Just as ancient rulers lined the roads to Rome with the crucified hung on crosses, so today's U.S. leaders utilize not-so-secret torture as a deterrent to all those who would challenge the nation's foreign policy status quo, asserted the executive director of Pax Christi USA, who addressed a June 22 interfaith forum against torture at Ramona Convent High School in Alhambra.

"What is torture?" Dave Robinson asked. "And I don't mean, 'Is waterboarding torture? Is organ failure the measure of torture?' I'm not talking about the way that they define it. I'm thinking from our perspective as people of faith, as spiritual people. What is torture and what is it used for?

"It's terrorism, it's deterrence," he answered after a pause. "That's what I think it's all about."

The peace activist stressed that torture is a manifestation of a greater disease - the fear of what would happen if torture is not used.

"Torture is both a symptom of the fear, and it's intended to instill fear," said Robinson. "So fear is at the center. We torture people because we're afraid of what would happen if we don't torture them. If we won't torture these people and get the information out of them, then what will happen? We're fearful of that.

"But we torture to instill fear. And that fear is demonic. I believe that that fear is the tangible evidence of the presence of what all call 'demonic,' unclean spirits, evil. It's what's at work in the world.

"And, therefore, it's very much an issue that concerns people of faith," he maintained. "I would say it's the spiritual community, all spiritual communities, that have the first and foremost responsibility to help to interpret this - interpret this demonic in the world, this fear, and how it's manifesting itself for each of us."

The neo-con architects of current U.S. foreign policy have fed on the willingness of ordinary people to give up freedoms and liberties in an effort to achieve so-called security, he explained, pointing out that the defense budget has tripled since the Twin Towers fell in New York.

Fortunately, the "tide is turning." Robinson said he believes Washington will see a very different political power structure emerge after the fall election, no matter which party wins the White House and Congress.

"But not different enough that we don't have to fulfill our core responsibility as a faith community and spiritual leaders, which is to provide the tools and strength for each other to challenge the disease of this fear - and to unmask the lies that are being sold," he declared.

"Because we can choose security through either killing, through torture, through [military] expenditures, through demonization, through roundups and deportations or any other dysfunctional, distressful and, ultimately, evil activity."

Created in God's image
A Jew, Buddhist, Muslim and Catholic responded to the Pax Christi leader's remarks.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs of the Progressive Faith Foundation reported that Jewish tradition, like many religious traditions, both embraces and shies away from punishment and torture. But he said that every person, regardless of how that person is defined by a government, is created in the image of God and entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. Torture is clearly a violation of this sacred principal.

"They continually tell us that, 'Look, nobody's been attacked in all these years since 9/11,' and we feed into that," he observed. "But we have bred new enemies faster than anybody else in this world by the way in which we treat other human beings."

The Buddha said hatred isn't overcome by hatred but by love, said Sande Simpon, a Buddhist and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace leader. She also noted that the often misunderstood idea of "karma" had something to say about torture, because one's actions have results but a person's intentions also matter. With the intent to inflict pain and suffering, the individual clearly moves into evil behavior.

"The Buddhist canon, our scripture, basically says very little about torture," said Simpon. "And what it does say is 'No, don't do it. It's sad. There's no excuse. Anyone who does it is making a choice. It's going to hurt them.'"

Franciscan Father Louie Vitale noted that St. Francis went off to war hoping to become a great knight. Instead he witnessed firsthand that warfare is more about killing, raping and pillaging. Similarly, Father Vitale --- who entered the seminary in the 1950s after serving in the U.S. Air Force --- reported that he was exposed himself to the horrors of conflict and torture in Central America during the bloody civil wars of the 1960s and '70s.

So when the San Gabriel native and veteran civil rights activist learned about the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, he returned to the U.S. Army's School of the Americas in Georgia to protest the training of foreign military leaders in "coercive" techniques.

"We must make amends," Father Vitale pleaded. "We must weep. We must mourn. We must transform our society. We must overcome this kind of mentality. So I went back to the School of the Americas, crossed the line and got arrested."

Amecna Qazi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Chapter, was the final speaker at the interfaith forum. She recalled how the tenets of Islam had taught her as a young girl to value all life and especially human life, which was created with God's own hands.

She said the Prophet Muhammad had insisted that prisoners of war be treated fairly and released immediately after the conflict ended. Moreover, she noted how the Koran stated that taking one life is like killing all of humanity, while saving one life is like saving all mankind.

"There are actually particular terms in Islam that deal with the dignity of human life, which is composed of honor, which is composed of nobility, value, distinction and virtue," Qazi said. "These are things which each human life should be protected almost at all costs.

"And anything that contradicts these things that deprive somebody of their honor and their nobility, their value or their virtue fundamentally is not only inadmissible but is bad for society," the Muslim woman pointed out. "It's evil and it's wrong, and it goes against what our community stands for."