Resolution Against Torture: Human Rights in a Time of Terrorism (2006)

This resolution on Human Rights focuses on the United States, as our nation has gone from being a leader in the cause of human rights to a cause for alarm among democratic nations. None of the observations in this report are pleasant to make, nor are they meant to delineate the full scope of human rights' concerns in the world. Ongoing, entrenched human suffering and pervasive abuse of power continue to plague the peoples of the world. This resolution follows the biblical model provided by the prophet Amos, who surveyed the countries around Judah with judgments attributed to God, before turning to Jerusalem. Amos summarizes the sins of each of the nations and warns, "... for three transgressions ... and for four, I [God] will not revoke the punishment" (Amos 2:6). He addresses his greatest grief to his own nation: "[Woe to] those who are at ease in Zion ... O you that ... bring near a reign of violence ... you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood" (Amos 6:1, 3, 12). We also feel the weight of Jesus' words, "... first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye" (Matt. 7:5)." (p. 6)