The left, the right, the war, and the kingdom of God: thoughts on torture

A Guantanamo detainee (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Call me paranoid.  I can't help but feeling that we latter day saints are being set up for something.  The Obama Administration is  pushing forward with its agenda, which appears to include nationalization of banks, nationalization of the major  players in the manufacturing sector, nationalization of health care, and the further liberalization of laws on  abortion, gay rights, families, etc.  They are proving to be experts at diversion.  Getting the media's attention on  bogeymen, like the AIG executives, is a useful smokescreen for what might be otherwise unpopular actions.

Radio and television personality Glenn Beck is rapidly becoming a lightning rod.  His willingness to take on  corruption in both political parties is based in his love for truth and the Constitution.  Nevertheless, those who  dismiss him often point to his Mormon religion as an excuse to dismiss the uncomfortable truths he has uncovered.   They accuse him of being racist, homophobic, and encouraging violent revolution, none of which are true.  Glenn Beck  makes a wonderful LDS bogeyman.

Latter-day Saints, as a group, are being cultivated as bogeymen for future use.  A recent talk at the LDS Women's  Conference by Elder L. Tom Perry included some interesting statistics.  Eighty-five percent of the individuals in a  survey had seen LDS media spots or had received information from church members.  Even with that degree of  penetration into the social fabric of America, 51 percent said they didn't know anything about LDS beliefs and 47  percent said they had a negative view of Latter-day Saints. In other words, we're an easy choice for a bogeyman.

On the political right, anti-Mormons went after Mitt Romney with a surprising degree of vehemence.  Many of them had  been taught by their pastors, inspired by books such as "The Godmakers," to fear that Mormon cultists were about to  seize control of the government and, at the threat of nuclear annihilation, be forced into an non-Christian  theocracy.  Christian conservatives flocked around Mike Huckabee because he signaled his anti-Mormon credentials in a  Time magazine interview when he asked if Mormons were the ones who believed Jesus and Satan were brothers.  The  political right can be characterized by the woman in the Book of Revelation (the ancient Church) which John saw that  had committed "fornication" with the kings of the earth.  It is Babylon, the mother of harlots--an unholy alliance  between false religion and government.

On the political left, a coalition of diverse causes (abortion, civil rights, animal rights, radical  environmentalists, feminists, gay rights, etc.) are held together loosely by an opinion that man is the measure of  all things, that he fares according to the maintenance of the creature.  This group represents the doctrine of  Korihor. This unlikely coalition (save the whales, but kill the babies) appears to exist solely for the reason of  enshrining humanism, slowly draining the faith from society.

Some would see this as a battle of faith verses secularism, but it's not.  There are three parties involved in the  struggle, not two.  In addition to the political Babylon of the right and the secular Korihors of the left, there is  one other player which both of these oppose: revealed religion represented by the restored kingdom of God.  There is  an organization on earth which is directed by God towards the accomplishment of his ends, namely the establishment of  Zion.  God is setting up a kingdom that will endure when all others will collapse.  That kingdom will be a refuge for  the righteous people of all faiths against the time when God's wrath and indignation will be poured out upon the  wicked.

Opposition to Latter-day Saints by both of the other two groups actually unites them.  As divergent as their  philosophies are, both are willing to lay their differences aside to bring down Mormonism.  During Mitt Romney's  campaigns, right-wing push-pollers in the Bible Belt called voters' homes with typical anti-Mormon questions.  When  anti-Proposition 8 activists took to the streets, threatened our temples, defaced our meetinghouses, and harassed our  members, the sectarian right-wingers were content to "hold the cloaks" and let the leftists openly do what they  secretly desired to do: attack Mormonism.

Now, as part of the useful distractions the Obama Administration has available to them as a political tactic, they  have turned to the possibility of prosecuting individuals from the Bush Administration who may have advised the  President on harsh interrogations of detainees.  There has been a push by the Spanish government to have lawyers who  may have advised Bush stand trial in the International Criminal Court.  Which lawyers have they identified?  The  Mormon ones.

Apparently there were a couple of LDS litigators who helped develop the legal justifications for harsh  interrogations.  In addition, it appears there were a couple of psychologists who advised the CIA on creating the  optimal conditions of psychological stress to be used against "War on Terror" detainees.  Conveniently, the media can  now show Mormons as not only "gay haters" but also as "torturers."

