Rev. Hannah Petrie is the Associate Minister at the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church of Pasadena. She was one of our interfaith participants at our June 21st Shining a Light on U.S. Torture event. Below is her speech. 

Torture Awareness Month

June 21, 2014

I hope the only completely predictable thing I’ll say this afternoon is that Unitarian Universalism does not condone torture.  Here’s what we say on our national web site, UUA.org:

“Unfortunately, torture is a very common practice around the world. As we saw at Abu Ghraib, and continue to see at Guantanamo, the United States of America has policies that condone and even promote the use of torture. In addition to torturing prisoners, the USA has stripped them of their rights to petition their imprisonment. Without this right, Habeas Corpus, those deemed to be enemies can be imprisoned indefinitely, without a trial, without oversight, and without hope – this is a form of emotional and spiritual torture. As a religion that affirms and promotes the inherent worth and dignity of every person, torture presents a serious challenge. Can we see the worth and dignity within one who tortures? What is clear is that our vision of a world community with peace, liberty and justice for all, is an envisioning of a world without torture. Please follow our links and join the UUA and our partners as we work towards such a world.”