The Christian Century

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture wants the government to investigate claims that doctors and medical professionals performed unethical experiments on detainees in CIA custody during the Bush administration.

Religious antitorture groups said the release last month of a partially declassified 2004 CIA report on treatment of terrorism suspects justified their critique of Bush administration policies on detainee treatment.

Prominent religious officials led a march to the White House last month to urge President Obama to form a commission of inquiry into interrogation practices under the Bush administration. The clerics and other senior religious leaders and supporters who joined them for the “public witness” formed a crowd adorned with robes, collars, hijabs and yarmulkes.

A multifaith coalition of more than 200 religious organizations is calling on President-elect Barack Obama to sign an executive order banning torture as one of his first acts in office.

Twenty-seven U.S. religious figures, including some evangelical Christians, have endorsed a strong statement against the use of torture by the American military and security forces, saying “the soul of our nation” is at stake.