The release of more memos justifying the torture of prisoners by American officials provides more reasons for us to be shocked, outraged, and ashamed of our government, but there are other reasons for us to fear for our future as a society.

1.  We are one of the few (if not the only) modern industrialized nation that continues to execute people.  Until two recent Supreme Court decisions, we were among the only countries in the world to execute minors and people convicted of crimes other than murder (i.e., rape).

2.  We have a greater percentage of our population in prison than any other country, and we have more of our prisoners in long-term solitary confinement than any other country.  (Prisoners of war such as John McCain report that solitary confinement can be worse than beatings, and medical studies have shown that long-term solitary confinement can do long-term emotional and neurological damage to prisoners.)

3.  We have more guns, and more gun violence, than any other industrialized nation.

4.  We tolerate (and even express pride in) a system that denies routine medical and dental care to those unable to pay, leading to horrors like preventable amputations among diabetes sufferers and people pulling out their own rotting teeth with pliers.

5.  At Guantanamo Bay, we imprisoned hundreds of people for years without ever charging them with any crime or allowing them to communicate with lawyers or their families.

So the official sanctioning of torture was not a shocking violation of our principles, but just another expression of our violent and brutal natures.

Which also explains the lack of public outrage over both the admissions of torture and the lack of any prosecutions or consequences for the people who ordered the torture as well as those that carried it out.

Somewhat coincidentally, Newsweek magazine's 4/13/2009 cover story was "The End of Christian America."  If what we have I have described above is what could be called a "Christian America," then the sooner it ends, the better.