Of the endless cascade of reports, posts, and conversations this week on recent-past U.S. torture practices, there are three that perhaps bother me more than all the rest.

The first can be found at the end of this CSM report:

Interrogators, who spoke to the [New York] Times on condition of anonymity, said they believed Zubaydah told them everything he knew before waterboarding began. They communicated this to agency higher-ups in Washington, who nonetheless insisted on the use of the practice, and asked to watch it take place.

The second is Andrew Sullivan’s spotlight on potential hypocrisy by at least one influential member of Congress, who is presumably among those “outraged” by the most recent revelations.

The third can’t be linked. It was a brief exchange I had with an old college friend Monday night — a fleeting segment from a much larger conversation about what the hell we had each been up to in the last umpteen years. A devout Catholic, this old college friend dismissed the entire torture issue as much ado about nothing.

No matter one’s religion or politics, I can’t understand how any of us can take a cavalier stance on this topic, not in the face of the flood of evidence we’ve now seen. No, I don’t want another terrorist attack. In fact, I think it’s entirely reasonable to assume no American does. But at what price are we willing to save ourselves?

Christians, in particular, should ask themselves that question, recalling the line Jesus demarcated in Luke 9:24-25?

… whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit will a person have if he gains the whole world, but destroys himself or is lost?