Multifaith prayers for torture criminals, Gonzales

Yahoo!News: As the United States Senate votes to confirm Judge Alberto Gonzales as the next US Attorney General, religious leaders are seeking forgiveness.

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US-born survivor of torture in Guatemala, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of The Shalom Center, and Dr. George Hunsinger, Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and organizer of Church Folks for a Better America, today offered prayers seeking forgiveness for the US government's complicity in torture and for confirming a man who contributed to such an inconsistent policy.

The three were part of a group of more than 225 religious leaders who last month signed an open letter to Gonzales asking him to embrace and advance standards of international law and honor the dignity of all God's creation. Organized by Church Folks for a Better America, the list of signatories to the letter includes Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders from across the United States. The letter and full list of signatories is available at http://www.cfba.info

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US-born survivor of torture in Guatemala.

"In the name of the tortured Christ of yesterday and today, we cry out to our leaders to repent...You who lead us swear to God in solemn oaths, and bow your heads in reverential prayers. How can you gaze upon the tortured Jesus hanging on the cross when you do the same to us? Mark well, our leaders, There is no redemption without forgiveness, but there is no forgiveness without repentance. And so, we, entwined in the sin you have sown, to the tortured Christ of yesterday and today, do say, forgive us for our failure our leaders have imposed." Link

Though not sharing any of the above faiths, I can't help seeing something of merit here.