Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Problem of Morality and Torture

16 September 2008

The Problem of Morality and Torture

This scenario is a difficult one, though it seems to be a version of Abraham Maslow’s sensitivity training, nevertheless, I will do my best to try to answer it.

First of all, I should mention that I believe in doing any job as close to what God commands as we can, as I am sure the rest of the class feels the same way. With that being said, the Bible speaks of torture in several places, such as the torture of Jeremiah, Paul, Silas, and other disciples, and of course, Jesus was tortured Himself. But it seems to always show such actions being done to followers of God and never to enemies.

Certainly, the Bible does mention the use of capital punishment, specifically stoning and hanging for serious crimes, and there are examples of the Israelites slaughtering countries in their midst, but God always called for a fast death and never any lingering pain.

I cannot think of any place in the Bible – Old Testament or New, where such action is commanded by God to be done, though there is neither any place specifically condemning it either.

However, the scenario we have in front of us deals with more than the idea of torture alone, and brings an innocent child into the picture. This, in my opinion, makes the dilemma much easier to solve, than had it only dealt with her father, the terrorist, alone.

We must look at how the Bible commands us to treat children, and one of the first passages, which comes to my mind is Matthew 18:5-6, which says, “And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Then we must jump down to verse 10, where it reads, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”

Those are strong words! Jesus said that anyone who hurts a child – it would be better for them to drown, and we must take care that we don’t despise one. According to Strong’s Greek Concordance, one possible meaning for despise is “to think little or nothing of.” To be able to torture a child, one really must consider them little or nothing – or else they wouldn’t be able to do the job. I know when I look at a child, all I see is preciousness and innocence, and I wonder how anyone could ever hurt one. Still, I must set aside my feelings and biases and answer according to God’s Word, but I remain that there is no example or order anywhere in the Bible that sets such a case in point.

The real dilemma, however, is the fact that a city of millions of people is at stake of being destroyed. Is the child’s life more important than the millions of peoples’ lives? Of course, the situation doesn’t call for the extremity of death in her case, but it could happen. Although we could them drop the comparison down to say is a city full of millions of people worth the psychological trauma, which would be placed on the child? I don’t believe that we can rightfully place the value of one’s life over the value of another. After all, God said that He is no respecter of persons in Acts 10:34, so why should we be?

In my conclusion, I must say that I believe the ultimate answer is to pray and leave the fate of the city in His hands. I certainly would not go against His wishes and torture any child – bomb or no bomb. We must remember that it is better to obey God than man, even in such an extreme case as this. I also feel that the whole earth, and all of its cities, are in God’s control, and if He doesn’t want something to happen, then it won’t. I believe He is sovereign over all things, especially such a major occurrence such as this. The story of Job comes to mind, wherein Satan had to go to God for permission before He conducted any act of wickedness. I believe it is the same today. Nothing can be done that God doesn’t ultimately permit.

Therefore, the best answer to this conflict – is to not take the problem into man’s hands, but to leave God in control, and put our trust in Him. We cannot disobey Him, however, and torture anyone, especially an innocent child, who Jesus so vocally warned against such actions.

© 2010 Kimberly Padilla, A.A Religion

No comments:

Post a Comment