June is Torture Awareness Month
This month religious and human rights groups across the nation are drawing attention to the immoral nature of torture and sending a message to the president that the American people do not support torture.
While listening to a recent radio segment on Air America’s State of Belief (one of my new favorite radio shows), I heard about the National Religious Campaign to End Torture. This month churches around the nation are hanging banners that announce their belief that torture is not a political issue but a moral issue.
For more information or to order a banner for your organization, visit their site:
National Religious Campaign to End Torture.
The intersection of faith and social justice is particularly interesting on both a very personal gut level and on a folkloric one as well.
I am curious–from a folklore and belief perspective, what would Don Yoder and Primiano make of this campaign and this larger intersection between belief and action toward political change?
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 am
i’m glad you posted this. the other day i saw a big black banner with bold white text hanging off the fence of a baptist church that said “end torture”. patrick and i talked about it and wondering about its contextual placement (and design). had it been placed by an activist without the church’s approval? was it “graffiti”? i never thought of baptists as particularly human rights based. (biased view i know, just going off of my extended families southern baptist tendencies) then i wondered about my immediate reaction. why couldn’t a faith based organization also be human rights based?
i agree with you that the intersection of faith and social justice is an interesting one. i know it made me think.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I so agree. I never thought of faith based organizations being human rights based, but I think that is because we have too few models. I am learning more and more that there can be such a direct link between the two.
When I was in DC this past week I saw a big black banner on a church near Embassy Row. Where was the banner you saw?
Anyone else seen one?
July 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
it was downtown in raleigh. i’m curious if others have seen them too.