Christian Educators' Journal

Thank you for your response, RJ!

I’ve been trying to figure out the church’s silence on this issue and, to me, it seems like a complete disconnect between theology and public life.

And it seems to be a widely shared disconnect. A recently-released study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that 54% of people who attend church at least once a week think torture of suspected terrorists is “sometimes” or “often” justified. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, attempts to make sense of this in the Washington Post’s On Faith blog, but her thoughts on the matter don’t make sense to me. She argues that many Christians put suffering at the center of their atonement theology (Jesus suffered to take on the wrath of God in our place), therefore they aren’t as disturbed by suffering. Or something like that …

I thought of mentioning this in my article, but refrained. It would seem that folks who are moved by Jesus enduring torture (and there seems to be a lot, given the popularity of The Passion of the Christ) wouldn’t actually want others to endure torture that is arguably worse than what Jesus experienced—especially when many who are being tortured are similarly innocent. Any ideas?