Intellectual Defenestration

The nature of man and the difficulty of moral judgments

One thing that the Abu Ghraib prison controversy highlights is the complexity of moral judgments. Some look at the controversy and quickly conclude that America has gone down the drain and there's no now hope but to move to Canada. Others seem to be doing their best to justify, as much as possible, what was done, or at least to show that it was not nearly as bad as what Saddam did. Who's right and who's wrong? Is there any real difference between what the American jailors did and what Saddam's minions have been doing?

The Christian doctrine of the nature of man highlights some of the difficulty in deciding what is right and what is wrong. On the one hand, the Bible teaches that mankind is imago Dei, the "image of God", created to reflect through his creativity, reason, and ruling over the earth the glory of God himself. On the other hand, that relationship has been marred by sin so that death, destruction, pain, and heartache have all entered the world. Mankind is still imago Dei, but the reflection is twisted and bent.

Everyone then both reflects God's glory and displays the consequences of a broken relationship. The worst, most tyrannical dictator might be a great connoisseur of fine art, while the greatest saint could still wrestle with a nasty temper, for example.

And the same applies to nations. There is no nation that is morally pure, just as there is no nation that is fully morally corrupt. I think I understand why Rumsfield is saying that the atrocities are "not American," but he is still wrong: America is not the untainted and final standard of morality.

Because, as bad as the prison atrocities might seem, there's far worse things that America has done and is doing. Joe Carter, for example, has noted "the epidemic of sexual torture in U.S. prisons". Other things that could be looked at in America's past are segregation, theft of land from the Indians, slavery, and so on. And in today's present it is easy to look at broken families, crime, and poverty as other instances of America's own wrongs and faults.

But the sad reality is that it's hard to point to any nation that's doing a better job. I've been to three other continents aside from North America and, while I've enjoyed my travels, I have yet to find a place that I'd rather live in. Africa is beautiful in many places, but ravaged by AIDS, poverty, and continual tribal warfare. Europe has a fascinating history, but for all of its great cathedrals and museums, its history also contains oppressive colonialism, ongoing warfare, and horrible genocide (the Holocaust wasn't that long ago). And the Middle East .... well, what else needs to be said?

This is because, while sin can be found everywhere, there are different degrees of "wrongness" that should be considered. America's unjust internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was inexcusable, but it pales besides Hitler's "Final Solution" or the combined death toll of Stalin and Mao (somewhere between 60 and 100 million, last I heard). Ted Rall may whine about how horrible America is, but the mere fact that he hasn't been dragged out into the street and shot for so vehemently criticizing the administration demonstrates that there is a genuine difference between the US and the SS.

Furthermore, the fact of the existence of evil does not mitigate the need to do good. Simply because America in the 50's was still actively and systematically discriminating against blacks does not mean America should not have stepped in to fight the Germans and Japanese. To fail to do good is only to further compound the sin already present.

Ironically, both the conservatives and liberals seem to make the same mistake here - to assume that unless America is working from completely pure motives, its actions are questionable. Liberals tend to look at the prison atrocities and other worldwide instances of American sin and quickly conclude that the entire war on terror is therefore evil. Conservatives frequently see the benefits of the war on terror and the good that can come out of a country freed from a tyrannical dictator hellbent on destruction and then begin to try to whitewash or ignore America's sins as much as possible.

But the reality is far more complex than that. America has many societal ills to be addressed, but to fail to do good when it can will only further compound those ills. American companies making tremendous profits off of developing country workers with no concern for their safety is wrong, but so is allowing dictators to flourish who are a direct and real threat to both our and their nation's security. Allowing American servicemen and women to torture and abuse prisoners is wrong, but so would be withdrawing from Iraq and leaving it to fall completely apart. Sin, wherever it exists, should be dealt with.

May 7, 2004 09:58 AM