Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds

[moobu2]

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 analysis.

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 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 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 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.


CNN

[bullimiami]

1. and war. this is a case of religion being twisted wholesale to benefit a political group.

it was deliberate and many 'leaders' of the church are complicit.


pro war, pro bigotry, pro torture, anti abortion, reinforced by dogma and "patriotism", indoctrinated to support almost any republican party line.

unnatural. their minds must be twisted up in an orwellian pretzel.

[dkf]

2. That is so upside-down.

But I can't say I'm surprised.

[madrchsod]

3. two links one should read from the pew research

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

and the original study from pew research

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

it seem they neglected to mention the first link/article.

[dmallind]

4. You see the trouble with not being religious

...so I am reliably told, is that it leads to moral relativism and a lowered regard for your fellow man...



....oh, wait a minute.

[patrice]

5. So, "the Church" is the anti-Christ.

[hlthe2b]

6. No bigger fans for the death penalty, either...

But they'll fight beyond all bounds for that "pre-pollywog" in the petri dish....:eyes:

[LiberalFighter]

7. Do respondents support torture because they believe the prisoner provides info or...

because they want the prisoner punished?

[moobu2]

10. Ask the questions somehow

that would determine if the churchgoers would support torturing Christian terrorists for information as much as they support torturing Muslim suspects etc...

[LiberalFighter]

11. I wonder if they would feel the same if they had lived in colonial times

before the Revolution. Considering that they had to attend church every Sunday, could not belong to another church, and could be prosecuted for violating church laws.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Churches (not all beliefs) have a history of torture and punishment.

The Spanish Inquisition, stockades and whipping in Colonial days.

[dmallind]

9. As you said, not all BUT

All churches which have held political power have indeed tortured. I'm sure the Unitarians have no thumbscrews, but then Unitarians have never held a throne or the power behind it.

[rrneck]

13. Give 'em time

Sooner or later every organized religion winds up kicking the shit out of somebody. It has nothing to do with spirituality or God and everything to do with human nature.

[rrneck]

12. Bob Altemeyer's - The Authoritarians

Free online book. (pdf)

Bob Altemeyer's - The Authoritarians

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

For example, take the following statement: “Once our government leaders and the authorities condemn the dangerous elements in our society, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the rot that is poisoning our country from within.” Sounds like something Hitler would say, right? Want to guess how many politicians, how many lawmakers in the United States agreed with it? Want to guess what they had in common?

Or how about a government program that persecutes political parties, or minorities, or journalists the authorities do not like, by putting them in jail, even torturing and killing them. Nobody would approve of that, right? Guess again.

Don’t think for a minute this doesn’t concern you personally. Let me ask you, as we’re passing the time here, how many ordinary people do you think an evil authority would have to order to kill you before he found someone who would, unjustly, out of sheer obedience, just because the authority said to? What sort of person is most likely to follow such an order? What kind of official is most likely to give that order, if it suited his purposes? Look at what experiments tell us, as I did.

The studies explain so much about these people. Yes, the research shows they are very aggressive, but why are they so hostile? Yes, experiments show they are almost totally uninfluenced by reasoning and evidence, but why are they so dogmatic? Yes, studies show the Religious Right has more than its fair share of hypocrites, from top to bottom; but why are they two-faced, and how come one face never notices the other? Yes, their leaders can give the flimsiest of excuses and even outright lies about things they’ve done wrong, but why do the rank-and-file believe them? What happens when authoritarian followers find the authoritarian leaders they crave and start marching together?

edited to add emphasis