From Tenderness to Torture:
Truth and the Human Touch
A sermon Offered by Rev. Tim Kutzmark
April 23, 2006 • Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading

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[Note: This short sermon was the first of two short sermons delivered during our special worship service on April 23, 2006, supporting the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s “Stop Torture Permanently” Campaign.  This sermon stands alone as a short exploration of the topic, but I did want readers to know that it was originally written to be the first part of a two part sermon, the second short sermon being delivered by David Riley, Senior Associate at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. 

This sermon makes repeated mention of two names, Jadyn and Zack.  These are two children, a sister and brother, who were dedicated and blessed during the first portion of the morning’s service.]

The Morning’s Reading

From “Coming To Our Senses” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Our body touches every chair it sits on, every piece of floor or ground it stands on, every surface it lies on, every piece of clothing in contact with the skin, every tool our hands wield, every thing we attempt to grasp, lift, propel, receive, or deliver.

And perhaps, more importantly, we touch each other in myriad ways, sometimes automatic, sometimes perfunctory, sometimes sensuous, sometimes romantic, sometimes loving, sometimes aggressive, sometimes unfeeling, sometimes with anger.

Depending on how we are touched, we can feel loved, accepted, and valued, or ignored, disrespected, assaulted.  We touch through handshakes, a hand on another’s shoulder, an arm around another, through pats, hugs, lifts, embraces, kisses, caresses, dances, massages.  And sometimes, in games, where touch is regulated by different sets of rules than our normal social code, we touch through colliding, tackling, checking, even kicking and punching.

And there are times, not in games, we might be either touched or touching in ways that are unkind, even menacing, or worse.  Of course, increasingly there are laws regulating that kind of touch in society for the protection of our own basic rights of safety and bodily sovereignty as individuals.

But however we touch and whatever we touch, inanimate or animate, plant, animal or human being, stranger, client, colleague, friend, child, parent, lover, we can touch either mindfully or mindlessly.  This is the landscape of touch.

The Sermon

“From Tenderness to Torture:
Truth and the Human Touch”

My little sister, Tammy, is four years younger than me.  When she was a toddler, and I was about six, I loved to pick her up under her chubby little arms and hold her steady while she pretended to walk.  Held up by my touch, she would laugh, and drool, and we’d happily march together around the living room.  The human touch can bring so much joy. 

My big brother, Tom, is six years older than me.  For some inexplicable reason, I don’t remember us being close as children, but I remember how we shared an unspoken bond as teenagers.  We both experienced the trauma of physical abuse.  Hurt by raging hands, we’ve learned that psychological wounds linger long after skin has healed.  The human touch can bring so much destruction.

Doctor Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts, writes: “The word “touch” has the distinction of having the longest entry in the Oxford Dictionary . . . it is longer even than the entry for the word “love.”  And, if we stop and think about it, it may not strike us as so surprising.  For where would we be without touch? . . . We are nurtured through touch . . . We can be out of touch, lose touch, be touched (as in the head) and feel touched (as in when our hearts are moved).  We can not touch our food, put the touch on someone for money, feel a touch of envy or sadness, add a touch of paprika, have a touch of the flu, let the candlelight provide just the right touch, be told not to touch anything, touch off an uproar, touch upon something in conversation, touch up the scratches on our car, add finishing touches to the flower arrangement, and touch base with someone. . .. Touch is so basic to life.” (Coming to Our Senses, pgs. 218-219) 

Touch is so basic to life. 

I’ve though so much about touch this week.  I’ve thought so much about children this week.  I’ve though about Zack and Jadyn.  I’ve wondered how they will grow to touch the world.  And I’ve wondered how the world will grow to touch them.

On Tuesday afternoon, I shared a delightful visit with Zack and Jadyn, and their parents, Kim and Jon.  I watched Kim and Jon teaching their children through the power of their touch, how they comforted, guided, cautioned.  And I watched Jadyn learning about the power of her own touch.  How she could reach out to touch something solid and pull herself up on wobbly knees.  Or how, she could also reach out and take a handful of Zack’s hair, and pull.  And we could all see on her little face that she already knew that touching in hurtful ways was somehow wrong.

If a little girl not yet two years old knows that reaching out to deliberately hurt another human being is wrong, then why in God’s name does not our world know that reaching out to deliberately hurt another human being is wrong.  It is morally, ethically, spiritually, and religiously wrong to touch another person with the intent to cause pain. 

What happened to our Unitarian and Universalist forebears in the torture chambers of the Inquisition was wrong.  What happened in Nazi Germany was wrong.  What happened in prison cells and detention centers in Latin America in the 70’s and 80’s was wrong.  What happened in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay was wrong.  What might still be happening in CIA secret prisons, or in the interrogation chambers of our allies in the war against terror, is wrong.  What is happening in the Justice Department, with all the semantics regarding International Treaties and the Geneva Convention, is, I believe, wrong. 

It is contrary to the very foundations of human decency to use painful touch to obtain information, however needed it may be.  It is contrary to the very foundations on which this country was formed.  When the framers of the Constitution debated torture and national security, Patrick Henry himself said: “Congress may introduce the practice . . . of torturing . . . and they will tell you there is a necessity of strengthening the arm of government . . . We are then lost and undone.” (Jennifer Harbury, Truth, Torture and the American Way, p. 105)

For we are talking about touching humanity: theirs and ours.  We are talking about women and men who were once the age of Jadyn and Zack.  Take for instance Ines Murillo, a citizen of Honduras.  She was once held in the arms of proud parents.  She was once embraced and blessed by her church.  She grew up to become a brilliant young attorney.  And then, in March of 1983, “she and a friend were dragged off the streets by an Honduran Death Squad.  She was secretly detained for seventy-eight days and subjected to tortures which included . . . beatings, and electrical shocks.  After the first few weeks, she was moved to a military center.  There her torture continued.  She was . . . submerged in water, deprived of food, tied in excruciating positions, kept naked, denied toilet privileges, and terrorized with a ferocious dog.  Sleep deprivation was extreme.  She was left on the floor with no mattress or blankets, and ice-cold water was thrown into her face every ten minutes.  Her torturers constantly beat her and threatened to kill her family.” (Truth, Torture, and the American Way, p. 87)  All in the name of security and information.

Ines Murillo’s memories sound frighteningly similar to the stories and the photos coming out of the American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, don’t’they?  Many contend that it was CIA policy to use torture as an interrogation tool in Latin America, and that the CIA actually trained Latin American torture squads, and American agents were present in the torture chambers.

What if Jaydn decides to enter the military and serves in the Intelligence Division?  What if Zack seeks a career in the Justice Department?  What will we ask them to condone?  What will we ask them to participate in?  What will we ask them to touch?

Amy Goodman, in her introduction to the book “Truth, Torture, and the American Way” writes: “The time has come for us to think carefully about these issues.  It is certainly tempting, when faced with such complex and frightening questions, to continue with our daily lives and “leave things to the experts.”  In the end, however, this is our government, and torture is being utilized in our names and supported by our tax dollars.  We are responsible.  We must become informed, weigh the issues carefully, and take a stand.  Our decisions will determine our collective future.” (p. XXXI)

May we be so touched. 

May it be so.  Blessed Be.  Amen.

© Copyright 2006 Rev. Tim Kutzmark