torture are hogwash. He lambasted both Haggard and another signee, the Rev. Jim Wallis, on his program. It's another illustration that the evangelical world is more diverse than sometimes thought.
posted by Paul Asay | 9:34 AM
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