Since 9/11, the US empire has been embroiled in a “War on Terror” against Islamic fundamentalism. All sides in this “war” have used religious justification for the most heinous of crimes: mass killings of innocent civilians, torture of detainees, and summary executions. Fundamentalists of the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — have rejected traditions of peace to wage “jihad” and “just war.” As citizen artists in an empire, we feel compelled to protest our government’s criminality and the failure of major religious, medical, and legal associations to speak out against these atrocities.

Decisions to torture detainees to elicit information came directly from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Department of Justice. Lawyers from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel provided memos rationalizing the use of torture. As a result, both the guilty and innocent suffered brutality and even death.

The Obama Administration has declared some “enhanced interrogation techniques,” such as waterboarding, to be torture but have offered a timid response to investigation and prosecution. The Convention Against Torture, ratified by the United States in 1994, has been ignored as if it were merely a political question rather than a legal mandate to be enforced.

The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a recent survey on religious attitudes toward torture and found: (1) those most opposed to torture tend to be mainline Protestants or the non-religious; and (2) a majority of Evangelical Christians and Catholics believe that torture can be justified. Why do those who lay claim to a moral superiority tolerate such immoral acts?

Stations of the Cross

During the Middle Ages, Christian adherents staged “passion plays” to re-enact the torture and public execution of Christ. In modern times, the Fathers and Brothers of the Catholic Maryknoll Order re-imagined the Stations of the Cross to highlight contemporary human suffering.

As visual artists, we are using the metaphor of the Stations to protest unlawful government and unholy religion in the War on Terror. By using a religious metaphor, we are seeking to provoke public debate and to press our failed religious and secular institutions to honor the spirit and letter of the law.
The ten artists in this exhibit have approached the subject in their own way and from their own religious perspective, using their own media.

SEE THE EXHIBIT ONLINE >>>