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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 the analysis released 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 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.
Is anyone surprised?
Yes, I was surprised. Then I read the article. Now I’m confused. It says, in part: “White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified…” but then says this in the next paragraph “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.”
I’m no statistician, but it sounds like a meaningless number pulled out of the arse of a meaningless survey. Means absolutely nothing.
Throughout hundreds of years the RC Church tortured and murdered millions of people all over Europe. Torture is their old friend and they did it all in the name of God. HAR!!
#41, Alphie, Evangelical, Sociopathic, Right Wing Nut, Loon, Limbaugh Sycophant, and Quaalude Queen,
He is dangerous…facts mean nothing…
That is exactly what we have been trying to tell you. Yet you still refuse to see the facts. When shown in your bible what Jesus said / felt, you deny it and claim that verse doesn’t count.
Your kind are dangerous for the facts you refuse to believe. With Reagan it is re-evaluating the situation. With Obama, who hasn’t pulled out the troops, it is Obama is doctrinaire, reality doesn’t change his opinions…
You are a very sick person. America doesn’t need people like you that seek to destroy her.
#45…that’s just great, more torturers.
Alfred, I re-read your original post. Telling Peter to sheath his sword could be interpreted as you say- or it could be telling him to lay down his arms. Carrying a sword for three years could be useful if you’re attacked by animals also.
It brought to mind another quote- “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40
I want to thank you for illuminating the thinking that make torture mandatory in your religion. You’ve given me some insight.
I agree with #44. What a meaningless article. This is a classic Liberal witch hunt to discredit believers in God through Christ. Extremists are everywhere in religion and in secular society. Look at the inquisition (for religion) and look at Sadam (for secular). The bigger issue is the lack integrity in those who disagree. Look at the last line of this article “is anyone surprised”. This statement shows that the person comes from an extreme perspective. Shame on all who spin the facts to support their position. Liberals think you are for the people; you’re only for the people who agree with you.
Liberals would deny the right of people to speak just because this not what they want to hear. Conservatives would let everyone speak but not defend the defenseless or help the needy. Those that decry religion; you pray and worship at our own alters.
It all just shows that we are fallen and no one is good (some are just less evil then others).
Anyone who professes to be Christian and uses the Old Testament for anything is fooling themselves. Anyone who thinks Christ would support torture is an idiot.
the analogy is pure bullshit the truth of the matter is that people who go to church are usually conservative in their political views but as usual the left has taken this completely out of context to attack Christians and the church because of their hatred Christianity
if the poll had said Muslims who go to Fri services are 3 x more likely to behead it would have never seen the light of day
#5 – Alfred1,
Anyone who wouldn’t resort to torture if that was required to learn the location of one’s parents or wife or children—who were being horribly tortured, sexually assaulted, bodily disfigured, and slowly murdered…is not fit to live.
Thank you for so eloquently making the point that religion breeds violence.
Torture is not only a violation of U.S. and international law. It is also highly ineffective at getting real and useful information. In general, a torture victim will say anything to get the torturer to stop.
Thank you Alfred for not only showing that religious folks are more likely to accept torture but for showing that religion breeds such high intolerance that you feel that those who disagree with your stupid point should be killed.
Way to love thy neighbor!
Of course, the real point idiots like you miss is that you can never really know you’ve got a guilty party. Would you torture an innocent person to find out whether they are guilty? Would you believe what they say under the pain of torture even if you did?
#51 – smartalix,
Anyone who professes to be Christian and uses the Old Testament for anything is fooling themselves. Anyone who thinks Christ would support torture is an idiot.
It’s actually a good bet that Christ as a real live flesh and blood human being never even existed. So, any speculation on what some character who may or may not have existed, is actually rather silly as well.
http://tinyurl.com/34amgh
Certainly, the Christians who support torture are not behaving in the way that Christ is depicted in the number one best selling work of fiction ever produced.
#53 – Alfred1,
If a terrorist or crimminal harms me, I don’t strike back…but I do report to the authorities…if they try to harm my family…I got guns for precisely that scenario.
So, presumably, you would be OK with the authorities torturing or individual citizens killing terrorists as need be? Would you state the same when the terrorists are the freakin’ wackoes who kill doctors and bomb clinics? They too are terrorists.
Torture = EVIL
People who Torture = EVIL
People who support Torture = EVIL
Therefore:
#53 – Alfred1 = EVIL
Given that many of the people tortured by the US in Iraq were only guilty by association, and often times not even that, I pose a question for you Alfie.
A member of your church begins a campaign of abortion clinic bombings. He is at large, and cannot be found. In response, by your logic, it would be justified to snatch up the entire congregation and their children in the night, and torture you, your friends, and your children until someone gives up the location of the ticking time bomb terrorist!