Might we expect to see the Obama Justice Department and the Attorney General, Eric Holder, turn over some LDS lawyers  and shrinks to answer for "crimes against humanity" on a world stage?  Will Bush and the higher ups go free while  some low-level advisors answer for their counsel given in confidentiality?  Will the publicity be used by the  Church's enemies to further marginalize and attack it?

It has been and will continue to be a controversial subject.  The harsh interrogations of detainees, subjecting them  waterboarding, etc. will be debated for years.  I am dismayed that Latter-day Saints may have been involved in  anything to do with it.  Some patriotic LDS folks will justify the practice, saying that it saved American lives.  I  have to respectfully disagree that torture of any captive is ever permissible, regardless of the information they  might have and how critical it might prove to be.

You see, there is a straw man argument when it comes to members of the Church and the use of torture to defend  American freedom.  Some among us apparently believe that, to defend the Constitution and to prevent it from  destruction, we must coerce information from our enemies by all available means.  The question is asked, "If a  terrorist knew the location of a nuclear device that was about destroy an entire American city, would it not be  justifiable to torture the information out of the terrorist in order to save tens of thousands of lives?" That's the  straw man.

I would answer no to that question, because the premise only allows two choices, both of which are unacceptable.  We  limit ourselves to this line of reasoning because we have been educated in Babylon.  John Taylor said: 

"Now then, in regard to our temporal affairs, these are the things which seem to perplex us more or less.  We have  been brought up in Babylon, and have inherited Babylonish ideas and systems of business; we have introduced, too,  among us, all kinds of chicanery, deception and fraud.  It is time that these things were stopped, and that matters  assumed another shape; it is time that we commenced to place ourselves under the guidance and direction of the  Almighty.  You can not talk in many places about temporal matters, but everybody is on the alert at once, and the  idea is--Do you want my property?  No.  Do you want my possessions?  No, no; there is no such feeling, but we do want  men and women to give God their hearts, we do want people, while they profess to fear God, not to be canting  hypocrites and to depart from every principle of right.  We remember the time very well, or most of us, when we first  entered into this Church, if a man was found lying he would be brought before the Church and dealt with; if a man was  found stealing he would be brought up before the Church and dealt with; if a man defrauded his neighbor, and it could  be proved, he was brought up and dealt with; and so if a man got drunk; and for all these delinquencies if parties  did not repent of them they were immediately cut off from the Church as unworthy of fellowship.  And now, after so  many years travail, are we to continue and fellowship all these evils?  No, no, we can not do it, and God will not do  it; and if we carry them along with us, we shall not enter into the celestial kingdom of God." (Journal of  Discourses, Vol.18, p.79 - p.80, John Taylor, August 31, 1875)

First, let us look at the aforementioned scenario, where a terrorist is holding a city under the threat of nuclear  annihilation, from the perspective of what we have been taught by the Book of Mormon, not the world's teachings. 

First of all, whenever war comes to a nation, including the United States, it is not because of righteousness.  Every  war that comes to us is a call to repentance.  The Nephites avoided war when they were obedient and fell into  conflict when they disregarded God's commandments.  Rule number one: repentance is the first rule of self-defense.

Second, when the righteous Nephite saints were thrust into combat along with their unrepentant fellow citizens, they  refused to commit the same sorts of atrocities that were practiced by their foes.  In fact, we read that the reason  that the Nephites ended up being destroyed is that their hearts became hardened and they sought to destroy the  Lamanites.  Instead of fighting a defensive war, they went on the offensive and sought to exterminate their enemies.   When they resorted to the same sorts of atrocities that the Lamanites had committed, God's Spirit withdrew from them  completely and the they were permitted to be destroyed.

Last of all, if men would repent and seek to please God, there is always a third way: the way of revelation.  The  Book of Mormon recounts that Captain Moroni inquired of the prophet Alma to know where and when the Lamanites would  attack their lands.  His faith was rewarded with revelation that told him the information he needed.  (Alma 43:23-24)

In our "nuclear terrorist" scenario, wouldn't it be an option to inquire of God?  What if a Latter-day Saint lawyer  decided to abandon his "Babylonish" learning and instead told the President, "I know of a man who talks with God."   Do we, as Latter-day Saints, doubt that God would not give revelation to a head of state who needed critical  information to save tens of thousands of lives?  If God would give a miracle to a Syrian general, Naaman, who came to  Elijah for help, would he not give an answer to George Bush or Barack Obama, if they were to ask Thomas S. Monson for  God's word?

