Survey: White evangelicals more likely to support torture

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/index.html

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.


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.

........they tortured Jesus didn't they? Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

[Optical.Catalyst]

1. Religious fundamentalist values on display

Does anyone question why there needs to be a divide between the Church and the State.

[Philosoraptor]

6. They just want to torture Muslims, right? That's o.k.

[Optical.Catalyst]

8. As they lay in their beds at night, visions of the Spanish Inquisition dance in their heads

<>

[tanyev]

13. That's just the first step.

I'm sure they'd eventually get around to using it on anyone who disagreed with them in any way.

[mediaman007]

2. They are sheep!

Actually, I'm amazed that its just 54%, I would have thought the number would have been much higher. Somewhere in the evangelicals, a good number of Christians exist!

[OneGrassRoot]

3. That pretty much says it all. Hypocrisy on display. n/t

[NorthernSpy]

4. The non-religious were the most opposed to torture.

Is anyone surprised at that? I'm not surprised in the least.

[Philosoraptor]

5. Their crucifix icon depicts a man tortured on a crude cross

Yet they can still justify it in their religion.

[Bill McBlueState]

22. the most torture-friendly group,

the evangelicals, don't use crucifixes. Maybe the visible reminder would make them less pro-torture.

[jazzjunkysue]

29. It's their branding. They love this stuff. It's on all busses, billboards,

catholic schoolroom walls. Some people actually sleep underneath the things. I guess it helps with the natural birth control.....

[juno jones]

31. From a pagan perspective,

What you display is what you invoke. Crucifixes, especially the bloody kind, creep me out a little. I thought the point of the religion was Jesus's ressurrection. However, Christians keep him on that cross, eternally suffering, the rest of us with him.

Fer Crissakes, let him off that cross, it might free us all as well.

And no, evangelicals don't use the Catholic crucifix, but damn they wear some graphic T-shirts with nails piercing bloody hands, etc, all with some lame comment about 'body piercing'. Tacky, tacky.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Me neither. n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

19. it's not a very well written article- and the link doesn't work- Check

out the difference between "non-religious" and those who are NOT "evangelical" (which in this case is being used to mean fundamentalist) 3 in 10 to 4 in 10?

The difference there is negligible.

In other words, "fundamentalist" religious people are the least opposed to torture. THAT doesn't surprise me- fundamentalist thinking is an extreme position. The article is a bit disingenuous. I'd be VERY interested see a survey of how many UCC members support torture- Or UU. ?

[Bill McBlueState]

23. they surveyed over 700 people

I wouldn't write off a 10% difference as negligible.

But the article is confusing, I agree. Just showing a table with the main results of the poll would have been more useful.

[Bluerthanblue]

25. I can't get to the actual poll - can you? All we are reading is

someone's summary of what they surmised from the polling.

It also mentions that only white evangelicals were questioned, but then talks about hispanic catholics??

Reads like something I could have written :dunce:

[Spazito]

36. The poll DID NOT include ANY other groups, it only polled..

white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated. They give NO percentage breakdown as to what percentage of the 742 respondents were white evangelicals, etc. It is a worthless poll the survey sampling size was too SMALL to be meaningful in any way.

Here is a link to the poll:


http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

[Bluerthanblue]

37. you are right- and thanks for

the link.

I did find more specifics on the pew site, but not a pdf type breakdown. :shrug:

The thing about polls is, you can always make or find one to support a paradigm.

This one was particularly bad, imo.

Thanks for the correction and link.

:hi:

[Spazito]

38. You're very welcome!

Pew polls of late have seemed to skew to the right which makes them less credible in my eyes especially when they do NOT include the detailed breakdown needed to assess the neutrality of the poll.

:hi:

[TCJ70]

33. Agreed...I'd like to see...

...the raw data.

[Bill McBlueState]

24. It's surprising how much the article downplays this

The headline is, "Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful," which obscures the fact that support for torture is lowest among the non-faithful. It's typical of mainstream attempts to avoid suggesting anything negative about religious belief.

[Anakin Skywalker]

7. Why Are They So Sadistic? Why?

Did they not get enough love when they were children? I shudder to think what kind of "values" they are teaching their kids if they believe torture is OK.

[Philosoraptor]

9. Maybe their parents didn't teach them right from wrong.

[Bluerthanblue]

17. it's a fear based system for many -

not so much 'sadism'-

More than a few people come to fundementalist 'christ'ianity because they are afraid.
Life is unpredictable and dangerous- religion can offer the illusion of "control"-
If you follow these rules, then you will be ok- if you don't you won't.
If it seems like you've been 'following the rules/doing the work' and bad things continue to happen, you must not be doing it quite right- due to some un-confessed sin, or 'lack' on your part. It's all about your performance, although that is denied continually- and that need to 'control' often spills over onto others- things like "gay marriage", "abortion", etc- things that threaten the concept that there is no exclusive 'right way' in life.

That's my take on it anyway.

:shrug:

[surrealAmerican]

18. They're lost in the idea that people are either good or evil, ...

... and good can do no wrong, and evil must be made to suffer.

[dgibby]

28. Because the Bible condones violence

In fact, it not only condones violence, it encourages and mandates it.

[jazzjunkysue]

30. If the Bible were a movie it would be rated XXX or NR. It couldn't get an R.

There's also how to put up tents and slaughter goats and levy taxes and other mundane stuff, right along with exactly when a husband can stone his wife or slave to death, and other delightful events.

[Vickers]

11. WWJW?

Who would Jesus waterboard?

O8)

[madrchsod]

12. "religion news: religious leaders praise obama directive on torture.."

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17394

the pew research link to the article. seems cnn does`t link to it.

http://people-press.org/report/510/public-remains-divided-over-use-of-torture

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Leviticus

[stray cat]

15. What other groups are more likely - what age brackets, income levels, sex

its a split from the extreme of 54% to versus 42% with protestants being even lower around 32%.

[LanternWaste]

16. I would have though the disparity would be greater...

I would have though the disparity would be greater. As it applies to torture, I don't perceive 12% points being a dramatic difference.

[datasuspect]

20. they are more likely to fondle children too.

[Bluerthanblue]

26. not sure i'd go there-

:thumbsdown:

[Bill McBlueState]

21. Evangelical vs mainline Protestants

Look at the stark differences between mainline and evangelical Protestants. It's too bad the evangelical churches are growing and the mainline ones are shrinking.

[Bluerthanblue]

27. Read this link- :

trying to find the actual poll results this came up:


http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=16465

interesting take on the whole issue.

[TCJ70]

32. They only interviewed white religious people...

...no one sees a problem with that? Kind of makes the title of this thread dubious...

[Djinn]

39. no it makes media reporting dubious

while I haven't read the actual research and have no idea whether it was worth the paper it was written on I can guarantee that the journalist writing this up didn't either.

[lunatica]

34. Yup. That's the way the Romans felt about Jesus

Justified.

[lunatica]

35. dupe