by Bill Wylie-Kellermann

(An earlier version of this reflection appeared online in David Crumm's ReadtheSpirit.)

On Sunday January 11, with a handful of friends in Detroit and upwards of 40 in Washington DC, (a total some 80 nationwide), I began a nine-day juice fast in the name of closing Guantanamo and ending torture as a practice of US policy. All of us intend to break fast on Inauguration Day, 2008, which will then initiate a 100-day presence at the White House imploring President Obama to swiftly enact his voiced intention to do both of those things.

I’m grateful to serve a congregation like St Peter’s, Detroit, which is willing to consider this part of my pastoral work and an act of public theology. For me this fast is a moral witness, an intercession, a political demand, and an act of hope in the openings of the present moment. But above all it is an act of faith and discipleship. Let me begin there.

On Maundy Thursday last, I was incredibly moved to watch some students, my daughter Lydia among them, dress in orange jumpsuits (made notorious in this recent period as prison garb in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) and lay prone on a busy Chicago sidewalk. Over them a description of “waterboarding,” a torture technique employed by the US, was read and enacted:

A black head bag is held down or stretched tightly across the prisoner’s face by someone standing at their head while they are strapped down. As water is poured on the face and head the bag is tightened around the nose and mouth – keeping  water somewhat out, but also air. The entire head, skin, becomes wet. The mind reacts to lack of light, disorientation, lack of air, wet fabric on the face – the prisoner becomes confused, can't escape because of the bondage. It feels like you are drowning. There is also a lot of yelling, people demanding information, the water is cold, the bonds tight and the prisoner may be hit in the stomach or otherwise abused as well.

Thereafter, the victims were raised up from the walk, seated in a chair and their feet were washed while the description of the last supper was read from John’s gospel:

Jesus, knowing that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from table, took off his outer robe; and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, “Lord, are you going to was my feet?”  Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and head.”

In simple juxtaposition and contrast, the gospel exposes the power of death to which the nation has succumbed.

But the gospel says more. As it happens we started this fast not only on the seventh anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo prison, but on the First Sunday After Epiphany which recalls The Baptism of the Lord. That event is so rich in meanings, but among them something so plain and simple: Jesus has thrown in with John and his wilderness movement. He’s identified with a figure who will shortly be arrested and eventually killed by brutal dismemberment. Invariably when Jesus speaks in the gospel of baptism, it is with respect to his own death, or in following him in that way. And let me be straightforward and frank about the “that:” his execution is by public torture. His was an excruciating death, designed not for the extraction of information but for the control of occupied populations - . Christians follow a victim of death by torture.

That’s where I begin. Jesus’ suffering and death is an act of divine solidarity with all victims of torture in all times, and so, we rightly proclaim, an intercession for all of humanity everywhere and always.

For me as a Christian, this fast is a simple act of intercession. As Bonhoeffer put it, to intercede is to feel another’s pain or need in such a way and so clearly that we pray their prayer, in their stead, on their behalf.

Parallel to the fast’s intercession is its political demand. Here is how we name some of them: Close the detention facilities at Guantánamo. Permit, without political interference, the hearing of habeas petitions by current Guantánamo detainees. Charge those against whom there is sufficient, credible evidence with a crime, and let the others go free, repatriating them to their country of origin or to countries where their safety from persecution can be guaranteed. Scrap the current Military Commissions process for prosecution of Guantánamo inmates and move those accused of crimes into the federal justice system. Ban all forms of psychological torture and do away with the exemption for the CIA's enhanced interrogation program from laws barring the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees. End legal immunity for alleged U.S. torturers. Close other U.S. detention centers worldwide that do not comply with international human rights standards, such as those at the U.S. Air Base at Bagram and at any remaining CIA “black” sites. Allow and abide by meaningful international inspection and oversight of U.S. detention facilities. Call for a rigorous inquiry, with subpoena powers, to determine the precise origins and evolution of the Bush administrations detention policies and hold architects of this system accountable. I fast to these ends.

Say finally, with friends I fast as an act of hope. There is to be sure in the present moment an undeniable confluence of forces and factors which might yield despair. Forces economic, environmental, military (I forebear to even mention Gaza) would suggest destruction and moral collapse. The public sanction of administrative torture in violation of international law is in itself among the simple signs of that. And yet there is simultaneously a movement of the Spirit from below which is stirring countless communities and deeds and visions and projects. I’m convinced we are looking at a moment of enormous possibility for social transformation. The election of Barak Obama by no means gathers it up or names it, but in my view he may figure in the openings of the Spirit. With respect to torture he has said during the campaign that he would close Guantanamo and end the US policy of torture. Needless to say the military and political powers by which he is surrounded will press him to stay the course of death. This fast is a moral appeal for him to simply do as he has said. To change direction. This is a prayer. Let it be part of the general uprising of hope. Amen.

For details on the fast and 100 Days vigil in DC, see HERE.

In the Detroit area for more information contact John Zettner at (313) 573-0052 or Gail Presbey at (313) 993-1124 presbegm@udmercy.edu.  And join us for the following events. Public vigil January 20 4:30pm on Jefferson in front of Hart Plaza. Come as well to one of these presentations: Frida Berrigan (co-founder of Witness Against Torture and the 100 Days Campaign, and Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation) will speak at University of Detroit Mercy January 21 7 p.m. Life Sciences 113, and again January 22 at 2 p.m.

She will also speak January 22 at St. Clare of Montefalco School, 1401 Whittier Rd. Grosse Pointe Park at 7 p.m.

 [Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a United Methodist pastor serving St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit.]

Your COMMENTS (150 words or less)?

Your LETTER to the editor (50-350 words)

____________________________________