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My Republicanism is not absolute however. One of the issues I strongly disagree with the Republican Party is the issue of torture. This too can be traced back to my family. My maternal grandfather was a revolutionary in the Dominican Republic against the totalitarian President Rafael Trujillo. Government agents took him and his brother to a secret prison. My grandfather was tortured consistently by guards for almost a year. When he was released, he quickly gathered his family and fled the country. His brother, my granduncle, was never heard from again and presumed murdered. At the ripe old age of twenty-seven he needed a hearing aid because his eardrum had been shattered by the interrogators. His eardrum wasn’t all that had been shattered; he became an bitter alcoholic and an atheist. In wasn’t until late in life that he made his peace with God and peace with himself. But when I look at old pictures, and see the weak smile on his face and the aid in his ear, I know what happened to him, and that it should never be allowed to happen again.

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But there's more to it than utilitarianism. Christians have the obligation to love their neighbor. We praise the Good Samaritan for helping a hated rival when he was down, but what if the Good Samaritan arived while the traveler was being attacked? Would we still praise him had he waited back until after the attack? Would we ask why he didn't stand up for his fellow man? It's the exact same situation as the Holocaust: without the activity - the bloodshed - necessary to stop the Nazis we allowed the Jews, our neighbors, to suffer at the hands of Hitler in concentration camps. Jesus wasn't utilitarian, that I grant you, but he would certainly support active response to injustice.