Minute on Torture



        Friends believe that there is that of God in every person, 
even our enemies whom Jesus bade us to love, even those accused 
of terrorism. 
        It follows that torture is wrong, not only because it 
damages our national image, not only because it inflames the world 
against us, but, as Jonathan Schell has written, "because it inflicts 
unspeakable pain upon the body of a fellow human being who is 
entirely at our mercy. . . . To abuse or kill a person in such 
circumstances is as radical a denial of common humanity as is 
possible. . ."
        We call upon the President, the Congress, leaders of all 
countries and all persons to utterly repudiate torture of prisoners 
under any circumstances.


 Approved by:
Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting
Religious Society of Friends
March 6, 2005