Right before the Academy Awards, I settled down to listen to my almost daily dose of Bloggingheads.tv, a virtual salon of substantive punditry. Instead of a debate about libertarian principles or the presidential election, I was treated to a 47 min. discussion between New York's film critic David Edelstein and Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), the maker of Taxi to the Dark Side.

So impressed was I with Mr. Gibney's grasp of American torture policy under Bush and Cheney that I selected his film over SiCKO to win Best Documentary on my party ballot. The doc won, and so did I. "What? Victory and human rights, say it ain't so, Mr. Yoo."

The room of smart guys at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also nail the sickness that torture brings. Jared writes:

While watching Taxi to the Dark Side, I found one scene particularly disturbing. Afghan detainees are being processed by U.S. troops as they enter U.S. custody. The detainees stand in a line; their sleeves, rolled up. A U.S. solider, with Sharpie indelible marker in hand, begins to write the prisoner's ID number on his right inner forearm. Even writing this post I am having a horrible visceral reaction to this image. Marking prisoners in this way harkens back directly to the number tattoos that mark Holocaust victims. The symbolism is disgusting.

If that's not enough for you, the Washington Monthly gives America 37 leaders articulating why we must stop torturing now. National Association of Evangelicals honcho Richard Cizik lists four reasons why Christians should fight torture. He adds, "A consensus is emerging within our churches about our obligation to speak out against torture. As evangelical Christians, we have a non-negotiable responsibility to oppose a policy that is a violation of both our religious values and our national ideals."

In the same issue, Jimmy Carter writes:

"Our nation, which overcame slavery and segregation to proudly raise the banner of human rights for all to see, now finds itself condemned amid the indelible images of human degradation, perpetrated by U.S. forces in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Our government's persistent unwillingness to ban the use of torture by its own agents or to grant access to legal counsel or prospect of a proper trial to hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay emboldens those who oppose human rights elsewhere."

More and more folks of faith are speaking up on the torture issue, which is particularly significant because traditionally religion has been the most closely connected to issues of conscience and physical suffering. As the state steals the rack from the Grand Inquisitor, those who follow a higher ethic, from liberal Hollywood documentarians to evangelical moderates, are working to pull America back from the dark side.

FYI: June is Torture Awareness month. Find out how you can get involved with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture here. And join the 18,000 who have signed the statement.