Pledging that "we will be silent no more," 780 delegates to the national conference of the Church of the Brethren voted almost unanimously to take a public stand against torture.

That might have seemed obvious for the Brethren, a historic peace church that has always opposed war and violence. The statement itself cited the life of one of its 18th century martyrs, Johannes Naas, who was tortured and killed for refusing German military service, as a reason to empathize with victims.

But the Rev. Leah Hileman of Cape Coral, Fla., said that after she preached a sermon advocating church activism against torture, she got a lot of arguments from church members. They cited national security and examples in which people in the Bible committed acts that could be defined as torture.

"They had all the reasons that people use to justify this ungodly act," she said. "Jesus wouldn't be in an interrogation room pressing someone to the limit ... or sitting on the sideline condoning it."

The Church of the Brethren is meeting at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center through today. The denomination has about 125,000 members, with the largest concentration in Pennsylvania.

Rev. Hileman said the statement was needed because the Church of the Brethren had never named torture in any statement against violence, and it would allow its church leaders to stand alongside other religious leaders in opposing torture. The statement singled out no nations for practicing torture, but during the debate speakers cited examples ranging from the Republic of Congo to the U.S. practice of "rendition," sending suspects to nations that are known to practice torture for questioning.

The statement cited Jesus' command to "love your enemies."

"Torture is a blatant violation of the tenets of our faith ... In reality it devastates both the one who is tortured and the one who tortures," it said. It ended with a series of confessions for having neglected the issue as it became a matter of public concern over the past decade.

"We confess becoming desensitized and complacent," it said.

Andy Hamilton of Akron, Ohio, a member of the drafting committee, said its confessional tone isn't typical of church documents and reflects the deep horror that committee members felt as they researched the topic. "We came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we had been silent," he said.

One delegate, Dennis Hicks from Ohio, said the statement was weak because it lacked a definition of torture. "The term torture has been politicized by both the right and the left," he said.

Other delegates responded that the statement cited the Geneva Convention, which does define torture. Rev. Hileman said the committee chose to leave such definitions out of the text because they wanted scripture to be the guide and not be locked into shifting definitions from current events.

Delegate Don Pohlman proposed amending the statement to oppose "all violence." This was overwhelmingly defeated after other delegates argued that it weakened the statement and that the church was already on record many times over in opposition to all violence.

Another proposed amendment, which confessed that members of the Church of the Brethren sometimes tortured each other, was swiftly defeated.

Delegates applauded when the statement passed as drafted. The Rev. Stan Noffsinger, the church's ecumenical officer, said he had received an advance request from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture to post the statement on its website, and that it would quickly be released to many global religious news outlets.

"This will be shared with our brothers and sisters around the world, probably before the sun sets today," he said.

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