Tomorrow we observe the UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As we mark this occasion, we do so at a time when people of faith are courageously stepping forward and saying enough is enough. Just today, an impressive lineup of leaders from different faiths and political philosophies called on President Bush to ban torture. Learn about their effort at http://www.campaigntobantorture.org/.

When I think about torture, the word flesh comes to mind. There are obvious reasons for this connection: torture often involves the beating and bruising of human flesh.

But, I’d like to focus on another link between these words. A link that reminds us there is a moral dimension to torture.

Brennan Manning, author and former Franciscan priest, has identified a concept that should be central to our views. He once wrote we need to be “for others, all others…to the extent that no human flesh is a stranger to us…to the extent that for us there are no ‘others.’”

Torture’s victims are as varied as its methods. Some we would hesitate to even call victim. Yet, Manning’s words suggest that if we are to uphold the idea (central to all faiths) that every human being possesses some dignity, we will apply this concept to the innocent and guilty of society.

While there are obvious differences in the circumstances of those affected by torture, saying all humans have dignity means that we act like it even when it’s unpopular or goes against our natural impulses.

It is for this very reason that we can say torture is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue, not a political or military issue, not even a sacred or secular issue. It is much more basic than that. It is a human issue. Torture is an issue that cuts to the soul of a nation and exposes its moral center. Unfortunately, it seems that the soul of our nation and many others have all too often been laid bare, brutally exposed.

When we don’t see others as “others,” torture loses its power. When we stop seeing politics, spirituality and people’s lives through a haze of battle metaphors or the ever-popular us-vs.-them mentality, torture stops. We cannot decry the use of torture as the moral failings of another, we must take ownership as well.

We must see the flesh of the stranger as our own and work together until no human flesh is tortured. There are no “others,” we are all victims of torture.