As latter-day saints, it should not matter to us whether the President accepted or rejected that option.  Our duty is  to declare that the option exists.  If he disregarded it and pressed on, at least he knew the option was available.   Inasmuch as LDS members in key positions in any government withhold the possibility that Divine revelation is  available as a resource to their leaders, they are acting to sustain the perpetuation of telestial systems of  governance.  All such systems will ultimately fail.

Latter-day Saints often recount the statement of the Prophet Joseph when he said that the elders of Israel would save  the Constitution when it should "hang, as it were, by a thread." Here is one version of the prophecy as recorded in  Mosiah Hancock's autobiography:

"There will be two great political parties in this country. One will be called the Republican, and the other the  Democrat party. These two parties will go to war and out of these two parties will spring another party which will be  the Independent American Party. The United States will spend her strength and means warring in foreign lands until  other nations will say, "Let's divide up the lands of the United States", then the people of the U. S. will unite and  swear by the blood of their fore-fathers, that the land shall not be divided. Then the country will go to war, and  they will fight until one half of the U. S. army will give up, and the rest will continue to struggle. They will keep  on until they are very ragged and discouraged, and almost ready to give up--when the boys from the mountains will  rush forth in time to save the American Army from defeat and ruin. And they will say, 'Brethren, we are glad you have  come; give us men, henceforth, who can talk with God'. Then you will have friends, but you will save the country when  it's liberty hangs by a hair, as it were." [Autobiography of Mosiah Hancock, typescript, BYU-S. Compiled by Amy E.  Baird, Victoria H. Jackson, and Laura L. Wassell (daughters of Mosiah Hancock)]

I believe that the rescue of the principles of freedom will occur despite the telestial politics, parties, and their  partisans, not because of our affiliation with any of them.  The telestial politics of our age are about to go the  way of all previous empires.  They will soon be replaced by the kingdom of God.  If we resort to telestial,  "Babylonish" systems of thinking, we will not be prepared to rise to the occasion. The hope of the American nation  and indeed, all free nations, is that they will have "men who can talk with God" among them.

The principles of human liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence teach us that "all men" are created  equal and have God-given rights.  People have rights because they are children of God.  Our rights don't come to us  because we are American citizens.  Even an al-Qaeda terrorist is a child of God. If the latter-day saints who advised  the president told him that there is any distinction between the rights of citizens vs. non-citizens, uniformed  combatants of a state vs. enemy combatants who fight for a terrorist organization, they are sorely mistaken.  No  child of Elohim deserves to be waterboarded or tortured.  Only one whose heart is caught up in the learning of this  world could not see that.

In 2001, two weeks after 9/11, I wrote the following in my blog:

"Already, I’ve read or heard hypocritical commentary from liberal African-Americans considering, in the case of Arab -Americans, racial profiling might be an acceptable practice. Hundreds of Arab immigrants are being held without  charges being leveled against them. In some cases, these people are being denied access to legal counsel and in other  cases, some have allegedly suffered physical and verbal abuse by the authorities. In the last week, headlines stated  that the FBI and CIA, frustrated with the uncooperative silence from suspects they are holding in the ongoing  investigations, suggested that torture might be an option. Torture! In other words, to defeat terrorism, the “good  guys” will have to use the same tactics the “evildoers” use in order to wipe out the evil done by the “bad guys.”  What kind of convoluted rationalizations can justify that? Are we saying that, to eradicate evil, we must become evil  ourselves, albeit temporarily. At what point do we decide, having crossed the line into atrocity, that we have  attained our objective and can return to the moral high ground once again?"

In the nearly eight years since I wrote that, I've found that the Book of Mormon addresses the subject better than  anything else.  A people that adopts the methods of evil (even temporarily) to eradicate evil, becomes evil.  God's  Spirit will withdraw and before long they are ripe for destruction.  I hope all my fellow saints will turn to the  Book of Mormon for their answers during this time of conflict and perceived moral ambiguity.  Unity of faith will  preserve us more than political partisanship when the telestial world will have no further use for us in the times to  come.  

The headlines in the past couple of days show that the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is still determined to  prosecute CIA members and other officials who had any part in the torture of captured enemy combatants.  I pray that  no members of the Church will be found to have had involvement in these acts.  If we become the world's bogeyman,  then let it be for the right reason--that we stand up and testify of eternal truths and not because some misguided  Mormons applied their worldly education to strip the humanity away from some of God's children.  Let ours be a voice to encourage repentance, righteousness, and peace.

 Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and should not be misconstrued as an official statement of the Church.