From the Boston Globe:
There’s nothing in the very little that’s publicly known about Gina Haspel, the career spy nominated to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, that suggests even a whiff of insubordination. And therein lies a problem.
Therein lies the problem …
Fifty Virginia lawmakers and religious leaders sent a letter today to Senators Warner and Kaine, urging them to oppose the nomination of Gina Haspel as director of the CIA, because, given her history, approval of her nomination would amount to a tacit endorsement of torture as a legitimate interrogation tool. Here is the letter:
Dear Senators Warner and Kaine:
We, the undersigned Virginia elected officials and leaders from the progressive and faith communities are deeply opposed to the confirmation of Gina Haspel as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Ms. Haspel is credibly reported to have played a prominent role in President George W. Bush’s covert torture program. In addition to Ms. Haspel’s intimate involvement with the torture program, she is credibly reported to have been deeply complicit in the destruction of videotapes recording the horrors the program produced.
Ms. Haspel’s defenders excuse her participation in torture by arguing that she was simply “following orders.” Not only is that excuse insufficient on its face, but it is also deeply disquieting given the administration Ms. Haspel is being nominated to join—led by a President who has openly endorsed torture. One can scarcely imagine the range of dangerous orders the next CIA director could be given, especially in the aftermath of a crisis. Why wouldn’t we expect her dutifully to follow those orders as well?
Ms. Haspel is being considered for a promotion, to lead and represent publicly one of the most powerful (and secretive) agencies in our government. At minimum, her participation in this disgraceful program, which was one of the darkest chapters in our country’s history, should disqualify her from that privilege. Endorsing Ms. Haspel would reward torture, and send a disastrous message the world over—including to survivors of torture—that there is no accountability whatsoever for those who commit these grave human rights violations.
Put simply, this vote will be seen as a referendum on torture. We strongly urge you to vote No on the confirmation of Gina Haspel.
In June 1966, less than two years before he was killed, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached from his Atlanta pulpit of the dynamic dance between Good Friday and Easter, between death and resurrection, between despair and hope.
“The church must tell [people] that Good Friday is as much a fact of life as Easter; failure is as much a fact of life as success; disappointment is as much a fact of life as fulfillment,” he said. Dr. King added that God didn’t promise us that we would avoid “trials and tribulations” but that “if you have faith in God, that God has the power to give you a kind of inner equilibrium through your pain.”
These are the first two paragraphs of an article by Michael Eric Dyson, We Forgot What Dr. King Believed In, published March 31 in the New York Times and shared with me by my friend, “Meach” Meacham.
We can do our best to avoid disappointment and failure and pain. Jesus could have … by not going to Jerusalem, by not following the path of obedience, by not putting the kingdom of God first, by not caring about people, all the people.
For Jesus, Good Friday was a choice, a choice to be where God called him to be and to do what God called him to do. And we too have a choice: to follow Jesus, or not.
“The great tragedy is that Christianity failed to see that it had the revolutionary edge,” Dr. King said, two months before he was killed.
If Christianity is not revolutionary, then what good is it? To keep us mollified, while the world and our neighbors go to hell? Jesus was revolutionary, preaching and enacting a kingdom of God that was and is turning the world upside down — not to upset it, but to make it right!
If we choose to follow Jesus, if our faith is genuine not merely a pacifier, then we cannot remain complacent. The church of Jesus Christ cannot stand by watching as people suffer, as whole peoples are marginalized, as whole classes of humanity are deprived of life and liberty and happiness whether by malice or by apathy.
Dyson’s article is good and timely reading …
As America in its present incarnation, with its present leadership, teeters toward an arrogance, isolationism and self-importance that are the portals of moral decline and political self-destruction, the nation must recall the faith of Martin Luther King Jr. He saw faith as a tool for change, a constant source of inspiration to remake the world in the just and redemptive image of God. On this holy day, instead of shrinking into the safety of faith, we should, as Dr. King did, bear the burdens of the less fortunate and rise again to serve humanity.