WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey. More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did. The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small. See results of the survey » The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?" advertisement Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is. The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/index.html
I liked what Obama said about this issue in his press conference the other night. To paraphrase: The damage that a society does to itself by engaging in torture outweighs the marginal value of that practice versus more humane methods of interrogation.
Right wing Christians support torture of their brothers and sisters? What would Jesus say about that? <img src=http://kylecrimi.theworldrace.org/blogphotos/theworldrace/kylecrimi/jesus_cross_crucifixion.jpg>
These guys believed in torture...in the name of God, of course... <img src=http://www.garnersclassics.com/pics/brian/crowd.jpg>
Uh, Optional aren't those the Pharisses, a first century sect of Judaism. And no, I am not getting drug into a theological debate.
Those are the men who would tortured a woman for adultery, and would have stoned her perhaps to death but for Jesus interceding on her behalf... Were they Jews? Yes. Does it matter if they were Jews, or Arabs, or Romans, or Christians? No... The point is that Master Jesus likely would not have been keen on water boarding....
What the bible clearly shows, in unambiguous terms, is that torture is the <b>just</b> result of sin, and that He took it for those who would receive Him. I hope you don't think that eternity in Hell is something like a playtime.
Europe finds capitol punishment torture. Is America guilty of torture? Legal systems of many countries are seen as torturous by other countries. We should not be so quick to declare our guilt, without court review, based on our guess on how other countries feel.