photo © Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomainFrom CNN.com:
Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithfulWASHINGTON (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 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 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.
I think this goes back to my theory that "being saved" subconsciously translates into "I can do anything I want, no repercussions.". After all, you're already forgiven of all your sins. Whereas groups who have to "earn" their salvation by actually following the Bible (instead of just reading it over and over again), doing the dreaded "good works", and treating others as they would be treated are less likely to torture. The least likely are those who don't believe in an afterlife, so they have to make this life count.
Problem is, the people who pay for this one are not the believers. It's our men and women in uniform. See, when we don't follow the Geneva convention when we capture the enemy, why should the enemy follow it when they capture our people? Matthew 7:12 actually does directly apply here:
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Funny how the Atheists get this more than the Evangelicals do.
