Monday, June 16, 2008

Rights for Guantanamo prisoners

The recent landmark Supreme Court ruling extending rights to the terrorists at Guantanamo will be a challenge for conservative Catholics to swallow. On the one hand, most of these men at Gitmo are in fact enemies of the United States and the freedoms it just extended to them.

On the other hand, we as Catholics believe all men are created in the image and likeness of God and are worthy of dignity, even if they are murderers and child molesters of the worst kind.

We progressives are accused of being soft on criminals in the sometimes naive hope of their redemption and rehabilitation. But now the challenge has been put to conservatives to explain why there should be a place in the world where the US can treat people without the protection of our Constitution, even if they mean us harm.

I doubt we will see much in the National Catholic Register about this one.

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