When your children are crying out because they have been shut in a small box with insects, will you still be of the opinion that torture is justified?
Just wondering.
Maybe we could have an opt-in torture program.
Maybe put a check box on everyone’s driver’s licenses like with organ donation. That way we don’t torture the wrong people.
#59 – bsmall,
That is hysterical!!
What a great suggestion.
#59 Good synergy there… so if they die from the torturing, their organs will be ready to harvest! 🙂
Not even a nutbag like Paddy-O-Alfie would “agree” to being tortured unless it got connected to being raptured, so a more effective program would be to ask the perp if they are a religious nutbag. If they answer yes, then consent to torture may be assumed.
BTW Alfie, wherever you are, you’re going to have to answer Li’s question in #58 sooner or later… if not now, next time you bring up your hypothetical scenario, I’ll copy’n’paste the question again… take your time. 🙂
And BTW Li that was a good question… you know from Alfie’s rantings that his kind of church would be the kind to support Christian Taliban terrorists.
Reminds me of the old saying: A fanatic is someone who does what God would do, if God had all the facts.
#52, Paul Mitchell,
the analogy is pure bullshit the truth of the matter is that people who go to church are usually conservative in their political views but as usual the left has taken this completely out of context to attack Christians and the church because of their hatred Christianity
Uuummm, Paul, it was the respondents in the survey who answered that way. Those that regularly attended and church were more likely to approve of torture than someone who didn’t regularly attend church. Therefore, those church goers that believe in what Jesus said were more likely than not to want to torture someone else.
Interesting. So the assumption is that an electorate that goes to church is more likely to have a gov’t that tortures?
Ya know, it has always puzzled me that “conservatives” have supported the death penalty, and now torture, so enthusiastically. Didn’t “conservative” used to mean being in favor of limiting the power of government? And yet, here they are, wanting to give the government power to torture and kill people.
All the legal projects trying to clear people on death row by using new DNA technology on long-ago crimes are run by liberals, not conservatives. Liberals want to stop the government from executing the wrong people, but “conservative” people seem content to let the government inflict the ultimate punishment on innocent people. So I guess conservatives really aren’t in favor of limited government.
#66 – Phydeau,
Didn’t “conservative” used to mean being in favor of limiting the power of government?
No. It meant “resistant to change”. Neocon on the other hand is really just a thinly veiled synonym for reactionary, i.e. wanting to go back in time, in this case to the good old 11th century.
Got thumb screws?
#67 Good point there… I’ve also noticed that “conservatives” seem to favor limiting the power of government more when Democrats are in power, and give the government a free pass when Republicans are in power. How about that.
Maybe deep down they’re really uncomfortable with representative government. The most important relationship in their lives is with an absolute ruler, a tyrant whose word is law. Sinners in the hands of an angry god, and all that. Maybe all that “render unto Caesar” stuff is really wishful thinking… they’d rather have a dictatorship in the political realm too, because dictatorships are what they’re used to in the religious realm.
Interesting. I just read the whole thing, sorry. They only surveyed 742 adults. That is woefully inadequate for a nationwide poll. The minimum would be ~1,100 for a +-5% at 95% confidence. 742 is not a sampling you can use for anything nationwide. It is CNN so I’m not shocked.
I support enhanced interrogations and I’ve never been to church a day in my life.
If this study turns out to be verifiable through wider testing, it suggests that there may be a predefined link in the mental processes of those who put a great deal of credence in an exterior higher being versus those who view ethics and personal responsibility as an inner series of decisions.
How bloodthirsty do I think I really am? I’ll let you know after church.
#70 ..good idea. Let’s just call it ‘enhanced interrogation’ and it’s all good!!
In fact, we may not have a drunk driving problem at all if we refer them to being “sober plus”.
# 71 Buzz said, “If this study turns out to be verifiable through wider testing,”
Interesting. But, as church attendance has been dropping for decades, it would follow that this country probably tortured more the farther back you go. Ie: Clinton admin tortured more than Bush, Reagan more than Clinton and, Carter more than most as he was a real church goer…
Wow, religious people being hypocrites. Big surprise there.
By the way, Alfred1, you’re an idiot, acting like the bible is some kind of authority.
Statistics 101, class 1: “correlation does not mean causation”
We all “learned” that be we are still suckers for these kind of bad statistical articles.
This is a liberal vs conservative issue, not a religious one.
All the traits listed in the article are well-known correlates with political perspective.
You could “link” hairspray and wearing tiesto support of torture.
But correlation does not mean causation.